I want to keep you updated on the latest and greatest web trends. The most important one, I think, is responsive websites (for iPads and smartphones). And the best news is you don’t need to have a second website just for mobile devices. One carefully designed website can be viewed on all of these devices. We may even be able to update your present site to make it responsive.
Responsive Websites
Now that more and more people are using iPads and smartphones to view websites, it’s extremely important to design websites that work (and look as good) on these smaller devices as well as they do on desktop computers. “Responsive” refers to the website layout responding to the screen size of the device viewing it. When you view a non-responsive site on a smartphone, it shrinks the entire page down in size and you have to scroll right and left to see the entire width. 
Responsive sites move page elements around so they line up in one column and you simply scroll up and down. Click on the image (at right) to see screenshots of a responsive design in different stages. To see this site in action, go to BostonSwingDance.com, click on the right border of your browser and drag it left to narrow the window to about the same width as a smartphone. You will see the different elements of the page resize and realign. If you try this with your site, and all it does is cut off the right side, it is not responsive.
Roger Weiss owns the Boston Web Company, a website design company located in the Boston metro area.