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50 September 2015 | beautystorebusiness.com WHY BET ON RESPONSIVE SITES? Says Jay Correia, chief executive officer of Dreamco Design (dreamcodesign.com), a Web design firm: ÒThere is a benefit from the standpoint of appearing profes- sional regardless of the device the site is being viewed from which in turn can affect the use the website gets in gen- eral. Often this can equate to new sales opportunities, better customer service, and a handful of other benefits depen- dent on the company and how it uses its website.Ó A.W. Ahern, chief executive officer of Ahern Associates (ahern-ltd.com) business consulting, agrees. ÒResponsive sites are more flexible and as such are far more future-proofed than static site designs. New browsing devices and pro- grams can make a traditional design all but unusable and guarantee that anyone visiting the site on one of them will not convert into a lead.Ó Moreover, some beauty retailers do get lucky and find a Web designer who can seemingly work magic and truly make one website look good on all devices. ÒOur website is actually already fully responsive for all brows- ers, screen sizes and devices,Ó says Neil West, marketing manager of Los Angeles-based Beauty Stop Online. ÒThis too was top priority given that [more than] 45% of site visits come from a non-desktop device.Ó Plus, by sticking with one website for all screen sizes, beauty stores can generally save on Web design costs as compared to attempting to maintain one site for desktops and laptops, a second for tablets and a third for smartphones. ÒUpdates are also easier to apply to versions for all screen resolutions since there is no need to work on multiple website versions,Ó says Michael Dob- kowski, president of Glacial Multimedia (glacialmultimedia.com), a Web design firm. Moreover, a single website gener- ally translates into higher rankings on the search engines, given that all the traffic to your beauty store website goes to one location on the Web. Split up your presence with three websitesÑ traditional, tablet and mobileÑand search engines such as Google will split the traffic ratings to your presence on the Web three ways. MORE POINTS TO PONDER Some of the biggest guns in the tech industryÑincluding GoogleÑare Òall inÓ when it comes to responsive Web design. ÒMany website marketing firms provided a minimalist mobile website in addition to a site designed to be viewed on a desktopÓ prior to the rise of responsive design, says Dan Goldstein, president, Page 1 Solutions (page1solutions.com), a Web design firm. ÒWhile Google origi- nally stated that this was a good option, more recently Google has made clear that responsive is better.Ó But generally speaking the problem dealing with the Òtyranny of the tinyÓÑor ensuring that every website design looks good on the smallest of smartphonesÑis that respon- sive sites often render as monstrosities on desktops and laptops and are often difficult to use on those bigger screens. In addition to poster-size headlines, youÕll often find that responsive web- sites make generous use of wide swaths of blank spaceÑspace you must scroll through with repeated spins on your mouse when using a desktop PCÑbut often looks just fine on a smartphone. Plus, responsive websites that need to feature a great deal of textÑincluding product descriptions, company backgrounders, customer testimonials and the likeÑalso often look too busy and are hard to read on a desktop PC. One glaring example: On a desktop PC, the text on a responsive website often runs the full length of a 23-inch screen, so that it will shrink down nicely when viewed on a smartphone screen. For the mobile user thatÕs convenient since the responsive website reconfigures text margins to fit a palm-size screen. But for the desktop user, trying to read a sen- tence that is 23-inches long is not nearly as much funÑunless youÕre a giraffe. Says Russel Uresti, a Web devel- oper with Schoology (schoology.com) and an avid advocate of responsive design, ÒOften, so much emphasis is made about mobile devices and making the site look good on a phone or tablet that designers will overlook extremely large monitors and fail to design for them.Ó Incredibly, the scores of designers championing respon- sive Web design are either unaware of the unacceptable usability theyÕre creat- ing for desktop and laptop usersÑor theyÕre silently willing to sacrifice desk- top and laptop usability all in the name of the iPhone and related trendables. ÒIt É becomes a fanatical point of view that they keep about their work,Ó says Sean B. Jamshidi, owner of DesignFacet (designfacet.com), a Web design firm, describing the head-in-the-sand approach of many responsive Web designers. ÒThey design more for themselves than for the client.Ó WHAT COULD GO WRONG For example, Media Queries (mediaqueri. es)Ñan ever-expanding gallery of the best and brightest that responsive Web design has to offer advanced by the responsive Web design communityÑ showcases dozens of examples of company sites that when viewed on desktops are less than ideal. The Republic of Quality (republicof quality.com), for example, a Web design and marketing firm whose site is featured prominently on Media Queries as a shining example of responsive Web design done right, is actually emblematic of what can go wrong with the design approach. Visit the home page for the company and youÕll find bloated text and graphics that look better suited for a childrenÕs book than for a company trying to market to other businesses. Click for more detail to the siteÕs ÒOur ProjectsÓ page and youÕll find text that runs the full length of a 23-inch desktop screen. Plus, youÕll be treated to single-sentence project descriptions Responsive sites often render as monstrosities on desktops and laptops and are often difficult to use on those bigger screens. $ 34 95 SALON COST Each book comes with a FREE "Step-by-Step" Technical Guide ($7.95 value) America's leading professional hairstyling books! GREAT DISTRIBUTOR PRICES ON INSPIRE BOOKS! FREE Display Rack with purchase of 24 books New INSPIRE Volume 98 Featuring Our BIG FAMILY ISSUE MEN, WOMEN & OVER 40 Celebrity photos included! Call now for more details 800.634.8500