If you enjoy the creative process you might consider becoming a Web Developer/Designer. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “web developers create and maintain websites and test website or interface layout, functions, and navigation for usability”. Some web developers work in the computer systems design and related services industry. Others are self-employed… many work from home.
Educational requirements for web developers and digital designers vary, ranging from a high school diploma to a bachelor’s degree. But the important point is having the skills necessary and not necessarily a certain educational path. The BLS says the median annual wage for web developers and digital designers was $77,200 in May 2020. Employment of web developers and digital designers is projected to grow 8 percent from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations. Demand will be driven by the continued popularity of mobile devices and e-Commerce.
One of the key factors in web design these days is creating a “responsive format”. Responsive Web Design is about using HTML and CSS to automatically resize a website automatically so that it looks good on all devices ( i.e. desktops, tablets, and phones).
A Brief Overview of Responsive Design
Responsive Design works on the premise that online content should scale to the user’s screen – no matter how small or large. With the internet now our prevalent form of media across everything from watches to right up to huge LCD TVs, so the need for a new style of design formatting was required to save web developers from having to make multiple different versions of the same site, produced for particular screen sizes.
Mobile device use now accounts for over 50% of all internet traffic – meaning if you don’t use Responsive Design in your website, you’ll be potentially ignoring and missing out on a huge chunk of your potential audience.
Responsive Design Prevents Alienating Users
If you’ve ever looked at an old-style website on a handheld, you’ll see exactly why Responsive Design is so important. The old methods employed in web design were based on fixed table formatting – in many ways similar to the tables you can see in spreadsheet programs. As our screens got smaller and smaller, the flaws in this design approach became immediately apparent.
Fixed table designs simply can’t rescale to screen sizes – they are, by default, fixed-width and height – which makes them practically impossible to view on anything other than the screen size and resolution they were designed to be viewed on.
Responsive emails
Responsive Design isn’t just as important for web design – it’s also vital if you employ any kind of styling in your corporate emails. While base email packages like Outlook or Gmail don’t offer much in the way of design features anyway, it’s still highly likely that, if you use graphics in your emails, they won’t display correctly on different screens.
To tackle this problem, you should consider using a professional service like an Office 365 email signature management platform that gives complete control over the styling and formatting of your emails and ensures responsiveness, regardless of screen size.
If Your Site isn’t Responsive, You’ll Also Be Penalized by Google
Never one to be behind the developmental curve, Google announced way back in April 2015 that it intended to start downgrading and penalizing non-Responsive websites. As a company at the cutting edge of web services, Google could see the developing trend for mobile access and, much the same as Apple did by dropping its support for Adobe Flash, the firm took clear action to help define the future direction of the web.
Google is the world’s most popular search engine accounting for a massive 92.24% of all global searches – meaning if your site isn’t Responsive, you will again run the risk of reduced exposure to your potential market through lower search result placement.
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