No, Sarah Lynn Design didn’t create the new Guardian responsive website. I’m sure Sarah is working on getting clients like this, though. It would be really interesting to create a new site for a giant content creator like the Guardian.
Anyway, the site changed over for mobile users recently and there are a few interesting aspects of the change to apply to your new website.
1. Beta Testing
According to the article linked above the new Guardian website was in beta testing for a month. This means that the site was open to users, but not heavily publicized.
Beta is basically a pre-release allowing people to use your new site with the understanding that it is a work in progress. Users are encouraged to send information about their experience including any issues they find. It’s a neat way to get people involved in your ever-changing site.
It’s really difficult to release a brand new site these days. There are always issues no matter what partner you choose or how you launch it. Plan on there being adjustments. You can call it a beta test or whatever you want, but understand that there will be a period of transition.
You can do that or you can work to roll out changes over a period of time instead of one big change.
2. Simple, Fast and Efficient
At first glance the site is really appealing to me. There is a focus on the content including the titles, headlines, images and main body text. That’s what matters most for articles.
This simple design has the focus of being incredibly fast because people are accessing this site on their phones where connections may not be as fast. It’s a smart way to go about building a site today.
The one question I have is where the advertising will go. You know it’s coming…
3. Flexibility
Every designer wants to create a site that is flexible. it’s easier for them to update when a client has requests.
The Guardian understands that people will consume content from various devices in the future. Responsive design addresses this issue and makes for a platform that is flexible for changes. We don’t know what those changes are right now, but whatever they are the responsive design should be able to handle it.
Conclusion
It’s always interesting to look at what the leading companies and top websites are doing. When big corporations like The Guardian are switching over to responsive design it’s a good sign that it’s a trend that will be affecting other sites on the web.
Consider these lessons with your next web project. Ask you designer about responsive design and prepare yourself for the future.
