Responsive website design and development services

Why responsive design matters

Most visits to business websites now come from phones. Google also indexes the mobile version of a page first, so a site that is hard to use on a phone is ranked on that weak version. A site that makes people pinch and zoom loses them before they read a word.

How we build responsive pages

• Mobile first. We design the phone layout before the desktop one, so the essentials come first.
• Fluid grids. Columns stack, wrap or resize according to the space available instead of at fixed device sizes.
• Flexible images. Images are served at a size suited to the screen, so phones do not download desktop-sized files.
• Readable type. Text is large enough to read without zooming, with line lengths that stay comfortable.
• Thumb-friendly controls. Buttons and links are large and spaced so they are easy to tap.
• Menus that work by touch. No menu depends on hovering.
• Tables and forms. Wide tables scroll within their own area, and forms use the right keyboard for phone, email and number fields.

What we test before launch

We open every page at phone, tablet and desktop widths and on real devices, and check that nothing scrolls sideways, no text is cut off and every form can be completed with one hand. We measure loading on a mobile connection, not office broadband.

Making an existing site responsive

Sites built for desktop screens can rarely be patched. The page structure itself assumes a wide screen. We rebuild the pages on a responsive layout, keep your content and addresses, and set redirects where an address must change. The price follows the same packages as a new site.

Is a separate mobile site better?

No. Separate "m." sites mean two sets of pages to maintain and frequent SEO problems. One responsive site is the approach Google recommends.

Web apps on phones

Tools your staff use, such as an enquiry register or task log, are built the same way. See web app development.