Converting Clients to Responsive Web Design
Ever since it came on the scene, responsive web design has mostly been received positively. This flexible, future-ready design for websites simply makes sense. In the ever-changing landscape of the Internet and with people’s multi-screen lifestyles, it seems that RWD is the best way to go.
But not everyone is convinced though. Even web developers themselves were wary back when RWD was still new. They argued that responsive web design often took out essential content that exists in the website’s full version, and that smartphones and tablets are already intuitive enough to adapt websites to every size of screen. Also, some say that responsive web design is only applicable to certain kinds of websites (for complex e-commerce websites, a mobile version makes more sense).
Back in 2012, there was even this article pointing out why RWD is not worth it at all. The author made some good points actually. In the end, however, even he could not resist the advantages of responsive web design. He eventually tweaked his own website to become responsive as well.
So if some people in the web industry themselves are hesitant about responsive design, what can we expect from clients with just average knowledge about what makes a website look good and function well?
Why Some Clients are Hesitant
In most cases, clients are excited about getting responsive design for their websites—they understand the benefits and they’re somehow open-minded about embracing the new.
There will be some clients though who are cautious and doubtful as to whether they need RWD at all. Maybe it’s a sense of loyalty to their old, traditional websites. Maybe it’s just their If It’s Not Broken, Don’t Fix It motto.
We can’t blame them. Clients are the ones paying the bill after all, and, being businesspeople, they want to ensure every cent they spend is worth it. So while web developers are concerned with design and functionality, clients worry about expenses and return of investments. And there lies the challenge of meeting halfway.
Three Reasons Why Responsive Design Is a Must
People access the Web through various devices.
Ask your client how he or she browses the Web; chances are they’ll mention one or two ways: maybe via a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop. We live in a multi-screen world today where one screen just isn’t enough. A combination of tablet, notebook, and our beloved smartphone is what it takes to give us our fix of info and entertainment. RWD ensures that people get the best user experience while accessing a client’s website regardless of the device.
Responsive Web Design is Google-approved.
Google itself declared that they will favour those websites that are optimized for mobile devices. Hence, optimized websites get better visibility in search results than those which aren’t. This makes sense since visitors are more likely to stay in a site they can navigate easily. Your client wouldn’t want to lose a significant number of visitors just because of faulty web design.
Switching to a Responsive Design is cost-effective in the long run.
It’s always about the money. The additional costs is the one thing that usually puts off clients about RWD. Costs are inevitable, since web design takes time and effort from the parties involved. Clients need to understand that RWD is not a simple matter, especially if you’ll be redesigning every page and content of an already existing website, rather than starting from a blank page. The beauty of responsive web design is that you implement it only once, and it works across all devices. The cost can be a little extra, but in the end it’s worth it.
China and responsive design aren’t as well acquainted with each other as we’d like. With the high number of Chinese netizens still using old browsers (IE8 and earlier versions), it can be a challenge to design responsive websites that display and function properly on them due to the lack of support for CSS media queries. Having a fall back version for old web browsers is a good way to overcome this issue, even if it involves extra work in terms of HTML/CSS coding.
In an ideal world, when clients ask for a website design, the automatic answer is a responsive design since it’s considered the industry best practice today. Right now though, clients have the option to ask for either a responsive or a less-expensive non-responsive design. What we need is to educate them about RWD’s strengths and the advantage(s) they’ll be gaining over their competition. Moreover, with the uncertain future of technological devices, RWD is future-ready enough to anticipate the next generation of devices. As they say, better safe than sorry!
The advice we would give to any client coming to our Shanghai office, unsure about whether they should go for responsive design or not, is to check their traffic analytics. If a high percentage of visitors are accessing their website through mobile devices, then they can factor whether or not it make sense to invest in RWD taking into consideration return on investment.
If they are just starting their business, do not have a website yet and are still undecided, we would advice them to:
- Design and code a responsive ready website
- Gather enough information through Google analytics to understand the number and % of users coming from mobile devices.
- Make a decision if it makes sense to invest this extra amount of money.