The huge growth of mobile devices has had an impact on how we all perceive and experience this wonderful thing we know as the internet. We are now looking at websites, and using applications on a huge variety of screen sizes. As designers and developers we’ve had to react to this, no longer do we just have to worry about ie8, or the small variety of desktop screen resolutions…it’s a whole new ball field. Traditionally websites were coded at fixed widths, and we would check to see what the widest width was people were viewing sites on using their desktop computers, then we would tailor our designs to that.

When mobile devices took off in popularity, the mobile bowser developers had to figure out a way to show your website, hardcoded to a width of 800px in a much smaller screen. Their solution was to shrink the whole website down to fit (example to the right in the graphic below). The result of this is a nightmarish experience of pinching and scrolling around to navigate through any website. To remedy this in the past few years a few helpful tools have evolved (note my restraint in not using technical terms!) to help us target specific screen sizes and make certain adjustments to the website code which allows us to present a much nicer user experience across multiple devices.

This approach is quickly becoming standard practice for many websites. It is not ALWAYS the right choice, this depends on the needs of your website, and the type of traffic you get. We would be happy to take a look at your website and help you decide if it is the right option for you. You should know this though, mobile traffic is on the rise and will continue to constitute more and more of your visitors. Phone and tablet growth continues to skyrocket, and you want to make sure your site visitors are getting the best possible experience they can from your website.

The graphic above quickly illustrates how much better the phone experience is when a site is coded using responsive techniques.  Boston Accountability is just one of many recent responsive websites we’ve designed and built. We’d be happy to show you more, feel free to contact us with any questions you might have on converting your website code to make it responsive.

We created a custom theme based on their logo and colors used at the physical store front. Knowing they wanted to better showcase the local produce they offer to their shoppers, the home page took on an entirely new look which focused on an image slider that was easy to update. Store hours and directions also took center stage, as well as social media connections. Now the home page also showcases posted information, divided into more useful categories and featuring titles and excerpts to show more info in less space.

Knowing many of their customers reach the website using a smart phone or other internet device, we also opted to make the design fully responsive, so no matter what device you view it on, you have a positive and appropriate surfing experience.

Click here to visit the live site.

MiraBella’s new custom wordpress theme is now live to the public and generating rave reviews from their clients.

Click here to visit the live site.

the seagulls are ferocious!

Click here to visit the live site.

What the heck is the Lloyd EcoDistrict you ask? Per their nifty new site – “The Lloyd EcoDistrict works to move the business district toward its “triple bottom line” goals. Triple bottom line is a way of measuring progress in terms of financial, environmental and socially just outcomes.”

Check out what’s happening over at EcoLloyd.

• Better site management (you can group sites)
• Support for GIT!
• Built in MySQL support. Awesome.

Ok that is all…enjoy the holiday friends.