platform-specific websites let the tail wag the dog
fearless, bold, efficient websites that adapt to any device
Mobile-first …
Mobile websites often evolve from desktop sites. It’s time to rethink this approach.
Mobile has become the predominant technology, displacing desktop. Any web marketing plan that doesn’t place mobile first is in serious denial.
However, there are additional compelling reasons to design from a mobile perspective:
- Efficiency. Mobile screen, processor, and bandwidth limitations enforce efficient design, stripping away the unessential, resulting in pages that snap
- New standards. Mobile browsers have been first-adopters of new html5, css3 and JavaScript APIs, ironically reversing the direction of graceful degradation to desktops. Adhering to the latest standards future-proofs web investment
- New technologies. Unique capabilities of mobile, such as geolocation, make possible use cases inconceivable from a desktop context
responsive …
iOS, Android, Windows, smartphones, tablets, desktops … how many websites do you need?
One.
One website that adapts to any platform, any device. After all, hasn’t this been the promise of the web?
Responsive sites deliver this automatically and seamlessly, obviating the expense of multiple code bases, through:
- Flexible layouts that transform component position, number of columns, menu type, and font to viewing device
- Fluid images that scale, rather than crop
- Interfaces that switch between mouse and touch, changing mouse links to fingertip sized buttons and enabling swipe gestures
- Resolutions that automatically step-up to mobile capabilities
See it work by slowly narrowing this browser window to tablet, then smartphone width.
WordPress CMS websites
In contrast to static sites, content management systems dynamically assemble pages from components stored within databases, based on meta tags. Why bother?
- Manageability. CMS maintains consistent site layout
- Content reuse in countless ways and contexts
- Server-based editing tools allow content creation and edit by non-technical staff via any browser from anywhere
- Single-click site re-design. Themes can be switched with a single click, changing site appearance while maintaining site content
- Cost. Reduce overhead by letting marketing, rather than IT, directly — and immediately — manage content
No longer confined to blogging, WordPress has become the predominant CMS, garnering 54% market share. It has become the backbone for not only SME websites, but major corporate sites such as CNN and the Boston Globe
Note how …
- 3-column desktop transforms to single column smartphone
- Smartphone image is scaled down, rather than cropped
- Desktop horizontal menu switches to toggle on/off vertical smartphone menu
- User interaction switches from mouse on desktops to touch with swipe features on mobile
- Site can be totally re-designed with a single click, without altering actual content