WHY A MOBILE WEBSITE IS NO LONGER JUST A ‘NICE-TO-HAVE’

Mobile phones have been around for over 20 years now and internet enabled phones for at least the past 10 years (even longer if you count WAP phones).

Smartphones have really changed the way we browse online and with new devices like the Apple Watch &  iPhone 7 just around the corner, the digital world has become more blurred with the physical than ever before.

So if you’re a business that is still failing to cater for mobile web users, you’re in for a shock if you haven’t checked your web stats for the past few months.

From the 21st April 2015, Google the world’s largest search engine, updated their algorithm to actually penalize websites that fail to comply with their ‘mobile friendly’ test. – Test your website here

At SDDS, we deliver websites with a ‘mobile-first’ approach. We’ve taken the knowledge that almost 60% of all online browsing is done on a smartphone or tablet device and used that information to decide that all our website should either be ‘Mobile Responsive’ or ‘Mobile Adaptive’.

It’s ok if these two different terms mean nothing to you and why should they? As a website user and consumer, all you want (and all your customers want) is a seamless experience whether you are using a large screen desktop computer, or a small screen smartphone/tablet device.  But for our designers and developers here at Sparkstone, these terms have a huge impact on the way we deliver web projects and for you, as a client, it can also have an effect on the amount your web project costs (not just for us to develop, but also for you to maintain after go-live).

Try the following websites on your desktop computer or tablet and then view it again on a smartphone device. Our recent website for MacCulloch & Wallis is completely responsive, with ‘breakpoints’ for the most common screen sizes. The GJW Titmuss website, on the other hand, uses an adaptive approach, delivering complementary but different experiences for desktop and mobile devices.