I work for these guys just over the river in South Melbourne. We used to be called Visual jazz, now we’re isobar, we’re a global digital design network of sorts.
We build all sorts of things, but specialize in websites big and small. More Recently we’ve been building lots of responsive ones.
So where do I fit into this machine? I work in the Experience Design team. Working with graphic designers, developers, suits and the clients to keep things moving in the same direction, ensuring we deliver amazing experiences.
So we get asked this a lot.
As we know it makes all the money. Luke W and others have data on how good it is, we even have data on how good it has been for our clients but….
The days of sell responsive > build responsive > profit are numbered. Responsive web design is becoming commoditised,businesses are more educated about it and its more of a given and less of a point of differences in the work we do.
So if responsive is losing appeal what’s next?
Miss McGrane makes a good point, but its not the whole story, more importantly we don’t get to decide the context in which our users are using these devices to access our designs.
As we all know we’re living in a “post PC world” our designs will be used by people of all ages, skills, and locationsIts not enough to simply consider screen width we have to take a step further and seriously consider context.
Luke W has gathered some stats around mobile device use …. A users behaviour, goals and time at hand are all influenced by their enviorment.
When this becomes mainstream people will be accessing your site everywhere. – personally I think this will self implode like the Bluetooth earpiece but who knows.
That’s great I don’t care if they’re at a desk or on the train its still the same website, right?
5 Seconds to become responsive not just load time.
From our experience users spend less than 60 seconds to find what they’re after. So supplying the right content at the right time is critical if we’re going to engage our users.
I have no idea what the future holds but from my experience hare are … Three quick tips for the future of responsive,to push the needle past 1.0 > 1.1 for you guys and your UX friends to consider.
#1 Stop thinking about screens
Talking to developers about responsive design usually amounts to a lot of talk about breakpoints and how the content flows .Think about the tools we have at hand, Cameras, Local storage Orientation Device acceleration Location TimeWeather We can derive context from this information and that’s super powerful
Super simple example of this we implemented for quest (not a “responsive” site) Locative content recommendations for quest resulted in 4x increase in bookings via the webiste and I’m sure a lot less pain for their users.
#2 Research
This is not real userresearch, It has its place but it should not be the sole point of truth.
This helps but is also not real research, data provides us heaps of useful info but doesn’t give us context.
Do more of this...What happens if the user gets off the tram mid purchase and closes their browser? What happens when they get home? How is your experience on a mobile device different at home, at work, in transit and in the store. Contextual design and other service design tools are great to uncover real user behaviors
#3 Design real solutions
I’m totally guilty of this, I have books of these sketches at home, if you see your ux friend doing this….
Tell them to do this every now and then, see how a design might work in the sun, or with one hand on the bus etc…
#4 Bonus
To take this to the next level we cant work in isolation anymore. This is a great opportunity for Tech, design, ux and accounts to finally come together and start building better experiences. I know lots of us are doing this but its worth repeating. I love the fact responsive design has been driven by developers and designers, suits and ux people have taken up the cause and I can’t wait to see what comes out in the next few years.