Trends on Tuesday: Are only 11% of Websites Responsive?

Sep 9, 2014
Flat design concept of responsive design

Roughly 1 in 9 (11%) websites have adopted responsive Web design, according to research conducted by Guy Podjarny in January. While the number has risen in the last 7 months, I know you’re probably a little underwhelmed by that number. But if you are one of the agencies that have gone through the process of developing a responsive site, you are aware of the challenges that can often get in the way of progress.

Responsive Web design isn’t a silver bullet for your agency’s mobile strategy. But when done right, it can provide users with the fast, easy experience they are seeking. Smashing Magazine suggests a few tricks that can improve your existing responsive solutions and maximize performance for users:

  • Deliver each document to all devices with the same URL and the same content, but not necessarily with the same structure.
  • When starting from scratch, follow a mobile-first approach.
  • Test what happens when resources are loaded and displayed on real devices. Don’t rely on resizing your desktop browser.
  • Use optimization tools to measure and improve performance.
  • Deliver responsive images via JavaScript until there is a better solution.
  • Load only the JavaScript you need for the current device with conditional loading.
  • Deliver above-the-fold content first.
  • Apply a smart responsive solution with one or more of these techniques: conditional loading, responsiveness according to group, and a server-side layer.

Federal agencies face these challenges along with barriers like buy-in from management. This Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET, members of the Mobile Gov Community of Practice from the Department of Energy, the Defense Financing and Accounting Service, and the Department of Health and Human Services will discuss the challenges they faced in their responsive Web implementations and how they overcame them during the webinar, MobileGov Mystery: Getting Buy-in and Other Challenges In Mobile Web Implementations.

Sign up now to hear how other agencies are addressing Responsive Web Design Challenges.

Originally posted by Treci Johnson on Sep 9, 2014
Sep 9, 2014