What is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive website design (RWD) is essentially how a website is designed to be functional, user-friendly and appealing, and it ensures the site works seamlessly across various browsers, devices, and screen sizes. It is expected that any new website will not merely have RWD, but employ an excellent user experience on all devices and browsers.
The idea is to create the best possible journey from the moment a customer lands on your website until they purchase. But no matter what device the user has, responsive web design ensures they will have the same experience.
Having a high-quality website these days is essential, especially for tour and activity companies. But having a website that is slow, performs poorly, or doesn’t work on mobile, will only deter customers and ultimately result in a loss of sales.
The goal with your website is to create a first-rate user experience. A website that truly encapsulates this will have the ability to keep visitors on your site (no immediate click aways), and builds trust and a rapport with the user. Poorly designed websites will send customers running to the hills! This could be as a result of slow loading speed, the site being unresponsive on mobile, holes or mistakes in the content, or the user not being able to find the thing they came onto your site for in the first place!
RWD Principles & Dangers
Design for your purpose. You must ask yourself: what is the number one thing you want a user to do on your website? Take Tourism Tiger for example; our websites(opens in a new tab) are designed and built around the sole purpose of selling more tours. We wouldn’t have the same layout that a company selling shoes would require; you need to design for your purpose! Yes, there may be some similarities… but each website has its own niche and you must tailor it to that.
Content layout. We now live in a digital world that requires nothing less than the fastest and quickest way to do things. No time to read everything! No time to find the thing you need! People want it there and then, no excuses—if not, they will click off your site. The structure of your content is incredibly important and you also must hit all the customer types; the Rushing Rose (they want answers fast) or the Hesitant Henry (they must read and know everything, down to the last FAQ before they even think about buying or booking anything). See our content writing service(opens in a new tab) if you feel you need to create new or refresh some of your old content!
Page speed. We touched on this above, but patience on the internet is nonexistent and if your website doesn’t load quickly, you will lose users. Not only that, but search engines take into account how fast your website loads overall (on both desktop and mobile) and these loads speeds impact your SEO ranking.
The on-page visuals. Not only do you want to incorporate the above-mentioned items onto your website but the way it looks is just as important! Having beautiful pictures and blended colour schemes coupled with amazing video content(opens in a new tab) is considerably more appealing to the user than a bland or even a visually offensive website. But it goes beyond just pictures. Our designers at Tourism Tiger cover all the important visual aspects when building any website including colour schemes, typography, icons, negative space, etc. See our branding and logo creation service here(opens in a new tab) if you feel you could benefit from a professional revamp.
Mobile! Lastly, mobile-friendliness is non-negotiable. With a significant portion of web traffic coming from mobile devices, adopting responsive or adaptive design ensures an optimal user experience across all devices. Huge amounts of business are done purely through mobile phones; you don’t want to miss out!
Core Web Vitals: Enhancing User Experience
Additionally, Core Web Vitals have become increasingly important for optimizing user experience and SEO. Core Web Vitals consist of three key metrics:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures loading performance and marks the point in the page load timeline when the main content of the page has likely loaded.
First Input Delay (FID) quantifies the responsiveness of a web page and measures the time from when a user first interacts with a page (e.g., clicks a link or taps a button) to the time when the browser responds to that interaction.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) quantifies the visual stability of a web page and measures the sum total of all individual layout shift scores for every unexpected layout shift that occurs during the entire lifespan of the page.
Understanding and prioritizing these Core Web Vitals can lead to improved user experience, retention, and ultimately, higher conversion rates.
What Tourism Tiger Will Do
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, especially if your current website doesn’t tick all of the boxes above. All of the items mentioned are understood, implemented, and applied to each and every website that we build here at Tourism Tiger and we are constantly updating and improving our processes and systems thanks to our TigerCare team. Contact us today(opens in a new tab) to start the smooth process of getting a tour website that will tick all the necessary boxes and more.
(Updated April 2024)
