The development of new technology moves at an alarmingly accelerated rate, and it's important for business owners and web developers alike to keep up with these changes in order to respond to customer demands. One of the biggest changes to how we search and browse the internet today has been the popularisation of portable devices such as smartphones and tablets. We are now able to search for products and services online at any time we wish with practically no restrictions, dramatically changing the way in which we browse and keep up with online content. As a direct result of these changes, website owners need to adapt their sites in order to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers.

This is why responsive web design has become such a popular solution in recent years. Internet users now expect to be able to transfer from one device to another with ease, and well-made responsive websites deliver consistency and adaptability to users while making the lives of SEOs much easier in the process. In this blog post, we will highlight some of the differences between responsive and non-responsive websites, demonstrating why the former option is usually the better of the two.

Images are a great way to capture a user's attention straight away, which is part of the reason why it's important to include great-quality visuals on any website. A non-optimised website can pose many problems when viewing these images on portable devices, including increased loading times. Responsive web design utilises flexible grids, layouts and images in combination with intelligent use of CSS media queries to address this problem, allowing visuals to appear clearly across a multitude of devices with varied screen sizes. 

As noted above, responsive websites are a great way to prevent images from losing their impact when viewed on devices with smaller screens. This goes for the text and navigation of a website, too; by optimising a website for use on mobile devices, web developers are able to streamline content while making it easier for users to view and navigate the site.

Some would argue that a dedicated mobile website performs better in this respect, particularly in the case of news sites with a lot of written content or ecommerce sites with a variety of functions that are difficult to translate. But here's the problem: due to the fact that every website must found its reputation from scratch, regardless of a separate website being part of the same brand or business, a separate mobile website will struggle to perform well in search engines. A responsive website, on the other hand, can deliver a great user experience across all devices whilst also preserving the site's reputation by keeping everything under one URL.

Recognition from Google is of vital importance to every website owner, due to the simple fact that high Google rankings drive a lot of traffic. If you're looking to improve your Google rankings, it's important to keep an eye on the bounce rate of each page on your website; a high bounce rate means that users leave quickly because they can't find what they are looking for.

Non-responsive websites often fail to translate content efficiently from one device to another, and this can force mobile visitors to give up on your site very quickly. This is why responsive websites seek to prioritise usability in their design, benefiting both the customer and the website owner by improving the search and share experience. The issue of consistent reputation (see above) is also part of this wider experience, as it once again makes it easier to get your site noticed and ranked higher by Google. Having a single URL for all versions of your site makes it easier for Googlebot to crawl and index the content while avoiding any accidental duplicate content issues. meaning that all positive reactions will be valid on other devices.

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And there you have it: a short guide to the difference between responsive and non-responsive websites, and how they function for users and businesses.

Have you ever seen a photo of something microscopic (such as a dust mite or a red blood cell) and wondered how that photo was taken? Well, there's a high probability that it was captured using a scanning electron microscope, or SEM; there's also a reasonably good chance that it was taken by the team at PSmicrographs, who specialise in SEM photography and provide a huge variety of detailed stock images to the people and the organisations who need them.

We quoted PSmicrographs for a responsive website design, and work was soon under way to make their extensive image library easier to browse on mobile devices. That work has now been completed, and www.psmicrographs.co.uk is now a fully responsive website, functioning just as well on smartphones and tablets as on desktop computers.

If you need scientific stock photos of anything from chromosomes to wolf spiders, we heartily recommend that you visit the PSmicrographs website and browse their comprehensive collection of SEM images. Whether you're browsing the website on a PC, an iPad, or your mobile phone, we are confident that you'll find it easy to navigate and a joy to use in general.

Based in the Rhiwbina district of Cardiff, Cross Accounting offer a wide range of accounting services for businesses of all sizes. The firm's specialities include bookkeeping, managing payrolls, and assisting with self-assessment tax returns; with years of experience and a flawless track record, Cross are among the leading accountancy firms in South Wales, and they're taking on new clients all the time.

As the owner of a growing business with a great reputation to uphold, Cross Accounting founder Nicola Cross was keen to ensure that her firm's website was providing potential clients with the best possible online experience. She recently asked our website design team to take a look at her site with a view to making it a little more mobile-friendly, and we're pleased to announce that the new, responsive version of the Cross Accounting website was released yesterday.

This version of the site has been designed to look good and operate smoothly on screens of all sizes, from desktop computers and laptops right down to tablets and smartphones. Mobile users see all the same information about the firm, but the site's navigation automatically changes to fit the smaller view, making it easier for clients to find what they're looking for on their phones.

We're very pleased to have worked with Cross Accounting, and we wish Nicola and her team all the best for the future. If you're based in South Wales and you need an expert accountant for your business, be sure to get in touch!

HenStuff.co.uk is an ecommerce website that sells a huge variety of hen party accessories and novelty gifts. The site attracts a colossal number of visitors - especially at this time of year - and desktop users only account for around 50% of this traffic. The others are using smartphones, tablets, and other portable devices to shop for their hen party supplies.

In light of this fact, the HenStuff team decided that it was time to go responsive. They contacted Designer Websites and asked us to come up with a responsive design that would give mobile users a better experience on the HenStuff website. They also requested an updated payment system that would make it easier for their customers to complete online purchases.

HenStuff's old website was good-looking and reasonably user-friendly, but it had been designed with desktop computers in mind, and didn't cater to mobile users very well. We addressed this by creating a brand new responsive design that adapts to the screen on which it is viewed, meaning that all visitors now get an equally excellent browsing experience, regardless of what kind of device they're using.

The HenStuff brand has been around for quite a few years now, and it was important for the new website to retain the image and personality that the company has established for itself over time. As we reimagined and restructured the HenStuff site, our design team kept a close eye on all branding elements (including logos, site copy, and images used) to ensure that everything remained consistent - after all, we wanted to make sure that HenStuff's customers still recognised their favourite party store!

The new HenStuff site uses Sage Pay Version 3, the latest version of Sage Pay's much-lauded payment gateway, to process customer payments. Simple, user-friendly, and exceptionally secure, we feel that Sage Pay is a superb choice for any ecommerce website, and HenStuff have already been reaping the benefits of this improved system (as have their customers!)

Tokenisation is a major feature of Sage Pay's latest version, and we incorporated this functionality into the new HenStuff website to make life easier for loyal shoppers. Customers can now make use of a Fast Pay option, which uses Sage Pay's fast and hyper-secure token system to store customer details, allowing near-instant checkout on future purchases.

This is a particularly great feature for HenStuff, a company that gets a lot of business from repeat customers who organise/attend a lot of hen parties. HenStuff.co.uk is one of the first websites in the hen party industry to utilise a tokenisation option like this, and this - together with the new, mobile-friendly design - will really help to give the company an edge over its competitors.