Design your way

The mobile web has taken off with a boom. It is important for web owners to take this into consideration when designing their websites. Their site must be applicable and easy to use for a myriad of devices.

With the help of responsive web design, web designers are able to create an adaptable viewing from one device to another. There are a variety of grids, layouts, images and CSS media queries that make this possible.

Responsive web design culminates in allowing easy to use navigation, a minimum of browser resizing, scrolling, and panning.

Responsive web design is still in the stages of a new technological advance. There are a few rules you need to pay attention to in order for it to work according to plan.

Responsive Web Design Best Practices

They include a mobile first design, using breakpoints properly, responsive typography, good navigation, quality and responsiveness of images, attention to content, and frameworks.

Mobile first design

If the designer comes from a mobile first perspective then it allows for a viewing experience that is more universal across the board. It allows for even those from all background to interact with a website.

Those with high-quality devices are on an equal footing with everyone else. A website designer wants to design a website that is applicable to the masses. The designer works hard to make sure that a website runs in such a way to allow even phones with outdated technology to be able to access the website easily and have a good viewing experience.

This design strategy starts from how a website would look on a low technologically advanced phone. Thus, the foundation of the website is made simple and users are able to browse through the site easily and without much hassle.

Once this foundation has been built on a mobile first level, more advanced interfaces and media can be added for those with more technologically advanced equipment.

The idea is to take into account the browsing experience of the low-tech mobile phone and work the way up. It is not necessarily leaving out the more complex media and viewing experiences but having a responsive design that allows for more than one viewing experience.

Most designers work the opposite way by creating an advanced website and thinking about how it will look on a low technologically advanced phone is an after thought and not much time is put into making it easy to use.

Using breakpoints properly

The practice of using breakpoints enhances each users experience of viewing a website’s layout. One is forced to realize what the most important information for the viewer to see and start with a simple design.

When looking through different interfaces, a point will come in which the website does not look good. A breakpoint should be added there.

Responsive typography

The fonts of different resolutions must also be accounted for in order to allow the best viewing experience. It needs to be a font that works well when zooming in or out depending on the screen from which it is being viewed.

Without a doubt, it must be easy to read, clean, appealing and have no overlapping. Thus, it must be looked at from a variety of perspectives.

Typography is in the same ballpark as responsive web design. One would not want to choose a font that varies it look from one device to another. In order to have a universal readability, the width of the viewing screen must be taken into consideration.

For example, a desktop computer’s best viewing experience will be at 50-75 characters per line. However on mobile devices, it is only 35-50 characters.

A simplistic font that looks good on a variety of interfaces would be the best choice.

Good navigation

Web designers are careful to put in the time into making sure that the navigation of a website is up to par. The browser’s width is important to this process. The experience should not be dumbed down for those with a larger screen yet it cannot be too wide for those with a smaller screen.

The navigation of a website is a priority for all web designers especially in terms of responsive web design. The ability of ease of navigation and an experience which smooth. Otherwise will get frustrated and may leave the site quickly.

A website’s navigation capabilities must be ideal across the board so that an enjoyable experience is had by the visitors to the website.

Images – Quality and responsiveness

The quality of an image is vital. Whether a low technological device is being used or a state of the art computer, quality matters. For an image of low-quality will not be impressive on either one.

However, the time it takes to download said image must be accounted for and the bandwidth capability of a mobile phone. Thus, a combination of high quality and a low download time will be important.

Images can be the bane of a developer’s design. Due to all the different dimensions the image may be viewed in, making it possible for an image to look good in all of them is a difficult task.

True responsive images are becoming a reality on the web — in pure HTML, without any of the numerous hacks that we’ve gotten used to. The < picture > element and a couple of new attributes for the < img > element will be included in the new versions of the top browsers.

Think about your content too

The design of a responsive website always comes back to the user’s experience. The content should also be thought of in terms of accessibility and ease of reading.

What is the most important information that needs to be seen on the homepage? Is it clearly written and easy to understand? The goal and purpose of the website should be attended to right away. This is what the viewer should see the minute the website downloads.

Frameworks can save you a lot of trouble

A CSS framework will depend on the creative capabilities and desires of the website designer. It can save time in terms of developing the website and eliminate some problems before they occur. For example, less debugging is needed since the framework has already been tested and eliminated many across a wide variety of interfaces.

However, learning how to use the framework must be thought of as well. Will the designer be able to understand how to use it easily? Have other desigenrs used this framework and had positive experiences?

Is there the possibility to talk to and ask questions if needed? What are the features of this framework? Finally, do these preferences indeed make the development process quicker and do they serve the purpose of the designer?

There is not one framework that will solve all of your problems. The designer may be able to save some time and avoid some issues that have already been solved by using a framework in which the bugs have already been worked out and other problems have already been eliminated.

This allows for more time to be spent on a responsive web design and making sure that the website looks exactly the way the owner desires it to look on a wide variety of interfaces

Foundation

Bootstrap

Gumby

Skeleton

Pure

Base

Conclusion

In order for a responsive design site to load aptly and work well, the aforementioned ideas should be taken into consideration. They include the mobile first design, using breakpoints properly, responsive typography, good navigation, quality and responsiveness of images, attention to content, and frameworks.

One should be careful to take into account that some users will have low resolution, weak bandwith, and a small processing power on their devices. Thus, the best choice will be a site with a design that is clean and easy to use. One that performs well on a myriad of servers and different technological equipment.