Responsive Web Design
Huebris was recently commissioned to create a website for a Birmingham start-up, Beer Engineers. This fresh business is led by the younger generation of entrepreneurs who “get” the Internet. Owner, DB Irwin doesn’t simply rely on a website to market Beer Engineers. He made sure we created the site on a blogging platform, WordPress, so that he could make consistent updates. He operates social media marketing campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, and he made sure we integrated the two heavily on Beer-Engineers.com.
Perhaps the biggest key indicator that the owner of Beer Engineers understands the direction the Internet is headed, was his adamant request for the website to be mobile-friendly. And boy is he right! This past month, Facebook users spent more time on the mobile application of the site than the classic website itself. And we all know that the Facebook app is lackluster compared to other apps on the market. Over two-thirds of all mobile phones are now smartphones. The adoption rate is staggering, and it represents a shift in our industry.
Responsive Web Design, Because Not All Screens are Created Equal
Responsive web design, is a web development term that refers to a website’s ability to adjust to various screen types and resolutions. Many web companies will simply charge the client for an additional website that is exclusively mobile, but this is causing all sorts of trouble. The disconnect of content means that twice the updates have to happen. Usually, the mobile version suffers, showcasing outdated content. Beer Engineers wanted the full website experience regardless of the viewing device. They should want this, it represents what the public wants as well!
So how much does this cost?
It depends on who you get to develop for you. For this project, Huebris used an open source repository of code called Bootstrap. Bootstrap is a free code library that was developed by two employees at Twitter to help other developers create simple, beautiful, and—most importantly—responsive websites. Open source code can springboard development and substantially reduce the costs inherit to our trade. The code doesn’t always fit squarely with what you are doing, but revisions can be made which account for a fraction of what full development labor would have cost. Head over to see Beer Engineer’s responsive website. Resize your browser to look at it at different resolutions, or view it on your smartphone or tablet.
If you would like to know more about this subject, feel free to contact us today!