That digital engagement starts and ends with user experience is a widely accepted foundation of content marketing. But what exactly is a good user experience? And how, with technological developments an increasingly fast-paced, ever changing entity, do you make sure your digital offerings keep up with the expectations of your audience?

The fact is, no digital product is ever complete. The digital landscape is constantly evolving and is not confined by defined structure. The internet is being accessed via mobile and tablet more than ever before. Year in, year out these statistics continue to grow, as more and more devices are landing on the market. It is important to ensure your brand's website is ready for wherever the web browser takes it next - it needs to be built using a responsive framework.

Content may be king, but context plays a huge part in engagement. Design trends are always shifting and user behaviour is standardised by the bigger organisations. Smartphone ownership stood at 70 per cent in the UK before Christmas (it’s now expected to have reached 80 per cent) and tablet penetration was set to tip 50 per cent by the end of 2014 (source IAB).

Executing content through a responsive frame enables the following:

1. Brand consistency: whatever the device, whatever the context, your brand's values and delivery remain constant.

2. Better, unified user experience across devices: sites not optimised for mobile deter users and cause drop off and/or basket abandonment.

3. One URL, which in itself has multiple advantages:
3.1. SEO. Google resources are limited. Googlebot has only one site to crawl instead of two. HTML is the same, which also makes it easier for the bots to organise and index all the content
3.2. One single URL to promote in all campaigns
3.3. One single URL for users to share.

4. One place to manage content on both sites.

5. Streamlined workflow: Why waste time designing both a desktop site and a mobile site when responsive design allows you to create one site which will resize itself for all screens?

Designing a responsive site might be a bit more of a cumbersome and lengthy process than for a non-responsive one, but the benefits far outweigh the efforts. It is important to begin by scoping and designing for the mobile screen before tablet and desktop. If it works on mobile, it will work everywhere. 

 

By Pares Tailor, Head of Digital Operations at The River Group. 

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