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Channel 4 News Adopts Responsive Web Design

In 2011, a report by Digital Omnivores found that 58% of tablet PC users access news sites on their devices, and a quarter of these doing so are browsing news sites on a daily basis. So it’s hardly surprising that news sites are keen to adopt web design methods aimed at improving accessibility to mobile web content.

Channel 4 News unveiled its new website this week, which utilises responsive design to automatically configure the way the site is displayed to best suit the specific device it is being viewed on. Though its claim to be “the first UK-wide news programme to use responsive design,” may be stretching the point a little (the BBC news website adopted responsive design earlier this year, as did 4 News’ parent company ITN) it is further evidence of how seriously the big names in online content are taking the challenge of providing a seamless experience across all platforms.

Responsive design – an elegant solutionResponsive design uses CSS media queries to determine what type of system and display a user is browsing with, and then adjusts the way a site displays based on this. This effectively avoids the clunky problems that may otherwise occur on mobile and tablet devices, and negates the need to have an extra ‘mobile version’ of your website.

In June, none other than Google themselves recommended that sites that serve all devices on the same set of URLs, with each URL serving the same HTML to all devices and using just CSS to change how the page is rendered on the device,“ – ie those that use responsive design – were the best solution.

Future-proofing the webCommenting on the decision to implement responsive design, Channel 4’s Commissioning Editor for news, Vicky Taylor, said: “We have to ensure that our news, commentary and analysis is available on any device – those that are available now – but also those that are currently in development.”

With more and more big content providers following suit and opting for responsive design, from retail sites to news and multimedia websites, it seems likely that it will soon be no longer the next big thing, but the standard for providing online content across all platforms.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jon Celeste .