Pioneers in the Mobile Web
LWEBG has been delivering mobile web solutions since the Mobile Revolution began and we’ve learned to use all the available techniques and technologies that make the mobile web a reality.
Google – accounting for more than 80% of all web searches – added momentum to the mobile movement when, in the last few months, they began penalizing companies that don’t offer viewers a mobile-compatible website.
LWebG Provides Mobile Web Development Solutions that Reach Today’s Consumers
Mobile Web Development Options
The three options most commonly used to achieve mobile compatibility are mobile websites, mobile applications and responsive design, but the buzz in 2017 is focused on AMP, or Accelerated Mobile Pages.
Mobile websites represented the first popularly used technique for mobile compatibility. You can tell when a website uses this technique if their URL that has an “m.” in front of it. Mobile websites reside at different URLs than the desktop version of the same website and they have different settings.
Mobile applications are downloaded from a mobile “store” and installed by the mobile device user. They may be free or relatively inexpensive to download. The gaming industry has long been a dominant player in mobile applications but many businesses employ mobile apps to help them meet their online goals.
And there are web apps, too. Web apps bridge the gap between a website and a mobile app. Web apps are Web based but they perform similarly to native apps. More on Web apps.
Responsive design, also referred to as “fluid” design, changes and rearranges content based on the viewer’s screen size. There are literally hundreds of different screen sizes in use today and the most noticeable advantage of responsive design is that a responsively designed website will perform beautifully on nearly all of them.
The Mobile Argument
When it comes to mobile compatibility, developers have some strong opinions.
An article in Design Modo described the differences very well. A mobile website is designed specifically for mobile devices considering all the limitations and opportunities of the platform, giving the designer more control over the look and functionality of the end product.
Another selling point to advocates of mobile websites is that mobile websites might have a faster download speed, although the differences are generally virtually undetectable.
The downside of mobile websites is that multiple URLs are required and if the viewer doesn’t know the URL, he will have to wait to be redirected to the mobile site. And when issues like the additional cost of running two different websites are factored in, a mobile website is more costly to develop and to manage.
Responsive Design Is Dominating The Industry
It all started with Responsive Web Design, an article by Ethan Marcotte on A List Apart published in 2010. The technology is still in its infancy but only 6 years later, the majority of websites now in use worldwide utilize responsive technology.
"Truly responsive Web design requires multiple features to be implemented. The key point is adapting to the user’s needs and device capabilities. Suppose a mobile user will be viewing your site on a small screen. Taking the user’s needs into account doesn’t just mean adapting your content to the screen size. It also means thinking about what that mobile user will require first when visiting your site and then laying out the content accordingly.
"Maybe you’ll present the information in a different order. Don’t assume the user won’t need access to all the site information because she’s on a mobile device. You might need to change the fonts or interaction areas to respond better to a touch environment. All these factors influence responsive Web design.
"While mobile devices are changing the display landscape, with the appearance of more and more small screens, don’t forget what’s happening at the other end of the spectrum. Displays are also getting larger and larger. Having to serve both segments shouldn’t stop designers from being innovative on either."
Louisville Web Group's web design and development team subscribes fully to innovation and we subscribe fully to the application of responsive design with all new clients. After all, why not? It costs a great deal of money to develop an application for the three most popular mobile devices, Apple, Andriod and Blackberry, and it seems absurd to spend that kind of money when the same results can be achieved through responsive design.
We've built several websites using responsive design including this one. If you'd like to see some other examples of our work in responsive, let us know and we'll be happy to send you some links. Or if you'd like Louisville Web Group to convert your old website to a new one that works great on mobile devices and tablets, give us a call today!
The World Has Been Watching Lwebg
We were the first web company in the region to begin working with responsive design. In recognition, we were recruited by the Software Developers Journal, an international trade publication based in Romania, to write an article about the transition to mobile website design with a focus on responsive website design. Read the article here.
