Once upon a time, everyone had the same size computer screen. Remember those big, heavy, box shaped things that sat on every desk? Back then, web design was simple. If the site I made looked good on my screen, it looked good on everyone’s screen.

Then along came laptops, mini-laptops, mobile phones, smart phones and eventually tablets of every size and shape.

Today, a website needs to work, look good and be easily navigable whether it is on a big, medium, small or tiny screen, in both landscape and portrait orientation.

The term used in web design for this  adaptability is “responsive”.

A responsive web site will cunningly reconfigure itself like a contortionist, to fit any size screen or device. So if your site looks good on your office PC you can be sure it also looks great on your customer’s mobile phone.

But how to be sure?

We cannot possibly all own every size and configuration of screen to check our websites on, but it is possible to get a good idea by using a service such as Am I Responsive.

Most websites older than 10 years are unlikely to be responsive, so it’s a good idea to check. Older websites were “static” and while the screen size shrinks down when viewed on a mobile, it may well be too small to see or navigate easily.

Remember, if your customer cannot see your website clearly on their phone you may be losing their business.

Changing an existing static website to a responsive one should be a simple job for a web designer (we charge $200) as long as there is ready access to the server your site is hosted on.

Unless you require significant changes to the graphic style of your site it shouldn’t be a major inconvenience or cost much to make it responsive.

Of course, if you have hundreds of pages of content it will take a bit longer and cost more. However, your old, static site can remain visible to the public until the new site is completed and ready to launch.

So check your site today. Is it looking good on all devices? If not, give me a call.

Want to discuss changing your website to responsive?
Call Jane on 0438 544 916.