Responsive web design is essential nowadays. Responsive web design is aimed at providing the best user experience across a broad range of platforms from your PC to your tablet or your smartphone. We use multiple screens to view content and that this content needs to automatically respond to match your screen size.
Responsive web design is a great solution but it goes way deeper. Therefore, we are going to clarify some basic principles of responsive web design. The concept of responsive web design is key to delivering visitors a coherent mobile experience. So designers need to re-think how their work is displayed across various devices.
Designing your website to be responsive may be simple enough but maintaining all the elements to look aesthetically pleasing and well-balanced on every screen size is not an easy task. For that you need in-depth knowledge of CSS.
In this article, we are also revealing some useful CSS tips and providing you with coding samples that can help you to make your responsive website look perfect across all devices and platforms.
According to Google also mobile-responsive websites stay in their search algorithm. Responsive design gives consistent mobile experience and responsive design influences general screen design promoting unsophisticated layouts and efficient experiences.
In this article presents a set of tips and tricks which will help you to build a responsive website design.
- Research How Your Visitors Use Mobile
If you research how visitors access your website using mobile devices you will understand the purpose and main motive of visitors. This information will help you understand which pages are the most important and you can also focus to optimize those pages and elements.
- Plan Your Design First
If you are doing proper planning, research, and deciding on industry it will be easy for you to choose the type of design. Before moving onto the coding part you can start by creating a wireframe because it will give you the basic idea of your website’s visual design.
This will help you to create the exact feel and look of your website and also it will be easier for your designer to customize the template and integrate it seamlessly with your brand.
- Work more on the Navigation
The navigation is an important part of any website as it allows your website visitors to easily access other pages on your website.
Good navigation is a useful strategy to boost website design and page visits so in a responsive web design company they are more careful to work with navigation.
- Optimize Images
Image is an important part of your website’s design because it makes the website be more attractive and more user friendly.
It is also important for you to reduce the image size using a tool and optimize the image for various mobile breakpoints.
- Mobile First Approach
Another important approach for responsive design is to design a mobile version of your website. So, using the images, text, logos, and other elements will look good on smaller screens.
If they are well displayed on smaller screens then your design will adapt to the larger screens without any problems.
- Use of Media Queries
Media queries is a CSS3 module that allows content rendering which adapts to conditions such as screen resolution. Media queries will check the resolution, width, and orientation of the device and display the appropriate set of CSS rules.
For example:
@media screen and (min-width:500px) {
body {
background-color: blue;
}
}
- Keyboard Triggers in Forms
If you want to make a responsive website design your site should adapt to the width and size of the screen.
You need to add the numerical keyboard
For example, the text input like name, email, the address should trigger a textual keyboard while the input requires a number should trigger the numerical keyboard.
If you are going to implement these changes your website will be more user-friendly and elegant for visitors on mobile devices.
- Ensure Buttons Can Be Easily Clicked on Smaller Screens
Do not forget the button on your website and give extra attention to the buttons on your website. You can use padding on the buttons to increase the clickable area and also follow some design recommendations for button accessibility.
Make sure your buttons are easy to recognize on smaller screens:
Use color to make them different from other elements.
Use a shape like a rectangle or a circle to represent the button.
Consider using padding on your button to increase the clickable area.
Follow some design recommendations for button accessibility.
- Optimize Typography
Text is a very important part of your website and you need to make sure that the text on your website is legible on smaller screens. The good size for your body copy is 16px then adjust the size of your headings accordingly.
If you want to adjust the line height of your text to 1.5em, please ensure that your paragraph lines have enough breathing room.
Another important tip for mobile website design is to use a legible font. Avoid decorative fonts for body copy or in your menu items because they’re hard to read, especially on smaller screens.
- Use Microinteractions
The use of micro interactions is also one of the biggest trends slowly making its way into web design. Microinteractions are useful on mobile devices as well.
The use of animations and interactive functionality may not seem highly important but they make huge impacts on the user’s mood and opinion.
- Adopt Frameworks
By adding a responsive framework to your website you can save a lot of time on designing a responsive website.
If you want to create simple and static websites, and HTML framework like Bootstrap is nice to start.
- Stick to Minimalist Design
In the last few years, the minimalist design has grown its popularity. It also eliminates all the clutter and makes it easier for visitors to focus on your content. So it will also help in improving conversion rates, and helps your website load faster because it uses fewer elements.
- Share Buttons Aren’t Blocking Your Content
Including share buttons on your website helps you a lot in marketing because it will help your content get more visibility and lead to more traffic to your website.
So test them on a mobile device and make sure the share buttons scale nicely on smaller screens.
- Test your responsive website design with Google
If you are done with building your responsive website design now it’s time to check how you did that.
Google has its own version of the mobile-friendly test and you can check the shared link.
You can also enter the URL of your website and click Analyze, and then wait for the results. If your site is mobile-friendly, you will see a green confirmation message next. If it’s not, the test will show you the reasons your website didn’t pass the test and also suggest some reasons and resources which may help you to fix the issues.
- Test your responsive website design with Screenfly
Screenfly will show you how to improve your website to look good on different screen sizes and this is the perfect tool to double check your design.
You can check your website has a responsive design for phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and even large tv screens.
- Test your responsive website with Mobiletest.me
Finally, MobileTest.me allows you to check your work on a particular mobile device, enter your URL, and interact with your site as if you’re on the specified device.
You can use it on its own or in conjunction with the above two tools to make sure your website is truly responsive.
- Best responsive website free templates
If you’re looking for the best responsive templates for your website, I’ve got a few best ones for you. Also those tools are free if you are using the framework to build with.
Wix has a free plan which allows you to build a website and update the content however, if you want to take the website live, you’ll pay a few dollars a month. But once you’re using their builder, you’re in for a good ride. They have hundreds of free themes you can use to build your own responsive website design.
Divi is a software package you can use to build a drag and drop website on the WordPress platform. Just like Wix, the templates are only free if you’re using their content builder. They are providing hundreds of free templates so their content builder is good.
If you are looking to build a slick responsive website I would definitely recommend having a look at Divi.
- Set up Breakpoints
A responsive website design works with breakpoints. In general, your breakpoints should target 3 devices: a phone, a tablet, and a desktop.
- General CSS tips for responsive website design
I could write one detailed blog about cool CSS tricks for your website but I don’t want to bother you with that.
I am sharing here 9 basic principles of responsive web design:
Responsive vs Adaptive web design
The flow
Relative units
Breakpoints
Max and Min values
Nested objects
Mobile or Desktop first
Web Fonts vs System fonts
Bitmap images vs Vectors
Concluding thoughts on responsive website design
Creating a responsive web design is becoming a necessity nowadays and the web development company makes it easier for anyone.
If you find any issues it will impact your brand’s reputation as well as your company’s conversion rates.
With the responsive web design tips and tricks as suggested above you will be able to make your business website look fantastic no matter which device your visitors are using and ensure they have a great user experience as well.
Divyesh Gohil is the Technical leader of Estatic Infotech, a leading web and android app development company in India. He is an avid reader and also likes to share his view on different technology and marketing techniques via different blogs and articles.