Target has redesigned its online magazine A Bullseye View with responsive design so that the retailer can provide optimized experiences on smartphones and tablets.

A Bullseye View reports on the behind-the-scenes at Target, from fashion collaborations to its community service. The updated site also includes more social features, bigger visuals and an updated look.

“This redesign marks an important chapter for A Bullseye View, Target’s behind-the-scenes online magazine,” said Dustee Tucker Jenkins, vice president of public relations at Target, Minneapolis, MN. “Now two years old, A Bullseye View features innovative, new elements — mobile, social, visuals and design — that were designed to help us tell our brand story in a more seamless, engaging way.

“Our brand is placing more value than ever on creating quality content for our audiences,” she said. “This means investing even more into a channel like A Bullseye View, which has a proven and growing audience.

“Our philosophy for A Bullseye View’s redesign was mobile first: We wanted the site to look great on any mobile device. Since our readers are using their phones more than ever, we added responsive design to complement the proliferation of screen sizes and help the site appear sharp no matter the device — laptop, desktop, tablet or phone.”

Responsive Bullseye View
A Bullseye View features spotlights on the latest trends, stories on Target leaders, photo galleries and videos with celebrity partners.

In the redesign, Target wanted to give A Bullseye View a lighter feel with a better user experience. To ensure that consumers have a good experience regardless of the device they are using, Target used responsive design for the site redesign.

Responsive design is a flexible format that uses one content and code base to deliver content across multiple screen sizes and accommodate different types of devices.

Responsive design has been said to be better suited for branding sites, while adaptive design, another format, is more appropriate for commerce sites.

Since A Bullseye View does not include any commerce features, responsive design is definitely appropriate.

Mobile Target
It is not a surprise that Target is thinking about mobile for A Bullseye View since the big-box retailer has leveraged mobile in a number of different ways already.

For example, Target recently updated its mobile app to include new in-store features to combine geolocation with targeted ads (see story).

It also used mobile to drive app downloads with in-store signage that prompts consumers to text a number to download the app (see story).

Target also successfully used mobile social in this year’s back-to-school efforts, driving 50 percent of tweets from a mobile device for its Give with Target campaign (see story).

“We’re undergoing an evolution as a retailer—making multichannel core to everything we do,” Ms. Jenkins said. “At Target, multichannel is about more than shopping online, it’s an opportunity to connect with and inspire guests in new ways so we can better deliver on Target’s ‘Expect More. Pay Less.’ brand promise.”

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York