This is the last post of our 3 part-series on Responsive Design. We truly could spend the entire year discussing its importance and different attributes but we want to create some variety in our blog. As always never hesitate to email us if you have additional questions about mobile responsiveness for your website. One of our team members will be happy to answer you.

Today we want to discuss if this is important to cater to every screen size possible and older version of phones and phone operating systems.

As you know, phones are trendy and today’s coolest model will be old news within months and replaced by a newer and improved version. This is done for marketing reason (phone manufacturers are in the business of selling phones) and technology reason (fixing glitches from prior versions and creating new tools users are asking for).

Tablets are similar though it seems that people tend to hold on to them longer than a phone.

One thing to remember is that, as the site owner, you should not expected to know how to code it and make your website work on mobile devices, but should you be informed enough to ask your coder to do the work for you. If your web designer does not know what Media Queries are, then you should find a new designer better equipped to developing your site.

1) Older phone versions and responsive design:

How far do you go back in time?

Should you really be concerned about a phone made ten years ago?

No you should not unless you have a very large budget for your website or if your target audience is known for using older style devices. In most cases, having your new website work on current phones is sufficient. And you should expect this much from your developer.

An exception might be made for the most popular brands like the iPhone. Going back to iPhone 4 might be worth the time and cost or at least back to the iPhone 5.

2) Various screen sizes and responsive design:

Should you cater to every screen size possible? Truly that would be almost impossible since computers, laptops, net-books, smart phones and tablets come in many different sizes and shapes (some being more landscape than others).

When it comes to catering to specific screen sizes we recommend at the very least that your web designer adapt the design to the following screen sizes:

The above 5 layouts should be included in any web design quote. Additional sizes such as being specific to 7” tablets (which have become very popular thanks to a big advertising push by Samsung) should cost more as it will require more programming time on the part of your webmaster.

If your budget allows for it, it is best to take the responsive design of your website to the next level by adapting the layout to additional popular screen sizes and also paying more attention to which elements should be modified or removed on specific mobile devices.

For an in-depth conversation about your specific responsive design needs, email us today.