Ready, Set, Responsive.

Last month we looked at digital omnivores, and how the changing technology landscape has taken us away from the desktop and changed the places and ways in which we interact with content. Users expect services and information differently on mobile devices; faster, more concise, and more action oriented. We need to gear up for this, and we need to do it fast, given that Australian internet usage from Smartphone devices alone jumped by 32% in the first six months of 2012.

If we told you this even as recently as twelve months ago, you would not only need to maintain your website, but also a mobile site , and perhaps an iPad site, or apps for both iPhone and Android devices. This is both expensive and hard to ensure the brand experience remains consistent across all platforms.

But luckily for all of us, 2012 ushered in a web design revolution even bigger than the introduction of Cascading Style Sheets back in the 90s (trust us, that was big), and 2013 is the year we'll see it skyrocket . It's called responsive design, and what it means is you can create one website, one consistent design and user experience, that (through the magic of code) senses what screen size and type of device the user is viewing on, adjusting your layout, format and even navigation display to accommodate for this.

This means your audience can easily read the content of your site no matter what size their mobile device is, without the need to pinch and zoom the pages, or try and press impossibly tiny navigation buttons with their frustratingly giant thumbs. The other big benefit is of course that with one site that works everywhere, you don't need to be spending big time and money creating and updating multiple channels. Less work for you, better experience for the user; win-win.

So this responsive thing is clearly the way to go for websites, but it means more than just getting your web developer to tweak the code. The rise of the digital omnivore challenges us to think harder about the user's needs, and the experience that they will have interacting with your business in different contexts. Funnily enough, we call this user experience design.

So take this bull of an opportunity by the horns and look at what your user's experience should be. What might the user be trying to find out and do on your site? Do these things differ when they're at home compared to out and about? How will your responsive design help them with this? In the new world of content hungry digital omnivores, it's not enough to just put information out there and hope your audience can see it; they choose how they want to work with you, and it's up to you to respond. Are you ready?