3 Common Challenges of Responsive Design

2 min read
May, 16 2014

Responsive design is becoming more popular as companies are choosing to create an interactive user experience across all mobile and desktop devices. Responsive design leads to brand consistency, and good designs can help a business create lead generation and lead conversions, especially on the mobile web. Although this type of web design can be a powerful tool, the technology behind responsive design has a long way to go. Quickly inserting and achieving the same results for your blogs, email campaigns and other inbound marketing can be difficult. Here are a few challenges that routinely occur with responsive design:

Images

You just found the perfect image to post in your blog, and it looks amazing on your laptop computer. Great job! But wait, take a look on your mobile phone. Now, the truth is revealed: it looks terrible. It lacks detail on a mobile screen, and when optimized for a mobile device, it looks pixelated on your desktop computer. Welcome to one of the biggest challenges in responsive design. Images can be difficult to get right, especially when they are sized automatically. New techniques are allowing images to smartly adapt to responsive design.

Navigation

Navigation is one of the most important aspects of a website. Your clients or readers need to be able to move around freely and find what they desire. Traditional, navigation panels are used at the top or side of a web page. When responsive design shifts to a mobile-friendly version — especially for a smartphone — it is nearly impossible to fit all of those navigation tools. Expanding sidebars are increasing the ability of navigation tools in mobile devices through responsive design, but the functionality does not rival a computer.

Changing views

Responsive design changes elements from the computer version to allow better readability on smartphones and tablets. That being said, some of the work you are most proud of may get buried. If achieving a consistent look throughout your devices is important, responsive design can be a company's worst nightmare. There must be changes in the layout for optimal reading, although it may distort the way your site is viewed.

Don’t let the challenges of responsive design scare you away from using the technique. Businesses like HubSpot have created Content Optimizing Systems that can help place the inbound marketing materials you want your visitors to see in a prime location, while also keeping the materials fresh upon every visit.

Mobile devices have changed the way we view websites, and the responsive design capabilities will increase tremendously as the digital age progresses.

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