When the opportunity came up to attend the Artifact Conference 2013 my immediate reaction was “Oh Hells Yeah!” I mean come on folks who wouldn’t want to be in attendance with such great names who sweat night and day to figure this responsive web stuff out. Have you heard the pod cast? Have you seen their dedication to this making your mobile life a better place? Do you know what they have done to push our industry forward? Do you know who these people are?

It’s okay if you say “No” to any of the previous. Most of these nice people aren’t rock stars to every day people. But you know what, they are too me. Why? Because they challenge every mobile moment out there and they do what they know is best for not only their clients but the person who is living in this new responsive web world we live in today. There is an overt willingness to share everything we know going on within our industry and the Artifact Conference continued to share the love and the kindness in a huge way.

I don’t need to drop names because I think I harassed most of them on Twitter enough for one week. They didn’t seem to mind though, they just kept responding and hitting me back. Bottom line is my mind is blown, my little design heart is about to burst and I thank you for that Artifact organizers. I feel like I made a lot of friends in a really short time and it’s time to put this stuff into practice.

High level recap: Traditional thinking is not gonna work anymore. We as designers, developers, project managers, etc, need to adapt to our surroundings and make our clients aware of the new possibilities. The future is responsive, the future is touch, the future is design patterns, the future is the past doesn’t work anymore, the future is unknown but it’s okay because we are here for you and we’ll figure this out together.

I look forward to coming back down to Earth so that we can share some more thoughts and give you more insight on the process we are constantly evolving and working on here at White Lion. Thanks!

We’re not playing around when it comes to responsive web design – but you can!

Explore our Responsivator online demo to see what it means to have a responsive web design and why you should care.

Drag the slider from left to right to see how a website can shift to fit different sized devices.  From a desktop to a smartphone and all points in between.

We just launched a new website for ALK’s PRE-PEN.

PRE-PEN is gaining awareness as the only FDA approved skin test for the diagnosis of penicillin allergy. As the test continues to attract new customers, the website plays a crucial role in illustrating its advantages.

While PRE-PEN’s previous website provided useful information, it failed to impart excitement nor speak directly to physicians — its customers.

The new market segment-focused website features a refreshed visual identity, and content management tools to make it simple to update for the PRE-PEN team.

A few months back, we posted an updated micro-site for Austin Ridge’s World Changers program.  World Changers provides participants an opportunity to donate towards tangible goals and celebrate in making them a reality.  From feeding the hungry to funding a mission trip, World Changers has a host of causes for visitors to support.

Since the launch of the website, donations have increased ten times over the previous year.  The updated site has proven to be a major success for the bible church.

According to Austin Ridge, the increase in donations didn’t arise because of an added marketing push.  In fact, the marketing efforts were the same as the previous year.  The difference was how the new site shined a light on the stories and made them more real.  Each World Changers opportunity features imagery, social sharing tools, a status of funds raised, along with suggested donation levels and the real world benefits they will provide.

Most everyone has heard of apps.  And you may even be aware of the distinction between a native app and a web app.

The newest kid on the block is responsive design.  What is a responsive web design, what does it offer, and why should you care?

A responsive web design is one that is optimized across all devices from a large desktop monitor down to a tablet or smartphone.  Take our own recently redesigned wlion.com website for example.  Change the size of your browser window and or open our site on your phone (assuming you aren’t reading this on your phone now).  And you will quickly see the content shuffle and realign itself (a.k.a. be responsive) to fit your viewing area.

Now beyond just being fun, tricky, and cool — this has some real world immediate and downstream benefits.

Usability:
The most immediate benefit is that, no matter what device you are on, you can easily read and navigate through the website.  Navigation collapses out of your way on smaller formats, yet expands when there is elbow room to support it.  Font sizes adjust and images resize.

Beyond just a great user experience, however, there are added pluses to a responsive web design.

Maintenance:
A responsive design is easier to maintain because it is a single web property, not a separate web site and mobile website.
On a website that creates or revises a lot of content, it can be painfully taxing to makes sure updates are transferred to native apps and other web properties.  That tax takes time and time takes money.

Consistent URLs:
A dedicated mobile experience will require you to redirect traffic to a mobile specific address (or URL).  Responsive design is better for SEO as your URL structure for both mobile and desktop users will be consistent.  A single URL for the content helps Google’s algorithms assign the indexing properties for the content.  Plus, if you have marketing collateral that highlights a landing page, you don’t have to worry about which version of the content you want to send users.

Granted, a responsive site isn’t a solution if your goal is to create a game and be featured in Apple’s app store.  There is also a time and place for a targeted web app when you want to provide unique functionality to your mobile users.  If your web strategy includes content everywhere, however, a responsive site is an approach you have to consider.

As a start-up trying to reach time-starved business owners, Gray Wolf Workflow needed an intuitive and engaging web presence that quickly communicated their value proposition. White Lion worked closely with the Gray Wolf team to develop a corporate identity, logo, and web strategy.

After identifying the challenges of speaking to their target audience, it was decided that a deep single page site would take the best advantage of the opportunity to convert an initial unique visit. Additionally, it seemed likely that visitors were equally likely to visit from a smart phone or tablet as they might from a PC – and thus White Lion implemented a responsive design for the front-end template to provide a fluid experience no matter what platform a visitor was using.

Gray Wolf Workflow provides consulting and speaking engagement services to enable professionals and organizations to create more time in the work day while radically reducing distraction, stress and email overload.