Responsive Web Design NOW, not later.

The internet is more powerful today than ever before and smart phone usage has consistently been on the rise for the past decade. In fact, 72% of all consumers say they expect to be able to access a business’s website on their phone. This statistic alone shows that it is imperative for a business to have a mobile website to be successful, so why are we still slow to think about mobile differently?

A combination of attractive 24 month mobile plans (handset included) and the increased affordability of smartphone technology means that it’s likely a large part of your target market already has one, so why are so many companies still so heavily-focused on desktop experiences. It’s true that conversion rates through  desktop access is still higher, but I believe there is a different relationship to be made with your customers at mobile level.

Let’s take recruitment for example, Monday mornings and late afternoons are some of the busiest times for recruitment / jobsites and yet, apart from the main four players in this space and newer more innovative companies like Ireland’s own Jobbio, companies still don’t cater for people wanting to quickly browse on the privacy of their mobile. Who really wants to look at a careers page on a desktop, all the time knowing your current employer or ‘that guy’ from accounts is going to walk by and make a smart comment putting you ‘right in it’ with the rest of the office staff? It therefore comes down to a question of end-user satisfaction; if you’re going to have a mobile website, treat it as such and give the end-user the enjoyment of finding what they need without having to pinch and move to find the phone number of that restaurant or the latest company announcement. Happier customers, increased engagement, better conversion, it’s a no brainer.

Creating an intuitive mobile experience is easier than most business owners think, and given the almost standardised visual language we expect nowadays thanks to iOS, Android and Windows, it really doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel.

If you’re creating a case to optimise your sites mobile presence you could do worse than reading Deloitte’s Mobile survey for 2013 which you can check out here 

It would be out-dated of me to make the case between having a mobile-friendly site or not having one, that’s not the argument I’m making, the questions I want you to ask are:

How happy and engaged do we want our target market to be?

Are we achieving this on mobile?

Are our competitors?

Author avatar
Alan | Outlier

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