What is Responsive Web design

So yesterday I talked about the launch of a new website mrbison.com and how we had taken the opportunity to recode it as a responsive web site.

But what does that mean…what is a responsive web site?

Simply put, it is a site that will give the  visitor an optimal viewing experience regardless of what device they are using to access it- desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. And as I am all about graphics let me show you in pictures exactly what I mean.

Here is the site on a 24″ desk top monitor

Responsive webdesign in action

Here it is on an iPad – both portrait and landscape orientation

Responsive design on ipad

and here it is on an i Phone

responsive design on iphone

The way the site is coded means it automatically “responds”  to what ever device it it viewed from. Here are some of the things that happen

  • Automatic  adjustment the overall width of the site
  • Re sizes all the images – see how the entire width of the header graphic and call to action banner are visible whatever the device
  • Adjusts the placements of page elements – on the phone the elements that were displayed horizontally ( the block of text and video) are now displayed vertically
  • Optimization of the navigational tool. If viewed on a phone a clunky navigational bar would detract from the site content. Instead the user is presented with a menu button, which, if selected, will display a drop down menu.

You don’t have to view the site on all of these different devices to see this responsive nature in action, simply visit the site and re-size your browser window…getting smaller and smaller as you do.. see how the site changes?

 

New Web Design for Authors Web Site

Last week saw the release of a new book by one of our clients, Edward Bison. His book, Mr Bison’s Journal,  is a very funny collection of stories and observations and is a laugh out loud read. I was commissioned to not only illustrate each of the stories but also design the book cover.  It was a fun project and fingers crossed it will become one of the top humor books of 2012/2013.  It would make a great Christmas gift -see it on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle ebook

As part of the launch we updated his website www.mrbison.com moving it from a blogger powered blog, to the  all singing and dancing WordPress platform and giving the site a mini design overhaul.

The home page now features a prominent call to action to buy the book and a video clip of a sample chapter. The site navigation was revised to include such as his Facebook fan Page

mr bison website chicago

We also took the opportunity to re-code it as responsive website – I’ll fill you in on the ins and outs of that tomorrow.

Keeping a website fresh: Chicago web designer tip of the day

As well as designing websites from scratch one of the services we offer our clients is website maintenance.

This can involve anything from updating text, adding  pages for new services or updating a look and feel with new photos.

We have refreshed the look of The Lincolnshire Academy of Dance website today, updating  all the photographs with recent ones taken during their June recital.

chicago web designer

Keeping a web site fresh with new content,  photographs and news will keep you visitors engaged and more likely to pay you repeat visits. Search engines love fresh content too, so it is a win all round.

© 2012 Chicago Web Designer

Taking a St Louis Retirement Community Social

A good website is a “living” marketing tool that can evolve to accommodate different approaches to engage with it’s users.  Our long standing client, The Rockwood, a St Louis retirement community, understands this and recently asked us to revisit their site and make suggestions on how it could be improved.

The site has now been overhauled  so it performs better in the search engines and offers interactions with it’s users through social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.  We also built them a custom WordPress blog which was seamlessly integrated into the site.

 

Rockwood st louis retirement community

You can subscribe to their blog, become a Facebook Friend or Follow them on Twitter

© Chicago Web Designer

New Website for Chicago Home Remodeling Company

Launched today is a new website for Restore North Shore, a Chicago home remodeling company.

Chhicago Home website

We designed and built a custom WordPress template which incorporated not only a blog but pages for project galleries, client testimonials etc.

chicago home website

If you are in the Chicago area and are looking to update your kitchen, bathroom or even an entire house check out the project galleries

© 2012 Chicago Web Designer

New WordPress websites for Life Celebrant Ruth Hasser

Launched today are two new wordpress powered website for celebrant Ruth Hasser.

Ruth has two sides to her business, weddings and funerals, or life tributes. As you can imagine the target audience for each is very different.

A first generation site, designed and developed in  2009 for her wedding business,  served her well and really helped grow her client base as a lead generation tool.

“Last year at this time, pre-website, I had one wedding scheduled for 2009. By the end of the year I had done 25. Right now, I already have 17 weddings scheduled, and I have been receiving an average of one lead per day since the beginning of January- outstanding!”

But like all tools they need to be refined to offer maximum effectiveness, so this second generation site offers social media integration allowing her clients to connect with her via Facebook and YouTube and we took the opportunity to move the site to the more robust blogging platform WordPress.  This has the added advantage that Ruth now has full editorial control of the content of the the site. Ruth was happy with the look and feel of the first generation site so we kept the design the same but did increase the width to accommodate the most common  screen resolution.

wedding celebrant web site

A website dedicated to the funeral side of her business is a new endeavor. We kept the brand image the same as the wedding site but used different imagery and a more muted color palette.

life celebrant web site

Switching from Blogger to WordPress can be a little daunting for a client and there is definitely a learning curve. As well as training we also provided Ruth with a set of screen cast videos which outline how to do the most common updates such as publishing a new blog post and uploading photographs.

© 2012 Chicago Web Designer

New website for Lincolnshire Academy of Dance

Launched this week is a completely redesigned web site for the Lincolnshire Academy of Dance.

dance studio web site

The academy is about to move into a fabulous, brand new, custom built space and owner Brenda Didier also wanted to start things fresh with a new web site as well.

The site showcases a wealth of professionally taken photographs which capture the commitment of the students and the teaching ethics of the dance school,  they taken center stage in the the look and feel of the site. The content from the original site was reorganized into a more logical architecture and a clean and simple navigational tool allows users to easy move around the site.

For ease of client management the site has been built on the WordPress platform.

We have already heard very positive feedback on the site!

©: 2011 Chicago Web Designer

New website for Solon Gershman Inc

Launched today is a re-designed web site for Solon Gershman Inc, a St Louis commercial real estate company.

New web site for Solon Gershman

We completely reworked their old site, creating a fresh new professional look which is easier to use and consistent throughout. The home page features a slide show of properties with easy access to property search tools and the latest company news. The  site  integrates data from a 3rd party property listing service and offers the site visitors a seamless experience.

Solon Gershman website


Just in case you were wondering here is what the old site looked like.

©: 2011 Chicago web designer