We cannot stress too much on the importance the mobile devices have taken in just a matter months. A rising number of users prefer to access websites through their mobile devices, leaving behind their desktop computers more and more. This holds an utmost importance to web designers as this implies that designs would need to be optimized for mobile and be scalable.
Taking into consideration responsiveness when determining a mobile design philosophy is certainly one of the biggest changes that has happened in web design lately. However, it started out as a distinction between the look of a desktop and mobile site and specific apps became the norm for websites. However hardware improvements as well as responsive design techniques have considerably decreased the gap between desktop and mobile devices. Developers can now add mobile functionalities to older sites.
Moreover, crafting and cutting a design for desktop and mobile sites now require less people and working hours than before. Thanks to HTML5 and the obsoletion of previous commonly used technologies in web design, website designs can now be rendered on a screens as small as a 3.5” smartphone or as big as a 60” TV.
The key when addressing mobile design is not to change the layout from the desktop version to the mobile version. The mobile site would act as the branding of the main site and should be recognizable to users who are used to using the site on desktop. This holds true for functionalities such as where the buttons are located. Users would not want to have to look for them.