Responsive website design. If you have ever received a pitch from a web designer, no doubt you will hear about how their website designs are responsive. It’s a big deal to designers, but why is it a big deal for you?
In short, responsive sites adapt or adjust to different screen sizes to maintain a professional and organized appearance. From a content perspective it ensures that all your images and written content remain visible and legible on the site. With a growing number of different screen sizes and devices out there, having a responsive website is essential these days.
Are Wix websites responsive?
If built correctly Wix websites can take advantage of the full width of a large desktop screen, and “respond automatically” all the way down to a tablet size screen. (If you read our article regarding tips & tricks with strips you can learn how to take full advantage of Wix’s responsive capabilities) But if you ask a classical developer if Wix sites are responsive, they will tell you they’re not as responsive as Wordpress / Bootstrap driven sites. Not as responsive? What does that mean?
Are Wix sites as responsive as wordpress sites? The short answer is no, but also yes! You’ll notice that I previously excluded mobile phones screens when discussing Wix’s responsive capabilities. That's because Wix websites do not “automatically respond” down to mobile the same way a Wordpress site does. But that’s not a bad thing!
When a Wordpress site is built on a “bootstrap” template, the template is designed to present itself a certain way on mobile. Meaning once the desktop design is complete, the job is for the most part finished, and the Wordpress template will automatically adjust for mobile. In most cases this means all information and images on the desktop site will downsize and adjust to appear adequate on mobile.
But at Wix adequate is not enough. What if some images and content from the desktop version simply don’t make sense for mobile, or are causing the mobile layout to suffer, appear clunky or load slowly? Or what if you want to do something amazing on mobile?!!
This is where the Wix mobile editor comes in and where Wix prevails when it comes to "responsive" mobile site design.
Advantages of the Wix mobile editor
The fact that your Wix desktop site may not “automatically” respond down to mobile is actually a positive! The mobile experience is so different from that of a desktop, why would you want anything to happen automatically?
Wix’s mobile editor allows you to execute full control over your mobile site design without affecting your desktop layout, allowing you to achieve the amazing:
Rearrange elements on mobile to appear in any order, size and position you choose
Fully hide elements that you do not want to appear on mobile
Change photo and video gallery formats / styles
Move elements from the header and footer over to the mobile menu screen
Fully customize mobile menu appearance (background images, transparencies)
Show and hide certain pages on mobile (that otherwise appear in the desktop menu)
Adjust the header scroll effect and menu fly out effect
Change font size, font colors and paragraph styles (without effecting desktop)
Add and customize a quick action bars for email, chat or call
Wordpress developers rarely design your site from scratch, and often will select a pre-structured bootstrap template already designed to respond a certain way on mobile. If you ask a Wordpress developer to customize your mobile site to the extent that is possible in Wix, no doubt they will express frustration, as it requires breaking their template code and putting in some significant work (most likely googling for help and borrowing code)…..where in the end they may not be able to achieve your exact vision for both mobile and desktop.
If you want ultimate control over the mobile version of your site, expect to spend a lot more time and money with your developer…..or you can have your site built by Market Street using Wix to achieve your vision faster and more affordably.