You might be reading everywhere about the significance of having a responsive website design. Responsive website design is one of the most crucial aspects of reaching out to the mobile media. This is the most efficient concept that deals with the resolution of any device. Basically, it tries to unite the browser base interface with the mobile display. However, responsive web design is not the savior that you are looking for as it has its own range of disadvantages. Having said that, there is no denying that this concept holds the future of web designing. Thereby, there is a conflict of opinions amongst the web designers.
We are not really interested in the war, it is the web design that matters! This article futures three main disadvantages of having a responsive web design along with the respective solutions in order to gain complete efficiency. Get enlightened!
It Increases The Loading Time
The first rule of having a responsive website design is to make sure that the website is loading fast. This is a matter of concern for the mobile users as they work on relatively slow internet connection. However it is true that a responsive website design is specifically against fast loading times. This goes on to say that if you have a responsive web design, there is a great possibility that the mobile – optimized website of your competitor will load faster as compared to yours. This delay is caused because when a responsive website is accessed by a user, all the images and scripts of the website have to be loaded first, irrespective of whether they are required to be displayed on the mobile device or not. As a result of this, the website loading speed is enhanced making the site 7-times slower as compared to a mobile optimized website.
This is truly a disaster if you own an eCommerce website or if your website is not popular enough so that you are in a position of risking the visitor’s patience.
The Supportive Side
Proper implementation is the key here, if you don’t wish to have the content, either don’t load it or load selective content. Various engineered solutions are also available for optimizing the loading process of the script. You can use ‘adaptive images’ that recognizes the screen size and dynamically loads the images according to the screen size. You can also utilize the ‘Lazy Loading’ technique that instructs the website to load the images later, as a result of this the text content gets the highest authority. Alternatively, you can also have a separate stylesheet for avoiding the loading of oversized elements.
It Snaps A Future-Driven Website
When a website is accessed on any device, the user expects all the features like navigation, search bar, categories etc. This is where the problem arises! The responsive website design piles everything into a long list of functions and at times some functions get hidden. You must be prepared to see a complete crowd of navigation menus on the screen, thereby locating an option / function that you are looking for becomes difficult.
You are thinking of hiding the unnecessary features? Well, that’s not the appropriate solution! This is because, every user might have his / her own preference and removing some of the functions might surely affect the usability. The frank opinion –A responsive design is great for a content driven website, not for a feature driven website. You need to know what is more important for you – usability or flexibility!
The Supportive Side
Although a responsive website design has limitations as compared to a mobile website, there are various techniques for optimizing the usability of a responsive website. In case of the navigation menu, it can be converted into drop-down menus for the mobile devices. The same technique can be applied to the category section as well.
The Advertising Model Is Distorted
Just like any other website element, advertisement is not something that the publishers have a control over. Even if the ad space is tweaked in order to fulfill the requirement of the responsive website design, the deal with the advertiser will get affected because most of the advertisements are based on the ad placement. As a result of this, the advertisers are forced to re-think on the value of placing an advertisement on your website as the resolution is pre-defined. It might happen that the ads placed in the topmost position shift to a different location or the layout will be broken.
The websites that depend on advertisement networks like Google AdSence, that do not favor responsive ads are badly affected as a result of this. You cannot expect that they will solve the problem for you because this is a difficult task on their end.
The Supportive Side
It’s a boon that most of the advertisers do not have complete knowledge about responsive website design. Here is a smart suggestion for you – If they start questioning you about this issue, then you can start selling the advertisement space as a package. In simple words, instead of selling a leaderboard advertisement on the usual desktop version of the website that might disappear on some resolution, incorporate other types of ads that are specific to various device resolutions and promote them as a package.
In conclusion, it is important to understand that having a responsive website design is not an alternative to having a mobile website. After all, it’s your approach that matters and everything depends on your perspective about the website design and layout.
