Does your Virtual Tour need to be responsive?

Sometimes I see virtual tours that are completely not responsive on mobile phones. And what do I do with that? Nothing, I just close the virtual tour immediately. What else can I do as a user? Right?

Unfortunately, I do not have unlimited time. And your users won’t as well.

Responsiveness is a big problem for any website application which needs to be usable on different devices and the same goes for virtual tour creation.

Wait, but what is a responsive virtual tour?

What is a responsive virtual tour?

Well, concepts such as a “responsive design” or “responsive web” refer to a web application that can adapt to any screen size (any device). In other words, web applications will look and work properly on large or small-screen devices.

A responsive web application (in our case a virtual tour) will look and work properly on any device. So, that our users can use whatever device they want, and the virtual tour will look and work amazing.

Also, I need to mention that the percentage of mobile users has steadily increased over the years, which means that the importance of responsive virtual tours is also growing.

What are the benefits of a responsive virtual tour?

Well, let’s look at it this way. If the virtual tour is not responsive to all devices let’s say that virtual tour will not look good on mobile phones.

Mobile phone users will have a harder time exploring the destination which they came for. Therefore the user experience will be poor which in the end affects the relationship between the user (potential client) and your company (company showcasing their business spaces). And obviously, that is something you do not want to do.

Virtual tour is a great tool how your company can showcase your spaces to your visitors in a 360° view. Why? Because virtual tours provide the opportunity to explore every detail of a given space. But what about then the non-responsive virtual tour that does not able you to explore the location?

Well, in that case, it is not an effective virtual tour, which can help your company shine.

The main benefit of responsive virtual tours is to provide a pleasant user experience for any device. Nevertheless, this is not the only benefit of a responsive virtual tour. Another can be an increase in the number of users or a decrease in bounce rate.

More users – Provide the opportunity to explore your spaces to more potential clients. Some clients may only use computers and others use only mobile phones. With a responsive virtual tour, you are allowing more users (clients) to explore your spaces.

Decrease Bounce rate – If the virtual tour is not responsive, a lot of people will arrive at the website, realize that something is broken, and leave immediately if the virtual tour is not optimized to their screens.

Higher engagement – Better user experience leads to higher engagement and more time spent on the virtual tour (website).

When it is useless to create a responsive virtual tour?

Even though it is an extreme case, theoretically it can happen. Imagine that you as a representative of your company need a web virtual tour to showcase your business spaces. And you also know from web analytics for example Google Analytics 4, that 100% of your users are browsing your website with computers with large screens.

If you assume that this stat will not change in the future, your company does not need a responsive virtual tour for all devices in that case. Just one that will look incredible on large screens.

Are Google Virtual Tours Responsive? 

The short answer is: Yes, Google Virtual Tours are fully responsive. This works also for any 360° virtual tours uploaded on Google Platforms (Google Street View, Google Maps, or Google Business Profile).

Are Bespoke Virtual Tours Responsive?

The short answer is: They should be and from my point of view most of them are. Nevertheless, some virtual tours that are still active were created around 2005 and they are not responsive. Others were created by unprofessional virtual tour creators, and the results were also non-responsive virtual tours.

My recommendation for creating a responsive virtual tour

I have created here a short list of some recommendations for creating responsive virtual tours. Every element on the list is really important, so take it as a checklist.

Make the navigation easy – Think about how to make a user interface the easiest to use on every screen size. Do not focus on just one screen size, but test numerous screen sizes and orientations. Your user can use some uncommon-size screens.

Minimalistic design – Put only important elements into an interface for small screen sizes. There is no way to add every feature you have on mobile phones because there is less space. You need to choose which features will be important for the user to use on their mobile phone and delete or hide the rest to some sort of menu. This also helps to make the interface more easier.

Mobile first design approach – This means to first create a virtual tour design for mobile phones and then scale up to larger screen sizes. By doing that, you prioritize mobile users and ensure that the virtual tour will be accessible on smaller screens. In practice, it means that first the device will load an interface for mobile phones and after that will re-load the interfaces for larger screen sizes (important when implementing a welcome page into a virtual tour).

Screen Sizes – Check out the most common screen sizes people use daily and focus on them, but do not forget about others.

Conclusion

Responsiveness is a feature of virtual tours which are mandatory to have nowadays because a lot of people use mobile phones and other smaller-screen size devices. So if you do not have a responsive virtual tour some of your users (clients) will not be able to use your virtual tour and explore the beautiful space you have.

Responsive virtual tours are also beneficial to increase the user experience, engagement, and number of users. 

To create a bespoke virtual tour your company needs a professional virtual tour creator who can create a responsive virtual tour.

So, if your company is looking to create a bespoke virtual tour with a responsive interface, you can always contact us today.

We are here to help.