Responsive design is the newest “trend” to storm the website design world. Essentially, responsive web design loads websites with equal content and the same design, regardless of the device. Thus, the design language and content remain consistent on a desktop, a mobile device, or a tablet.
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The site has no separate “mobile version” or “tablet version”.
The code automatically adapts to the device and provides customers with a rich and seamless experience.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case for most sites implementing Responsive Design.
These sites experience severe performance issues, making the website nearly unusable. This is especially true for devices whose prohibitive cost excludes them from most consumers, specifically those not of the latest generation.
Multiple factors are associated with this conundrum. Ultimately, this means implanting a technology intended to elevate the user experience kills it.
- At the Absolute Low End
While almost all new devices sold worldwide are smartphones, it’s important to remember that many are not. Indeed, WAP-enabled devices that run on JAVA still constitute many devices on the web today, especially in less developed sectors.
Creating a special “mobile version” for these devices is properly justified and well worth the effort. Stripping away all stylistics and non-essential elements can significantly improve the web experience on these devices.
However, you must implement this carefully. Serve this “barebones” version only on devices below a set performance threshold, not on others. Otherwise, you’ll severely degrade their user experience.
- A Mobile-First Perspective
Even though mobile devices now generate almost 80% of web traffic, designers still create websites from a desktop browser’s perspective.
One must change this at the very basic levels of user awareness on the part of the site designer. The design should first aim for optimum performance on mobile devices, with the desktop experience coming second.
In the 21st century, this is a risk worth taking because mobile users are far more fickle and have greatly reduced attention spans.
A single notification can easily divert a viewer from your webpage to a proprietary app purposely designed to keep users logged in. Therefore, the better your site’s experience on a phone, the longer it can resist the onslaught of notifications and retain viewers on the site.
- Using only the Lowest Common Denominator Tech
HTML5 can look and perform extremely sexy on a powerful device. And only on a powerful device.
For old devices running on old operating systems or browsers, these features are mostly emulated so they can render appropriately.
This consumes a lot of processing power and memory space. This is something that is already at a premium in these not-so-high-end devices.
However, this often results in, at best, an unusable webpage and, at worst, an unusable device that you need to reboot.
It’s best to avoid cutting-edge technologies. Instead, focus on established technologies that devices from at least two to three generations ago still support.
- Not Trusting Analytics
Analytics can be woefully misleading because they only record data successfully served to clients.
Even if your data doesn’t show devices older than 2013, this doesn’t necessarily mean that those old devices are unavailable in the market or that people no longer use them.
Instead, it may signify that your website isn’t served on those devices. This results in lost traffic due to bad design.
Read More:
- Tips and Tricks for UX/UI Design
- Choose the Right Colors for your website design in 2018
- How To Get Started With Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)?
