News
MobileGeddon? Responsive Design Keys Mobile Search PLUS Commerce, Registrations
April 22, 2015
As we've all heard by now, Google's new ranking algorithm has already forced everyone's hand to move to Responsive Design. While addressing search rankings, you'll also want to ensure a truly mobile-friendly experience that supports transactions, registrations, and advertising. If you are weighing Responsive Design vs. mobile templates, there are many reasons - low cost, low maintenance, simplicity - to future-proof your design and content strategy with a responsive approach.
Once you've decided to move forward with your responsive redesign, take the opportunity to reveiw your content strategy; is your navigation intuitive, can readers find relevant, related content, are you supporting multiple revenue channels efficiently?
Ready to get started? Here's how the process works:
- Wireframe for desktop, tablet, and smartphone to visualize content strategy and layout
- Home Page design mockup to preview desktop, tablet, and smartphone experience
- Responsive implementation for all pages and processes, including registration and shopping cart check out
- Modifications to advertising to switch out or resize ads across the 3 views (you don't want a 728x90 ad displaying on an iphone!)
- New UI (user interface) standards best practices: presenting the design elements and site behavior that mobile readers now expect
Let's take a look at a few examples by clicking any of the thumbnails below. View them on all 3 platforms or you can simply resize your browser and watch as the layout and content elements "respond" as you reach certain widths.
Key Highlights of Responsive Design:
- Ads resize and switch out
- Content disappears or changes layout and form
- Menus are completely different on desktop vs mobile
- New UI standards such as the "hamburger menu" and using "headroom" to make the masthead completely disappear on scroll
- Many nuances that make mobile content easy read and manage!
Maybe Mobilegeddon is giving you the nudge you need to move to a mobile-friendly website design, but you won't want to miss the opportunity to improve audience engagement, reader experience, and business performance while you're at it.
If you're like most publishers, it's a safe bet that at least 25% of your traffic originates from a mobile device. Mobile readers expect an intuitive experience that supports the functionality they find when they visit your website or view email on a desktop browser. Responsive is a low maintenance approach that supports commerce, circulation, and advertising, while delivering your content in a flexible, easy-to-navigate format.