Responsive web design isn’t a secret anymore. In fact, one of the top most requirements for a website to be future-ready and successful is that it should demonstrate responsive design characteristics. Here are some tips for creating a responsive website.
If you are a professional web designer or a business person who gets a major part of his business through web, you simply cannot ignore the fact that more and more people are using smartphones and other mobile devices like tablets to access the websites. This is where responsive web design comes into picture. Implementing responsive design strategies ensures that the site automatically adapts to any screen size that accesses it, with minimum or no loss in user experience and readability. The concept is in vogue since 2011, and since then it has come a long way. HTML5 and CSS3 are the most common standards that are implemented in such a design. The continuing device explosion and the latest projection that shows mobile audience outpacing their desktop brethren this year, makes it vital for web designers to learn the tips and tricks of responsive web design.
In short and simple words, responsive web design is a cost-effective way to make your website compatible on hundreds of devices on the fly, with a little bit of smart coding and thoughtful user experience design planning. But what exactly goes into the development of a successful responsive web design?
A simple and neat design
The first of all rules is to cutting out on any unnecessary design-verbose. Keep the layout and HTML code as simple as you can. Remove all inline styles and pointlessly intricate divs. Heavy flash or critical Javascript should be killed without mercy. Not only are they against the fundamentals of responsive web design but also make your website heavy, and laggy. Instead, use HTML5 doctype and a simple and semantic core layout. Anything that is redundant and isn’t entirely useful should be removed from the site’s code.
Effective delivery of Images
Images are an important element to keep in mind while thinking about responsive. With an incredible number of screen and their varying resolutions, it does take a whole lot of efforts to ensure that images are delivered effectively without lose of quality or a smooth viewing experience. This is where the CSS Media queries come into play. CSS Media Queries are small nuggets of code that analyze the user’s browser window and deliver the appropriate code for that browser.
Tradeoff between functionality and design
Since responsive design is all about creating websites for easy access on all kinds of mobile devices, it makes sense to implement processes like mobile-first that limits the initial design planning to mobile devices. Under this approach, a designer starts by focusing on the functionalities that are specific to mobile devices, while leaving out on other desktop-specific abilities which can be added later on. This approach can work well by letting the designer know what the content will look like on a mobile device, even if it means turning off certain features that won’t work well with these devices.
Understanding limitations
While there are immense benefits of responsive web design, it also imposes strict design limitations on how a solution is implemented and improvements are included. While in traditional web design approach, the designer is at freedom of moving each and every pixel as per his requirements, similar flexibility isn’t yet possible for responsive web design. This necessitates the web designers to be more careful while managing expectations of clients as they are not aware of this catch with RWD.
Greater skills and roles
Responsive web design has induced a shift of responsibilities between the traditional roles of web developers and designers. New web design jobs attract candidates that have skills to perform the roles of both-designer and developer. These web designers need to become more acquainted with the front-end development and user-requirements so as to become an expert in responsive web design techniques.
Author Bio:- Saurabh Tyagi is a new media enthusiast with professional experience as a blogger. He keeps an eye on the top employment trends across the world and pens his thoughts for leading online publications on topics related to career, technology and education. Explore Engineering jobs
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