By now, you should all know what responsive design is and how it has revolutionized the way websites are built and how they look on smart phones and tablets.

While website developers were becoming familiar with HTML5, CSS3 and Media Query (aka new coding available), the technique continued to evolve and will continue to do so as new mobile devices are released each year.

Having a responsive website has become important for search engine optimization since Google announced this year that it has become part of its new algorithm. It also ensures a great user experience for those viewing your site on a mobile device like smart phones or tablets.

Does responsive design mean to simply realign website sections, enlarge or reduce elements or is there more to it? No it is much more than that.

The concept of stripping down responsive design

The latest trend which will be one to watch in 2016 is stripping down your website when a visitor is using a smart phone or tablet.

A good webmaster should be able to set parameters that interpret the screen-size of your visitors and render a very specific design based on the size of their screen and/or the type of device they are actually using.

The way we do it at Business Website Center is that we will deliberately remove unnecessary elements which take too much “screen real estate” in order to improve the performance of a website.

Handling textual content

When it comes to copy writing you want your text to be more succinct, making it easy for a quick read on a smart phone.

For instance you may list a dozen testimonials on your homepage but, on a phone, we may only want to show the most important one.

Handling images, photographs and graphics

Your site might have lots of images and we may hide some of them while keeping the most relevant and powerful ones.

We would also make sure that the selected ones are easy to download even when a smart phone has less than the optimum number of Internet connection bars.

The images selected for smart phone display should take no time to download and be images that best sell your products or services.

Handling animation and movement

Website animation might be fun and interesting on a desktop but, on a smart phone, it might just be annoying. It can make the download of a page much slower and also be too busy for mobile device users. Mobile users are known to be impatient and, if a page does not download quickly on their phone, they will move on to another website and never give your site another chance.

Remember simplify, simplify, simplify!

Handling important calls-to-action

You have to understand your target audience and what you want them to do on your website. Do you want them to call you, email you, fill out a form, place an order, or signup? Once you figure out what it is you wish your website visitors to do, make sure they can do that as quickly as possible while using a smart phone or a tablet.

Some fonts might need to be larger. Some colors might need to be bolder or more saturated. Some text might need to be made shorter. Some buttons might need to be made more prominent.

Stripping down responsive design for smart phone usage  has become the newest trend in website design and will continue to be a hot topic throughout 2016.

Make sure you speak with your web designer to make sure your site is up to the highest Internet standards expected by mobile users.