Responsive Web Design: Interesting Aspects to Explore

Renowned web designer and developer Ethan Marcotte introduced this term for the first time in his book Responsive web design. This modern design approach is like a blessing for the tech-savvy people of the 21st century who prefer to get a mobile version of their websites. Take a deeper look into responsive web design in the following part.  

Definition of Responsive Web Design

RWD or Responsive Web Design enables any site to give an intelligent response to the device accordingly. You will get the view fitted to the device on which you are viewing that specific design. Media queries and relative units are the popular techniques RWD uses to create flexible design. Responsive web design saves you from the hassle of creating separate versions for desktops or mobiles. Instead, it comes with a one-stop solution. 

This approach to web design uses images, grids, layouts, and CSS media queries. The website gets switched automatically to support the scripting abilities, resolution, or image size after device changes. Often people confuse RWD with mobile-first web design as it is a popular technique used in responsive workflows.

Basic Rules of Responsive Web Design 

A responsive site is based on three principles. These include Fluid Grade systems, fluid images, and media queries.

Fluid Grade systems

Fluid grid designs create the layouts according to the device where we are viewing. It adjusts with the browser layout. Responsive web design depends a lot on this principle.

Fluid Images

When you use the relative values and fluid grids for defining the layout of a website, nothing on the layout will come with a constant size across different devices. It means you need to resize the image for each screen. The fluid image comes as a savior in this context that takes the size of the container. You have options to create a single image over there and after that, you can give an instruction to the browser for image scaling per the size of the container.

Media Queries

Using media queries, one of the significant parts of RWD, you can create layouts according to the size of the viewpoint. Also, these queries denote the other facts related to the environment of the site. For instance- media queries let you know whether users are using a touchscreen or a mouse.

The Best Benefits of Responsive Web Design

Increased Mobile Traffic

As per the current studies huge traffic comes from mobile devices these days. So, creating a website that can be rendered on a small screen and will generate traffic is essential. Responsive website design can cater to this need effectively. Using this approach, you can create versatile mobile sites that will bring more traffic.

Better User Experience

 An optimized and responsive mobile site can provide the best user experience. Easy site navigation and information gathering become easy in a site built with RWD. Hence, embracing this will enable you to provide an improved user experience. 

Improved SEO Ranking

Google keeps changing the search and ranking algorithms. And as studies say, responsive web design offers an improved ranking. You can expect an improved SEO as people searching on different devices can reach your site easily. Also, properly designed sites get indexed easily by the crawlers that impact the SEO positively. You can save from penalizing your site for content duplication as there’s no need to create separate versions for different websites.

Staying with the Future

 90% of modern sites are responsive, and this percentage will increase in the future. Skyrocketing demand for mobile devices is the prime reason behind this demand. You have high risks of losing the business opportunities when you don;t have responsive sites. So, embracing responsive web design means making your website future-ready.

Convenient Analytic Reporting

To make relevant decisions about your website, you should know the traffic source and should have an idea about the user’s interaction. When you need to track those things from various devices, that situation might get confusing. Instead, when you have a single website, analytical monitoring becomes convenient. Modern analytic tools track the analytics in one report that gives an idea about the content performance.

 Save Time and Effort

By creating different versions of your site using responsive design, you may save effort, time, and expenditure of creating different sites. Also, you can decrease the maintenance and hosting expenditure of maintaining several sites with the help of it. 

Quicker Development 

Building a responsive site requires less time than creating a mobile and desktop site. You also don’t need to pay to create separate sites, which also helps you save time. Hence, go for this website design option if you want to develop your site more quickly.

Faster Page Loading 

Mobile users prefer to stay on mobile sites that load within three seconds. The modern responsive website design approach uses methods like responsive image display and caching that can improve the speed of the web page loading. 

Tips for Creating Good Responsive Design 

Think of Different Viewports- You should design different designs for every type of viewport. Make the design flexible so that you don’t face any difficulty at the time of changing the design for different devices.

Choose Mobile-first Approach- It is advisable to create the mobile version of your app first. Doing this will mean you will get a chance to scale up the design accordingly, which is more convenient than scaling down.

Choose Minimalism- Keep the app design simple as users prefer sites with a minimalistic approach. Focus on creating designs that create a convenient user experience, and users can get more familiar easily.

Extensive Testing- As a crucial part of responsive web design, testing needs attention. Test your site properly on several devices and preview them to get an idea about how the users will see the sites finally.

Is Responsive Design Worth Investing?

The benefits of web designing show how effective this service could be. This practical approach to website design is beneficial for every business. So, embrace this design solution without any more thinking.

Final Words

As already said, RWD can be an excellent option for most websites. Opting for this creates an optimized user experience without creating different versions of your site. However, if you want to make the most of responsive web design, contact a trusted web designing company. And also, make sure you have the required budget and time to create the responsive sites.