Being Responsive to New Media
Posted on December 1, 2015
The PC era is coming to an end due to the rise of smartphones and tablets. According to comScore Canada, “Canadians are among the biggest online addicts in the world….” and, “51 per cent of the Canadian Internet traffic that comScore tracked was linked to a phone or tablet.” As a business, are you adapting to this new trend through your website, advertising and other online digital media? If you aren’t, you may be losing over half of your potential customers.
“ The U.S. is at 61-per-cent mobile and I expect Canada will continue to move in that direction.” – Brent Bernie, comScore President. The increasing use of handheld devices has left web designers and developers with an obligation to learn how to create web content that is user friendly across all screen sizes. It is now the norm to refine design and development practices and to experiment with fluid (responsive) websites. Every day websites are launching responsive layouts because users, which are potential customers, are less likely to stay on a website that isn’t mobile friendly. People are constantly on the move, so the web content on their smartphones and tablets must support everyday experiences.
“Last year saw a 17-per-cent drop in total minutes Canadians spent online on their personal computers, and a 21-per-cent decline in total pages viewed from computers. But those numbers do not indicate less time spent online; they reflect a shift in people’s digital lives, which are increasingly migrating to smartphones and tablet devices” – The Globe and Mail. With the decrease in online activity through personal computers it’s up to you to adapt to the new way people are surfing the internet, which is through mobile devices. Adapting the layout of your website allows users to more easily navigate it, and that ultimately leads to a more positive user experience (UE). Statistics show that people spend an average of 15 seconds on a website. With this in mind, you want the amount of time people spend on your website to be above the average, don’t you? And after having spent so much time and money developing content for your website, you want as many people to spend as much time as possible on navigating it, right? Well, your commitment to good design and to following responsive web standards will increase your market share and ensure your website actually attracts and retains a prospective-customer base.
A responsive interface, complete with layout rules, media queries, and a framework coded to support all devices will allow your content to flow in a unique and dynamic way. A good digital design and communications team can properly assess your business’s needs and use dynamic grid systems and frameworks to produce for you a responsive website that attracts, and effectively engages your targeted market.
The digital media industry must evolve with its users as mobile becomes more prominent. It is clear to see why adaptive content is becoming more and more the norm. Working with professional designers and developers will ensure you are maximizing the return on your online investment.
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If your website is not responsive, it may not be easy to navigate on mobile devices, which more than half of Canadians and nearly two thirds of Americans are using to surf the internet today.