Have you ever thought about how to deal with the frequent shifts in user behavior? We are moving ahead at a high pace leaving behind m-dot or t-dot hacks to a much broader responsive and adaptive designing strategies. Today, these two designing techniques are ruling the web development sector. All in all, it is called a One Web Approach. The adaptive design builds on the base of the responsive web design. This is functionally executed to deliver user experiences which are target-oriented for specific devices and content.
The One Web Approach for a developer ensures that the site is compatible with smartphones and tablets. Apart from this, it is also equipped for the unimaginable screens of the future. Moreover, it employs JavaScript to enrich the websites with advanced customization. For example, adaptive sites offer retina-quality images which will work only to Retina displays such as the new iPad. On the other hand, the standard definition which was used earlier offered low-quality images.
Presently, there are three popular approaches to create One Website. First, using a responsive design. Second, client-side adaptive designs, and finally, server-side adaptive designs which come under adaptive design approaches.
You cannot really determine whether one is better than the other or worse. However, both the designs have their own strengths and weaknesses which must be considered by the developer. Considering all the pros and cons is the key aspect of using a One Web Approach for any project.
Responsive web design is the leading contender for One Web approach. The approach utilizes CSS media queries and modifies the exhibition of a website. This basically depends on the size of the device display. The main advantage of this approach is that the designers can use a single template for all platforms and devices. This is executed using CSS by determining how the content is rendering on different screens.
The designers can work in HTML and CSS along with a growing number of responsive-friendly, open-source toolkits such as Bootstrap or Foundation. This helps simplify the process of creating responsive sites. The design and testing phase can be quite haphazard proving it difficult to customize the website for all devices. We have all witnessed responsive site layouts which seem like a puzzle sheet. Therefore, responsive web design is the ultimate choice that works best in combination with the mobile approach. With progressive enhancement, it is useful to address tablet and desktop cases.
Responsive website design approach covers almost all the devices. If the user is using only one device, they are supposed to wait for all the pages and resources to load. To put it simply, performance affects the bottom line to a great extent. Conversion rates on smartphone drop by an extra 3.5 percent if users are kept waiting for the pages to load. In addition, 57 percent of users will leave the site on the spot by a 3-second mark. Presently, responsive design is a de-facto standard; it also creates new challenges for online business. This includes handling images, optimizing mobile performances and rebuilding sites from the mobile-first approach.
This has two kinds of approaches.
Client-Side Adaptive: This means you do not have to build your site from scratch. Instead, you can build the site from the existing content in the process of delivering a mobile-responsive website. This approach enables to specifically go after targetted devices. For example, online fashion retail found that the majority of the traffic comes from Apple devices. Therefore, client-side adaptive can adjust and modify according to Apple devices. The client-side adaptive approach creates a barrier to enter, whereas responsive design is much more flexible. Developers must have an excellent knowledge of JavaScript.
Server-Side Adaptive: Why will you choose server-side adaptive? It offers distinguishing template designs, gives more room for customization, enables device detection on the server, and allows smaller pages which are easy to load. In addition, there are numerous other servers and plug-ins available for usual CMS and online marketing systems. Of course, many corporate houses are still wrestling with the fundamentals of responsive design. They are not yet ready to face the cosmopolitan flavors of adaptive web designs. Alternatively, with increasing market competition and mobile traffic, organizations are trying to kick-start using all the available approaches. This will be beneficial for them as they can use whatever they want as per their requirement.
If you are searching for an all-in-one website design approach, then you can connect with us. Place us a call at our helpline number and get in touch with experienced professionals. Along with this, you can also communicate with us via live chat or email.