Is YOUR Website ‘Responsive’?

I don't mean ‘interactive’. Nor am I talking about the reponse that visitors have when they see your website. What I’m asking is whether or not your website ‘responds’ to the environment that it is viewed in.

Just a few years ago there were far fewer options for viewing a website. The normal viewing environment was a computer, and the biggest worry for a web designer was whether to make the page width 800 or 1024 pixels wide. The only other option for viewing a site was a cellphone. Sure, some sites had a ‘mobile only’ version but this was normally a vastly stripped-back version of the ‘main’ website. And the reason for this was twofold. Firstly mobile phones of the time had very limited bandwidth and processor capabilities. And secondly, the inadequate browsers and miniscule screens available meant there was a legitimate excuse for delivering a bare-bones version of the full site. Mobile browsing was not a pleasant experience. Website visitors that were using a mobile phone were ‘on the move’, accessing information out of necessity, not for entertainment. In short they only wanted the essential facts, not superfluous ‘eye candy’.

The arrival of the smartphone changed all that. Larger screen sizes and improved capability proved that these phones had online capabilities closer to mobile computing than mere cellphone browsing. Throw in the arrival of different sized tablets (with portrait or landscape viewing options) and SmartTVs and suddenly there are far more ways to view websites than ever before. And this raises a problem. It wasn’t that websites that looked fine on computer monitors didn't work on other devices. It was that websites either appeared in miniature on smartphone screens, requiring excessive ‘zooming’, ‘pinching’ and ‘scrolling’ on the user’s part or appeared at less-than-optimum resolution on the large screens of SmartTVs.

Responsive design solves these problems. A ‘responsive’ website will re-configure itself to best suit the device that it is being seen on. This might mean that site content is rearranged so that the less important page elements in the sidebar appear at the bottom of the screen. The site navigation is minimised on the screen until it is needed. Images will be optimised so they download efficiently and appear at best quality on a wide range of screen sizes.

As far as site management is concerned, properly-conceived responsive design has a huge advantage over preparing different versions of a website for different media. As there is only one copy of the site to maintain, there is no need to worry about keeping different versions of the site ‘in synch’.

Finally, a responsive website is not an ‘app’. Apps are special tools or ‘applications’ designed to perform a particular function. It might be to play a game, or to access secure online banking services. A responsive website is a complete version of the website, containing all the content no matter what environment it is viewed on.

To find out about Responsive Design and what it can do for your business, talk to Mike and the team at mhdesign.co.nz

Pearls of Wisdom From the Not-so-very-distant Past

The other day I stumbled across this article from 1994. Originally published by an Auckland business (Hippo Marketing Limited) long before everybody discovered the Internet and the World Wide Web, the thoughts on the Creative Industries contained therein are as true now as ever. Kim (Hippo) Brady, thank you for these words of wisdom!

Do It Yourself!

Ahh, good old Kiwi ingenuity! That great Do-it-Yourself mentality for which we are renowned. lt’s a truly wonderful thing – or is it?

In today’s competitive economy, with the pressure on everyone to run an increasingly ‘tighter ship’, many organisations have dispensed with their advertising agency or in-house marketing professionals, seeing them as ‘unnecessary expenditure’. After all, newspapers will design an ad for free, radio stations will write a commercial as part of the overall schedule cost and someone in the office could run up a brochure on their PC with the aid of a photocopier and a bottle of twink. So why pay good money to an outside specialist?

The answer lies in that key word – “Specialist”.

Just as your company employs each worker in his or her most productive capacity, your promotional endeavours be approached with an eye for maximum return. Every aspect of a promotion including research, branding, packaging, quality control and final presentation is designed to showcase your saleable commodity to its fullest advantage and any marketing activity should work towards this.

It’s true that, while most media will offer to produce your ad for free, they’re also doing the same for many other companies in any given week, with the result being your ad will look and sound just like many others. You’d hardly instruct your sales team to tell potential customers your product or service is ‘average’, its price ‘about the same as usual’ and its benefits ‘negligible’. Yet poorly produced advertising and promotional literature can communicate all this at a single glance. Or worse, have no impact at all.

There’s a simple truth about advertising, marketing, promotions and PR. They’re time and labour intensive, and when not done right will reflect poorly on the image of your company and the integrity of products or services. The simplest advertising or marketing job entails numerous steps, each involving various individuals who are specialists in their field.

Fortunately, recent years have seen an increase in the number of these talented professionals working in small collectives or a freelance capacity. People like photographers, designers, copywriters, graphic artists and illustrators and related professionals.

If you were to tap into this pool of talent you’d find that you don’t need to spend big bucks to have a job done right. The money simply needs to be spent wisely, in the right areas, allowing you and your staff to get on with what you do best.

‘Foiled’ again!

My nine most memorable moments in front of a computer

In response to this post by London-based designer Rob Cubbon, my take on his article. It's interesting to note where our paths overlap... truly, we have come a long way!

1987: I discovered the MacPlus, PageMaker 1.0 and a 300dpi LaserWriter. I grappled with on-screen type peering through a tiny greyscale monitor and thought: "No way are you getting me up in one of these things ever again". My employer told me that very soon one of these computers would be sitting on everyone's desk. Ridiculous!

1989: Discovered the Mac II which actually included a hard drive! This meant I didn't need to load system each time I turned the machine on. PageMaker 3, Freehand 2 and my favourite fonts were already loaded and ready to go. I didn't need to manually download them to printer using Font/DA Mover. Fantastic!

1992: Developed my skills. Moved from a small design company into a corporate environment. The IT guy there (Jack the Mac) describes me as a ‘Power User’. Impressive!

1994: Discovered Photoshop. Realised it was very powerful and could do a lot of stuff, but not on a Mac II CI running a 030 processor. Upgraded to a Quadra (040) with 1GB hard drive and 12MB of RAM. Now we’re talking!

1996: Discovered the Internet and wondered what it was there for. Used it to send email. Discovered TAB notation for the guitar. Still can’t read TAB -- I prefer to play my 12-string by ear, as I always have.

1999: Thought I’d better come to grips with this internet thing. Lots of websites are being designed by geeks with computer degrees -- and it shows! The sites are semantically perfect but they all look the same. New business opportunity for freelance designer. Did a course in web design (passing convincingly)!

2005: Adobe brought Macromedia. They stopped supporting Freehand MX, insisting that Mac Freehand users switch to the wonderful world of Illustrator. BOO! (I resisted for years).

2009: Discovered the SilverStripe Content Management System. Now I can set up a templated 'theme' for my client's website and they can add and edit pages as they wish. The CMS is much simpler and easier to integrate than any other CMS I've encountered. And for my clients, updating content and adding pages is as easy as using a word processor. Great!

2012: Heard about the new world of 'Responsive Design'. Still 'responding' to this one but learning more every day!

A Space Oddity Indeed!

This has got to be one of the most poignant renditions of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ ever created. Thank you Commander Chris ‘Major Tom’ Hadfield. Mission completed!