At the Monterey Park Chinese New Year Festival in January of 2012, Ready Artwork was approached to participate in the first ever 626 Night Market. Excitedly, we agreed and had a booth present at the event. The 626 Night Market was a grand success, so much that it was planned to run on 3 different weekends for this summer. The first installment happened this past weekend on June 8 & 9; Ready Artwork participated again and had a great experience! 

While it seemed like the crowd was larger last year, we are of the opinion that this year’s 626 Night Market was simply managed better. So many aspects made this event flow seamlessly: the map layout was more navigable, the parking was easier, the entertainment program was great. Particularly, their presence on social media made it easy for vendors and attendees alike to instantly access answers to their questions.  We’d like to congratulate the 626 team on improving upon last year and providing this unique, fun-filled experience for so many to enjoy! 

Please join us at the 626 Night Market on July 6 & 7, August 3 & 4, Sat 4pm–1am, Sun 4pm–11pm. Free Parking. Admission $2 (4-6pm), $3 (after 6pm). 

With constant releases of new smartphones, mobile browsing has become a daily activity for most people. It is important for web designers and developers to create websites using responsive web design so that everyone can enjoy a pleasant web browsing experience across different devices. If you want to learn more about the general concept of responsive web design, please check out these detailed articles here and here!

In order to know why mobile first design is the better approach to responsive web design, we need to know the different approaches to building a responsive website. People may choose to start big by building a desktop version of the website first and then work their way to mobile version or they can choose to start small and build a mobile version of the website first. The two common approaches to responsive web design are Desktop First Design and Mobile First Design.

Desktop First Design
With Desktop First Design, designers and developers begin by creating a desktop version of the website. The desktop version usually contains the most functions and content, since desktops have faster processors and larger screens than tablets and smartphones. When considering slower and smaller devices (tablets and smartphones), designers and developers will remove functions and content in order to scale down to the available resources within each device.

The advantage to this approach is that it usually results in faster development time. Since the beginning of the web era, designers and developers have been used to developing websites that are meant for desktops. All they have to do now is trim down their original website while keeping a pleasant browsing experience so that it fits better on smaller devices. This graceful degradation approach makes a lot of sense, right?
Although it makes a lot of sense, Desktop First Design does come with some critical disadvantages. If people initially visit the desktop version of a website, the tablet and mobile version of that same website will appear as a major downgrade to them. Functions and content that they can find on the desktop version may not be found on other versions because they have been removed. The website is also prone to accidental removal of vital features and content. A classic example would be content that displays upon hover over an element on a web page on a desktop browser.

If we simply scale down the size of the element without modifying the implementation on the mobile version, content is lost because there is no such thing as “hover” on most mobile devices. Even if people catch this error during their development process, developers will have to ask designers to redesign the webpage in order to make the content fit somewhere on the mobile version. I won’t even go into detail about finding alternative plugins and extensions that are actually not “mobile friendly,” malfunctioning in mobile devices! In the end, the whole process can become a total mess.

Mobile First Design
For Mobile First Design, designers and developers begin by creating a mobile version of the website. Since smartphones are usually more limited than tablets and desktops in terms of resources, like screen size and speed, designers and developers will progressively enhance the website as they move to bigger devices (mobile->tablet->desktop).

This progressive enhancement approach is different than the traditional approach that most designers and developers are accustomed to. This approach demands a higher learning curve and is often slower to develop than Desktop First Design. However, the advantages of Mobile First design definitely outweigh the disadvantages.
Data speed and screen size are limited on smartphone devices in comparison to desktops. Furthermore, people that browse the web on their smartphones are either looking for urgent information or they have some time to kill and just want a few distractions. In light of a device’s limitations and conditions, designing a mobile version first forces us to focus on the most vital parts of website.

Mobile First Design also allows us to discover new capabilities for mobile web. We have already discussed mobile limitations, however, there are some features that are exclusive to smartphones and tablets. By starting on mobile first, designers and developers are focused on delivering the best browsing experience for an array of devices instead of just constantly degrading from the best version of a website. Other mobile exclusive features, such as GPS, allow a website to know exactly where a user is located.

The check-in function on the mobile version of the Facebook website makes good use of the location tracking feature on smartphones. Built-in camera and microphone on mobile devices can also be used in different ways for users to provide information to a website. Finally, capabilities such as touch input and accelerometer are useful in making mobile web browsing fun and unique.

Responsive Web Design is without a doubt the biggest web design trend right now and will continue to be so in the future. There are two approaches to developing responsive websites, Ready Artwork uses Mobile First Design because we care about quality. Even if it takes a bit longer, it is important that we do things right. Contact us today if you want a responsive website for your business!

Creating content can be the most challenging part of building your website. Having too much content can overwhelm viewers, whereas having too little content can be boring. But how much is too much? Of course you would want to inform readers about your business, but if content happens to be three pages long, is the information load too excessive? According to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Online Environment, people only read 28% of the text on a web page. If your users have to scroll more than once to read your content then you will lose the reader’s attention. For most websites, information is key, so it is also important to make sure your information is getting the viewers’ attention. Here are some simple ways to make sure your content does not cause your viewers to bounce.

1. Keep it simple and get to the point

According to Gerry McGovern, Keynote for Together London, most websites need to get rid of 90% of their content. Keeping your content simple and straight to the point allows your webpage look less like an encyclopedia. Adding simple callouts or making certain text in different colors or sizes will allow your webpage to look less cluttered and more spacious.

2. A picture is worth a thousand words

Including pictures in your webpage allows users to understand what your website and business is about. If you have a lot of content, using pictures can help break up the block of content and allow some breathing room. Having very little content can also be a good thing if you have images to support it. An example would be the images below. On the bottom left, is a webpage with a lot of content that includes images to prevent clutter, and on the bottom right, is one less content that includes professionally shot images to help balance the empty space.

3. Explain it

Most websites have encyclopedia-like content that turns readers away if it is too difficult to understand. Your content should be straight to the point, and as Denzel Washington says “Now, explain it to me like I’m a four-year-old.” If a four year old does not get it, your customers will not either.

 4. Link It

It is common for websites, such as ones related to healthcare, to be filled with a lot of content that can overwhelm readers. Creating links can shorten your content, because if customers want to know more, they can click on interlinks that will lead to other pages with more information. Besides interlinks, anchor text allows you to click on a topic and automatically scroll to your answer in the same page. This helps create minimum content in the first fold of the website.

Determining how much is too much content can be a pain, but using simple and creative ways to make it visually pleasing can bring more traffic to your website and sales! Ready Artwork tailors your content visually so that the message gets through to your customers in the most effective way possible. Give us a call for more information at 626-400-4511.