“Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device.” A powerful statement from President Barack Obama, referring to his new directive, ordering all major government agencies to optimize web content for mobile viewing. Infoworld did a nice writeup about the whole initiative, if you want more in-depth information. This is a huge step forward for the U.S. Government. Currently, many government services are not available (or at least not optimized) for mobile devices, and are not user-friendly. The article mentions that by 2015 more U.S. residents are likely to access the internet through mobile phones than through desktop computers.

We are well aware of this over here at o2 Group! We’ve taken the step with clients to use Responsive Design to build websites that display across modern browsers and devices. Responsive Design is essentially creating a flexible design that adapts (based on information priority) to fit a range of screen sizes – from full size desktop down to mobile phones. To learn more about responsive, you can read a nice case study about the Boston Globe, or download A Book Apart. You should also check out our site, www.o2group.com on some different devices, as we recently went responsive!

Whether or not the Government agencies will go responsive is a whole different topic. There is a lot of conversation about responsive vs. platform optimized designs and strong arguments for both. Jacob Nielsen’s AlertBox has a thorough article which articulates the pros and cons of both design options.

The government is looking into mobile optimized design, we’re doing responsive design… isn’t it time you get your website up to speed with your user’s mobile habits? Contact us if you have questions, or are interested in moving your website to a responsive design.