Net Quality Web Design Nottingham

0115 963 6589

Do I Need a Separate Mobile Website?

The short answer is no. But that would make for a boring article wouldn't it? So perhaps I had better explain why.

What is important these days is to have a website that looks good and is ready to use on all sorts of devices. Screen sizes have always been a challenge to web designers. In the early days, lazy designers would tell you that "this site is best viewed at 800 by 600 pixels". What a ridiculous statement. You should change you monitor just to view their website!

Thankfully, we have moved on since then but some designers are still making a hash of it.

How Net Quality handles Mobile Websites

I use something called "Responsive Web Design". What this means that I create one website, but it uses modern technology to reshape itself depending on the size of the screen from which the user is viewing the website. To me this is such an elegant solution. Desktop users do not accidentally end up viewing the mobile version of the website and mobile viewers do not have to pinch and zoom from the desktop website.

I Create Four or Five Websites

There is another reason I do this. The choice is not between a desktop and a mobile phone. It is a choice between desktop monitors of many sizes as well as tablets, TV's and mobile phones. Having two websites is simply not good enough. When I design a website, I will often have three, four or five fluid styles to ensure they always look good and are easy to use no matter what the size of the screen is.

I Wanted the Full Website

My method is not without its knockers. I recently converted a customer's website to be mobile friendly and he immediately noticed that he did not have a separate website for mobile phones. He objected to this and said "what if I want to view the full website on my phone?". He mistakenly believed that because the mobile version of his website appeared slimmed down that it was not the full version. All my sites provide the FULL version of the website whether it be in desktop or mobile mode.

The mobile version does look slimmed down. This is because of the clever use of the latest technology to change the flow of the website and hide menu options until needed. You do not get a cut-down mobile website, you get the full monty!

What Choice You Should Make for a Mobile Website

The answer is not clear-cut and opinions differ. However, I think there is enough evidence in favour of Responsive Web Design that this is the road down which Net Quality have travelled. Much work is put into meticulously planning the website so that all customers, irrespective of their device's screen size, operating system or browser type, all have a stylish and effective experience when navigating a Net Quality Website.

Tags for this article