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Every business that has a digital presence is increasingly relying on responsive design. Smartphones and tablets, which have smaller screens than desktops, are increasingly popular. These devices are also used to access the internet by most people.
Responsive website design is a way for designers to create websites that adapt to the behaviour of visitors based on screen size, platform, orientation, and screen resolution.
Web developers used to have to create websites that worked on different sizes of screens in the past. Today, there are many screen sizes and device types available. This is no longer feasible.
A mobile-responsive website is not an option anymore, it’s a requirement.
What is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive design can be described as a flexible layout and grid, images, or a combination of both.
These allow the website to adjust for resolution, image size, and scripting capabilities when a user visits a site from a device other then a desktop.
Methods to create a mobile-friendly website
Two methods can be used by developers to create a mobile-friendly site:
i) Dynamic Server
Dynamic serving uses the same URL, but different HTML and CSS codes. Pages detect the device that a user is using to view them and provide the appropriate code.
ii) Separate Mobile Site
This method allows for a totally different mobile website. A mobile user is directed to a separate URL when they visit a website on a mobile device.
The best way to optimize for mobile users is dependent on your underlying situation. Before you decide which method is best for your online presence.
A Responsive Design
When creating a responsive layout, you need to be familiar with several things. The process involves a hierarchy of content across different devices and a design scheme.
A responsive web design consists of three elements:
– A fluid grid
Flexible Images and Text
Media Queries
1. A Fluid Grid
Since many years, grids have been used for building websites. However, grids of today are flexible enough to allow for fluid layouts.
Fluid grids are great for responsive websites because they can be scalable and flexible. It will be consistent in its proportions, spacing, as well as automatically adjusting to a specific screen-width, based on percentages.
2. Flexible Images and Text
Although the display of text will vary depending on the device being used, it is important that your website is easily readable. Designers can increase the line height or font size to make mobile responsive websites more legible.
Text and images can be adjusted within a specified layout width. This is controlled by the content hierarchy created with the CSS. Text can now be read regardless of the device used by the user. This feature lets you wrap text within a grid if there is a flexible container.
Because smaller devices have slower loading speeds, flexible images can be difficult. These images can be cropped, scaled, or even removed depending on what content is essential for the mobile experience.
3. Media Queries
This code determines the flexibility of a responsive website’s layout. Media queries determine which CSS to apply based on the device’s breakpoint. For example, iPad landscape orientation.
Developers can use multiple layouts for a design when they use media queries. As long as they all use the same HTML-coded pages, however,
There are other areas that can be used to refine and define mobile responsive design
i. You can test how users interact with your website
You can learn valuable information by testing how users interact on responsive websites.
You have many options for user testing to get valuable feedback.
Many sites offer user testing at no cost or a nominal fee. You can also use other methods such as card sorting or in-the-wild testing, to uncover hidden pain points.
ii. Device and Browser Testing to Support Responsive Design
Mobile browsers are available in many versions, so you must ensure that your layout works with them all. This will ensure that your design and user experience are intact.
It is not a good idea to drag the browser around in order to test responsive web design for mobile. You should view your site on as many devices as you can.
iii. Get inspiration from responsive websites
Designers often get inspiration from other designers’ work. Look at other websites with responsive designs that have succeeded to inspire you.
It is easy to identify responsive websites that are the best by using:
* What apps do you use most often on your mobile devices?
* Why you choose specific sites over other sites that offer similar/related services
* Choose whether you prefer their desktop or mobile experience
You might discover important information that you missed while browsing the web.
13 Responsive web design tips and tricks
These responsive website design tips will make your site mobile-friendly as well as responsive. Here are 13 best tips for website design.
1. Make a good plan for your design
Before you start designing your website, make sure you plan it. Web designers who are successful usually begin with a wireframe and then move on to the visual design and finally, the coding.
These templates will allow you to create exactly the look and feel you desire. It will also make it easier to customize the template and integrate it with your brand.
To ensure that your website design is responsive, it is a good idea to create several prototypes and test them on various screen sizes.
These tools are helpful for creating responsive prototypes.
* Wirefly
* InVision
* Adobe Edge Reflow
2. Find out how your site visitors use mobile devices
Mobile users use websites in a slightly different way than those who use them on desktop computers.
Analytics can be used to determine how and why your customers access your website via their mobile devices. You can also find out which pages and elements they use the most.
This information will allow you to understand the pages and other elements on your website so that they are easily accessible on smaller screens.
3. Optimise Images
Website design is incomplete without images. Images can be used to build emotional connections with website owners and help them visualize the products they are interested in buying. It is important to optimize your images for the internet.
Images must be saved in the right format. JPG format is best for photographic or scenic images. PGN-8 format is recommended for icons and logos that need transparent backgrounds.
Software can reduce the image size. To reduce bandwidth and scale issues, you might also consider images that can be optimized for mobile breakpoints.
4. You must ensure that navigation is excellent
Every website must have navigation. A website’s navigation is crucial to allow visitors to quickly access other pages.
The links to the most important pages are usually visible on a desktop version of a website. It is best to hide the links behind a hamburger icon when viewing a website on mobile devices.
This approach may not work in all cases. Some visitors might not realize that they must click the icon to open the menu. If they don’t know how to navigate to other pages, they may abandon your site.
It is better to keep important menu items visible on smaller screens and to use the hamburger menu for other links. It is a good idea to include links to other pages in the text of your homepage. This will make navigation easier.
