Nowadays, the Internet gives access to a large amount of information that is available from any device and at any time. That’s why a good website should be reachable either from a computer or a mobile phone. Besides, you also need to take into account different screen proportions of mobiles, laptops, and tablets. For the site content to be readable, it is essential to apply a responsive design, as it can be a competitive edge in the digital marketing world.
Once a responsive design is implemented, be ready for a lot of bonuses. The platform will be accessible to a wider audience, which will lead to lower bounce rates and higher conversions. As your potential customers will be satisfied with faster page loading, the mobile traffic will increase. Also, you can monitor the data easier, get reliable analytics, and improve SEO. So, if you are apt to embody these principles into your business, check out the following guide. It will introduce you to responsive web design services.
Responsive Web Design Guide
1. The Definition of Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design constructs platforms that can adapt to various screen sizes and accommodate the site content and functionality to be readable and scalable on different gadgets. In other words, it splits the data according to the width of the definite screen. Thus, for computers the content can be divided into a larger number of columns than for smartphones, so that both kinds of users could easily perceive it. Besides, it renders all visuals in an aesthetic way, so that the site visitors could distinguish the images and videos easily.
2. The Difference Between Responsive, Adaptive, and Mobile-First Design
You can find several terms in the sphere of design that are connected to adjusting to different screen sizes. They are similar, but not the same. So, it is vital to understand the difference, as each of them gives certain results.
Adaptive design represents static layouts that don’t change when they are loaded. It means that you need to produce separate templates for each device type. As for responsive design, it allows the formats to change dynamically according to the height and width of the gadget. So, the latter one is more time-saving, cost-effective, and conformable.
Mobile-first design is a strategy that puts browsing on mobile phones in the first place. The designers start by adapting the website to the smallest gadget, then scale the layout upwards, thus adjusting it to the tablet and desktop versions. And responsive design, on the contrary, is based on the desktop-first approach. Hence, the difference lies in the design implementation methods, but the result is the same.
3. The Important Elements of Responsive Design
- Media queries
A media query is an essential CSS component that helps developers build responsive layouts. To make sure that the formats won’t break or start generating too small columns, designers can conduct checkouts with their help. Also, media queries give the opportunity to regulate designs according to the specific characteristics of different devices and define styles for particular browsers, thus altering the width parameters, resolution, and orientation.
- Flexible layouts
Flexible layouts are based on constructing scalable grids using CSS. They provide dynamic changes in the component sizes, considering the percentage of the width. So, they reorganize columns proactively to the size of the screen.
- Adaptable images and videos
It is crucial for images and videos to be viewable. That’s why you need to make them adjustable. To fit various screen sizes and browser windows, use a modifying unit that can change the media content width and height.
4. Responsive Design Recommendations
- Mind visual hierarchy
To make the overall look appealing, establish visual hierarchy. Arrange your content according to the degree of value, placing the most important information at the top for the visitors to look at it first. You can use layout patterns to speed up the process. With their help, you can drop the number of columns, shift layout templates, or remove secondary content.
- Optimize graphics
Representing images on your website, you need to determine that they will be available to every user. Implementing responsive web design, experts upload images in their original sizes. However, when users visit your website, they want to see flexible media that alters by default. CSS will help establish the images relative size, so that they will be adaptable to any gadget. Besides, if images are too large, it is reasonable to crop them so as not to lose their value.
- Choose typography wisely
The site visitors want to see readable content, so pay attention to typography. For your fonts to fit the screen size, it is necessary to choose the typefaces that can work well on different resolutions. Avoid pixels, as they represent a fixed dimension standard. We recommend using “em”, as it is scalable.
- Examine responsiveness
After finishing the design process, make sure that everything serves their purpose. So, check the site responsiveness with Chrome developer tools or Google’s mobile-friendly test that will show you the quality of your website optimization to multiple screen sizes. Thus, you can see the effectiveness of all layout components for yourself.
Final thoughts
Responsiveness plays a critical role in today’s design world, as it shows your site visitors that you appreciate their attention to your product, providing an excellent user experience. Making your website flexible, you can enlarge your audience, increase conversions, improve the quality of client engagement, and enhance your company’s efficiency. As the creation of a responsive website is time-consuming and requires relevant skills, it is worth addressing a professional design agency to save money and receive a perfect result.
