Responsive Web Design Trend in Malaysia Public Universities

Due to the increased accessibility to the Internet, mobile devices are more widely used compared to desktop computer. Therefore, a compatible website is required in order to serve mobile users better. Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach that is able to provide flexibility for a single website to handle different screen sizes and resolutions of desktops, tablets and smartphones. The aim of this paper is to identify the trend of applying the RWD approach in Malaysia public universities. 20 public university’s websites in Malaysia are assessed and tested by using a Viewport Resizer tool which is an online tool and several actual devices such as desktops, tablets, and smartphones are used to perform the testing. In order to test the degree of responsiveness of the website, every web page is tested page by page to obtain better assessment results. Based on the results of the survey, it clearly indicates that 50% of the universities websites are responsive websites, 10% are semi responsive websites, and 40% are not responsive websites. The survey also indicates that 65% of the universities provide mobile apps for specific services and only 15% of them implement mobile websites instead of responsive websites. In a nutshell, a RWD approach is a viable strategy option that can be served to deliver web contents effectively and efficiently to the mobile users as 60% of the university’s websites are making a move towards responsive website. However, the other 40% of university’s websites are not implemented based on the RWD approach due to the lack of knowledge and research on RWD.