Mobile friendly...or is it?

​Responsive website design...mobile friendly website design...a couple of terms we and many others throw around and perhaps expect people to know what they mean.

Many years ago, before mobile phones and tablets took over the world, designing a website was 'easy'.  You created a fixed layout and structure, and it was displayed in exactly the same way on any computer.  Mobile phones and tablets didn't exist, you didn't need to consider how it would look on anything but a computer monitor or laptop screen.

Jump forward to 2014 and suddenly, designing websites that work well across a range of device screen sizes became essential.  If your website was not mobile and friendly, Google was going to penalise you in any search results performed on a mobile phone.  Websites needed to be dynamic in how they were displayed, letting the layout and structure 'flow' differently on a range of screen sizes, considering things like touch screens where you need to tap with a finger instead of click.

So that's all sorted right?  If you build your website on a responsive technology such as bootstrap, it's going to work on all screen sizes isn't it?

Well yes, almost...

Unfortunately, what images and design features that work well on a larger computer screen may 'respond' and shrink or flow onto a smaller width mobile phone screen less ideally than you may want.  Many web designers are creating highly responsive websites that just look bad on smaller screens - perhaps that large font on desktop looks way too big on mobile.  Perhaps the image with overlaid text doesn't fit onto a landscape phone screen and an important part of the image is cut off...

This is where our choice of website design platform comes into its own - we can create sections on any website page that are only shown on mobile, or perhaps shown on desktop but hidden on mobile.  We can set custom sizes and layouts within many features that provide a custom display of that same feature across desktop, tablet and mobile screens, making sure things are optimised for easy viewing as well as going even further on occasion and hiding large sized images on mobile, using smaller and faster loading ones to keep your page load times fast.

Mobile friendly website design for us is no longer about having a website which simply re-scales and flows as the screen size changes, mobile friendly website design is about custom optimising your website for all device types, creating unique display solutions to make sure that each and every visitor who uses your website gets the best view - not just a single layout that does its best to cope with what you throw at it.

Want to know how we could help your website work better for your customers?  Get in touch today and let us show you - call Chris on 07880 858381 or drop an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - we'll get back to you as soon as we can!