Understanding The Basics Of Responsive Website Design

It is no longer enough to design a website solely for the desktop screen. The growing market of mobile phones and tablets is compelling web designers to reconsider how their work would be displayed on various devices. People are using their smartphones more often than accessing their desktops today. This necessitates a responsive web design.

What Is Responsive Design?

RWD or Responsive Web Design is a design approach that would be allowing the code and the design to respond intuitively to the size of any device’s screen. This implies that you would be getting optimal viewing experience irrespective of the device you are using.

Why Is Responsive Design So Important?

If designers came up with infinite versions of any particular website that would be working effectively for every possible device available to us, the process would be impractical from the point of view of the time and it would prove to be exorbitant. These sites would not be responsive to any technological changes in the future and so site maintenance would prove to be pretty challenging. Use responsive design as it is the best solution for future-proofing your website.

Know Your Audience Preferences Well

The vital factor responsible for the success of a responsive web design is identifying and understanding the preferences of your audience. Find out what device they actually use while viewing your website. You need to have a clear idea about the components of your current traffic. How many of them are tablet users, desktop users, or even the mobile users? It is essential to come up with a website design that is responsive to varying devices. However, it is quite a complicated and challenging affair to design across diverse web browsers. Moreover, there are numerous versions of browsers which require being catered to.

Plan For Both Big & Small Screen Devices

One of the significant factors that are responsible for the success of an intuitive or responsive web design is the capacity to give a better experience to the users accessing the website via mobile devices. Responsive web design should not be restricted to or treated as just a small screen resolution. In fact, responsive web design is advantageous to practically all screen sizes including excessively large displays as well. While designing any web experience, you should not only consider Mobile First as your ultimate goal, you must also keep in mind larger screen sizes.

Arrange Content Differently

Shifting from the typical multiple columns meant for a larger screen to just one column layout meant for a really small screen is the chief characteristic of any responsive site. However, keep in mind that only changes in columns are not enough. Different contents present on your site necessitate different layout approaches.

Scalable Navigation Is A Must

Navigation plays a pivotal role in the development of a responsive website design. Scalable navigation is a must for creating a responsive website. You must understand that what is working exceptionally well for any large device may not perform smoothly on other smaller devices. You cannot just have a constant and a uniform navigation experience across diverse screen sizes. You must concentrate on creating a truly user-friendly navigation all the way.