5. Make buttons clickable on smaller screens
Websites need buttons. If you adapt your website for smaller screens, buttons may be made smaller to fit the screen. You should also keep in mind that they will be more difficult to click if they are smaller.
You can make your buttons more easily recognisable with:
* Use shapes like rectangles or circles to represent the buttons.
* Use colour to distinguish them from other elements of the page.
You can also use padding to increase the clickable area of your buttons.
6. Make use of a mobile first approach
A mobile version of your website is a great way to start responsive design.
This allows you to see how logos, text, or images will appear on smaller screens.
If they are readable on small screens, you shouldn’t have any problems adapting your design for large screens.
7. Make proper use of media queries
In 2012, browsers were able to support media queries. They allow developers to optimize websites for a wide range of screen sizes.
Media queries allow content to adapt to specific conditions on certain devices. A media query is a request that checks the device’s width, orientation, resolution and displays the relevant CSS rules.
8. In Forms, include keyboard triggers
Your website’s forms should be adjusted to fit the screen. To get the best results, ensure that the input field triggers on the correct keyboard. This is done by simply including an input element to your form fields.
A textual keyboard should be used to trigger fields that require input, such as email address, name and postal code. If the field requires a numerical number, it should trigger a numerical keyboard. This will make your website mobile-friendly and enhance user experience.
9. Use Microinteractions
Microinteractions are a new trend in web design.
In the past, animations and interactive functionality on business websites weren’t considered necessary. Nowadays, animations are a necessity because designers pay more attention and focus on user experience.
10. Optimise Typography
Your website’s text is an important component. It should be legible even on small screens.
The ideal size for body copy should be 1em or 16px. Headings should also be adjusted as needed. You may also need to increase your text’s line height to 1.5em to allow paragraph lines enough “breathing space”.
Always use legible fonts when designing a mobile website. Smaller screens may not be able to read script or other decorative fonts in the menu items and body copy.
11. Minimalist Design is Possible
Designers have remained minimalistic over the years because of its many benefits.
It removes clutter and allows visitors to focus on your content. This improves conversion rates and speeds up websites because it contains fewer elements.
Responsive web design can also be complemented by minimalistic design. This allows the designer to highlight key areas of the website and makes calls to action more appealing.
12. Frameworks to adopt
A responsive framework can help you save time and effort when building a responsive website.
A HTML framework like bootstrap can be used to create a static website. This will make a great start.
Premade responsive WordPress themes are great for creating complex websites or integrating a blog into your marketing campaigns.
These frameworks are great for amateur coders who want to do it all themselves.
13. Share Buttons are not allowed to block content
A website that embeds social media sharing buttons can increase its visibility and help attract more visitors. However, some buttons may block content and make it difficult for viewers to read on smaller screens.
Test them thoroughly on handheld devices to ensure that share buttons work well on smaller screens. On screens smaller than 768px, you may have to disable them.
How to check your website’s mobile responsiveness
You will need to test your website’s responsiveness on mobile devices after you have implemented the responsive website design tips. You can test your responsiveness using online tools.
Google Tests Mobile Responsiveness
Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool is one of the most useful tools for testing. It is reliable and easy to use.
* Enter your website URL, click analyse and wait for the results.
* A green confirmation message will be displayed if the site is mobile-friendly.
* If it isn’t, they will explain the reasons and offer resources to fix the problem.
5 Benefits of a Responsive Site
A responsive website has the main advantage of making sure that users have the best possible experience on all devices. You will have the same experience on all devices.
Website responsiveness allows you to modify the content of your website. This ensures that people who use handheld devices first see the most important information.
Google recently updated their algorithm to make responsive websites more visible. This is because they are more mobile-friendly. A website that offers a mobile-friendly experience will be more visible in search results than those without.
1. Gives Users excellent User Experience
It is important to make a great first impression. A responsive website will allow a visitor to browse the site more easily and stay longer.
Responsive design provides a consistent user experience. Visitors will be satisfied with your website’s usability and return to it often. A consistent experience can improve lead generation, conversions, sales, and retention.
You will lose many clients if you don’t succeed at this.
2. Your site will be easy to maintain
You will need to implement different SEO strategies for mobile and desktop versions of your website.
Responsive design means that you only need one website to maintain, which is easier. It is obvious that managing one resource will take less time and resources. You can also make changes to your website from multiple devices.
It allows tracking, analytics, reporting, and analysis to all be done in one location
3. Search Engine Optimization Improved
Google loves responsive design and will rank responsive websites higher in search results. These are the main reasons.
* Responsive websites use the same URL and the exact HTML. This makes it easier to index a website by Google.
* Users find it easier for content to be shared in one URL.
* One responsive website eliminates the need to have separate desktop and mobile versions. This prevents duplicate content and improves website search rankings.
4. Increase your site’s visitors
People can access the internet from anywhere with internet-enabled smartphones. Smartphones are the most used handheld device, with millions of users worldwide.
You will see more visitors if they can access your site from their mobile devices. This will eventually lead to more customers.
It allows you to keep up with your competition (studies have shown that 44 percent of Fortune 500 companies don’t have mobile readiness).
5. Reduce web design costs
It saves time and money by not having to create separate websites for mobile and desktop.
A responsive design allows you to build one website source, optimize for all devices, and save a lot of money.
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