As the number of people using mobile devices to shop, learn and connect has increased, it's important for businesses to have a Responsive Web Design Services.
This will help customers access the information and features they need on any device.
To do this, it is critical to follow responsive design best practices. This includes using flexible images, resizing content to fit different screen resolutions and designing for navigation.
Mobile-First
A few years ago it made sense to start with a beautiful desktop website, but today mobile devices account for the majority of web users. By adopting a mobile-first approach, websites can reach the widest possible audience while saving time and resources.
Mobile-first web design starts with designing the site’s content and navigation for mobile screens. From there, it scales up for larger screens. This method allows for easy navigation and a consistent experience across all devices.
A great example of a mobile-first responsive design is GitHub. Instead of presenting the full signup form on handheld devices, GitHub prioritizes the call to action. This makes it easier for users to navigate to the page and submit their information. The site also removes the search bar and hides its menu to save screen space. It's important to remember that mobile screen sizes are limited and the user's attention span is short. Providing clear and concise navigation can improve user experience while decreasing bounce rates and increasing engagement.
Flexible Grids
Modern web users expect quick, high-quality website experiences (and Google rewards sites that deliver). When visitors can access information quickly and easily on their phones, they stay on the site 70% longer.
Flexible grids provide a structure for designing webpage layouts that adjust to fit various devices. This allows designers to work faster and create more professionally-looking designs that are easier for users to read.
A flexible grid works by defining a sequence of columns and rows that page elements are placed in. When a browser window reaches a certain breakpoint, the responsive grid automatically rearranges the layout of the page to better suit the display size and orientation of the device.
Smart Content Prioritization
In addition to the responsive design feature that automatically reflows images, text and other elements as they grow or shrink in size, many of the sites that are built with responsive design also include smart content prioritization. This ensures that the most important information remains visible on each type of device and enables visitors to find what they are looking for easily.
For example, in the case of this folk duo’s website, as the screen size becomes smaller, the sidebar disappears and the content above the signup form is reduced to two columns making it easier for visitors to find what they need. The same is true for this web design agency where the most important call to action stays in place as users view the site on desktops and mobile devices.
Smart content has been shown to improve performance metrics such as free trial signups, webinar attendees, newsletter subscribers and time on site. In addition, since responsive websites require less maintenance than adaptive sites they save companies money over the long term.
Fluid Images
Many responsive designs require image resizing and a flexible layout that can adapt to the user's screen size. The resizing is typically accomplished through the use of CSS media queries and the srcset attribute, which lets developers specify multiple sources and sizes for images in a web page.
This is important because images are often the heaviest elements on a website, and they load first, before a browser has constructed the DOM or loaded external CSS. As a result, a web page that has both an image and a responsive media query can have significant performance benefits.
While it's possible to create a responsive website from scratch, there are CMSes and site builders with out-of-the-box responsive page templates that can help designers get started faster. Using these tools can also make responsive design easier for teams with limited coding expertise.
