Web designers and developers are vital parts of all successful businesses. Their decisions about what to prioritize, and how to implement their designs, can make or break a business’s online presence. Website design and development can be challenging for small business owners who don’t have the time or knowledge to do it themselves. For many, hiring a professional is an easier solution, but finding the right web designer isn’t always so simple.
One of the biggest challenges facing web designers and developers is ever-changing website design trends. More often than not I hear from clients that they want a “mobile-friendly” website. When I ask what that is, most aren’t entirely sure. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about creating a responsive website design: types, pros, and cons, when to use it and more so you can confidently say you’ve got a mobile-ready website design.
Building a responsive website is no task to take lightly; it’s one of the most important aspects of today’s web design. By building a responsive website you’re opening up to more users and more businesses, essentially broadening your reach. A responsive website is an SEO-friendly website — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg! Building a responsive website is the best way to engage customers effectively on multiple devices.
What is a Responsive Website?
A responsive website design is a technique used in web development to provide optimized viewing across all devices with any screen size or platform. This is done by coding a desktop-friendly layout (usually containing the primary content) and then reshaping it for use on smaller screens through fluid grid reformatting and scalability.
A responsive website is one which responds to many different devices – including desktop computers and mobile phones.
Responsive web design is a term used to describe the process of using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and HTML to create websites that respond to the size and orientation of the browser/device they are being viewed on by altering their layout.
Why should you use a responsive website?
What is a responsive website? It’s a website that will increase its chances of being visited by your customer base because it’s in their preferred format, no matter how they got there.
You’re already familiar with this concept because you already use Google for search, Facebook for social networking, and Amazon for shopping. These sites are all responsive which means you don’t need to download any app to access them. Their sites appear the same on your smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop computers.
How to Build a Responsive Website
Building a responsive website has become the norm in today’s world of web design. Even if you don’t have a lot of skill or experience, creating an effective responsive website is simpler than you may think. In this article we will cover all the basics needed to get started with building your very own responsive website.
Responsive website design is the latest way companies are getting their content and products in front of more people. A responsive website is built to adapt to any screen the user is viewing it on; a smartphone, tablet, computer or anything in between. Web users expect a site to work regardless of the device they’re using. Not having a responsive website will have a substantial impact on visitors to your company’s website.
Use a Flexible Grid-Based Layout
It’s no secret that a website’s layout is critical to its success. A mobile-friendly website should adapt to the device it’s being viewed on. Whether you’re specifically trying to build a site for mobile devices or are just trying to improve the overall functionality of your site, there are several ways you can create a responsive web design. One of my preferred methods is using flexbox containers and rows.
By now you’ve probably heard the news: responsive web design is the way to go. It’s all over Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. While it may be fresh news, it’s also evolving as a new standard in web development.
You must optimize your website images
Web design and development is about more than just coding a website or creating trendy new templates. Good web design requires that you think about the user first, and then the aesthetics of the website. This article will teach you how to optimize your images for best performance.
The Web has evolved. The standard, old-fashioned 320 x 480 pixel rectangle doesn’t work anymore.
Responsive web design is now the rule and not the exception, and creating optimized images is a must if you want your image assets to perform well on any device.
The days of designing images at their final size are over. The best way to ensure that your images look great on any device is to create them at multiple resolutions — in other words, as scalable assets.
A responsive design means that the layout of your website changes depending on what device it’s being viewed on (e.g., mobile phone, tablet or desktop computer). It’s important that your graphics work well across all devices in order to provide an optimal experience for your users.
Websites are no longer in a stage where text-heavy content and pictures of just about anything will do. With images rapidly taking up more space on websites, users are demanding better quality images. Images also boost user experience and help users understand your content easier. But we have to keep in mind that the picture is both literal and figurative as it can also reduce engagement rates and bounce rates.
Use Images and Videos That Scale Down Gracefully
When you’re building a responsive website, it’s important to make sure that your images and videos scale down gracefully when the user shrinks their browser window.
A poor choice of images will cause your site to look ugly, while a good choice of images can convert a potential customer into an actual customer.
Responsive web design is a popular topic these days.Google has even announced that they’ll be “punishing” sites that aren’t mobile friendly.
And built-in support for responsive web design is being added to major web browsers, meaning it’ll soon become a core feature of the Internet.
There are so many different types of touchscreen devices out there. With this amount of choice, it can be difficult to figure out which platforms to support. The good news is; with a responsive website design, you can support all the devices that your target customers use.
It doesn’t matter what type of website you’re building. You’ll want to ensure that your site is easy to navigate and usable on touchscreen devices. It’s an important aspect of touch-optimized websites, regardless of the type of site you’re building.
Takeaway: Learn how to build your first responsive website!
The sites that are designed without taking these steps into account will likely suffer from usability issues when they’re experienced on a small screen. And that’s ultimately going to hurt their success.
Don’t underestimate the importance of mobile usability. It should be a staple of your web development process—and it’s something you’re sure to benefit from with regards to SEO and mobile advertising. Remember, you can create a responsive website using any number of techniques. The best option for you will depend on your own projects and personal needs as a developer. But whatever approach you choose, consider this article as a primer on how to build a responsive website from scratch or use an existing template. Good luck, and happy building!
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