Responsive Design: Crafting Interfaces for Every Device and Screen Size

Responsive Design Crafting Interfaces for Every Device and Screen Size

Do you own a website? Is that even a question now? Of course not but do you have a mobile version of your website? Well, who doesn’t? The concept of responsive web design is quite gaining momentum these days. Gone are the times when having a website was more than enough, not today! And not just mobiles, a website has to keep up with endless kinds of resolutions and devices. 

 

Now if you take all this in the literal sense, it turns out to be quite an impractical and time-consuming choice. So we have a quick solution and responsive web design. A rare approach that ensures a design is well-synced with different kinds of screen sizes, platforms, and user behaviors. Now many of you have this misconception that responsive web design is all about adjustable screen resolutions, which is not the case. And this is what we will be discussing further in the following post: how to develop an engaging and responsive app. 

 

There was a time when mobile apps were developed to cover all our basic needs but not anymore. Today one needs to be well aware of the fact that more than 50% of the traffic is generated through mobile apps, still are you willing to take a chance of not understanding the concept of responsive web design? 

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Introduction

So what exactly is a responsive web design? It’s more or less kind of an approach that is highly used to ensure that web applications developed can work well with a wide range of screens and devices. It doesn’t matter whether your visitor is browsing through a website, smartphone tablet, or any other device, he or she shouldn’t get scared because of the non-adjustable bulky and large columns in mobile apps which are mostly used in web apps only. 

 

Instead, your website would seamlessly match the user’s screen and assure him to navigate seamlessly irrespective of their devices. There was a time when responsive design was considered a fad, fortunately, this is not the case anymore. After the realisation of the fact that traditional web design approaches are created for computer screens only, it’s time they need to dissolve due to their irrelevance. With responsive web design, mobile apps are developed with  better user experience. 

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Responsive Web Design - The Why Part?

I came across an interesting survey that says, mobile ad spending 400 billion U.S. dollars, up from little more than 360 billion dollars across the globe. In addition to this, here down below I would like to mention some good reasons stating the significance of responsive web design. 

 

  • It offers consistent user experience irrespective of devices and screen sizes.
  • Even top search engines like Google favor websites featuring responsive design in comparison to those who aren’t. 
  • There is a possibility of higher ranking 
  • It enhances seamless engagement, no matter even if the screen size is small
  • Tons and tons of money, time and effort can be saved.
  • The churn rate of customers is already reduced
  • It is possible to reach wider audiences in no time, this also improves brand awareness.
  • As mentioned earlier, with responsive web design search engines can index easily ensuring higher ranking.  
  • Customers are able to access content on the go.
  • Lastly, most of the responsive design websites are more engaging for users so increased conversion rates is possible.  

 

I have no such excuse that says responsive web design cannot be a thing in present as well as in the future.  

 

So if you are willing to reach a larger audience, save an adequate amount of time, enhance SEO and enhance brand image, basically kill all the birds in a single go then simply pick responsive web design as your arrow. 

Best Practices For Creating Responsive Designs

#1 Mobile-first approach

As the name implies, the mobile-first approach means designing the mobile website and then creating a desktop version of it. Now are you wondering what’s so mesmerising about this approach? Well, mobile websites in contrast to desktop versions have a high number of usability concerns. So focusing on the mobile design first means almost all the major concerns can be addressed in a single go. Scaling up the mobile version is easier than scaling down the desktop version. More or less mobile versions tend to reevaluate what’s visually and functionally important and let go of what is not. It has been observed that designers who start with the smallest screen size often end up deleting elements or end up compromising in a thing or two. On the contrary, transitioning from a smaller version to a larger one is not that difficult. 

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#2 Make use of a Responsive Design framework

Fortunately, there are several responsive design frameworks available, so getting started with responsive design might not be that difficult. Much like any other framework, a responsive design framework offers a basic structure to suit a device’s specific needs. And do you know what is the best part here? The code is reusable which means, no need for developers to write the code from scratch. Lots and lots of time and effort can be saved. When choosing a responsive framework certain aspects need to be kept in mind such as:

 

  • Comprehensiveness
  • More integration possibilities
  • Customer Support
  • Strengthen security
  • Compatibility

 

Types of Responsive Frameworks

 

  • Bootstrap
  • Pure CSS
  • Montage
  • Material UI
  • Laravel
  • JQuery
  • Bulma
  • Skeleton
  • Semantic UI 

#3 Screen Resolutions

Yes, another factor is screen resolution. Generally, people use a mobile, tablet and desktop to browse any website or application. So you don’t have to try out all kinds of screen resolutions in the world. Try choosing some basic ones and that’s it you are simply done. Some of the common screen resolutions to consider include:

 

  • 360×640 (small mobile): 22.64%
  • 1366×768 (average laptop): 11.98%
  • 1920×1080 (large desktop): 7.35%
  • 375×667 (average mobile): 5%
  • 1440×900 (average desktop): 3.17%
  • 720×1280 (large mobile): 2.74%

 

Also, I would recommend trying considering resolutions that are gaining quite popularity. You see there is no point in choosing screen sizes that aren’t common, but who knows they may be sooner or later. 3600×640 resolutions have gained quite a lot of popularity, all thanks to increasing samsung devices whereas 1280×720 is highly suitable for desktop versions.     

#4 Eliminate Friction

The next best practice to take into account is eliminating friction. When you consider the mobile-first approach, it will become easy for designers to evaluate what is necessary so that users can achieve their main objective. Once that is achieved, time to consider all the secondary objectives such as microinteractions, user flows, and CTAs (calls to action. As far as the primary objective is concerned, it can be anything such as purchasing a product, whereas secondary one could be something as mere as signing a newsletter.

#5 Be as Minimalistic as you can

The next practice to consider is to be as minimalistic as you can. Remember your application is the face of your business, don’t ruin it by stuffing lots and lots of content and images. When you reduce content, it results in less clutter and ensures easy for users to read as well as digest. A minimalistic UI design makes it easier to develop seamless consistency among a wide range of devices and different screen sizes. Web pages with less content, HTML, CSS, and Javascript load fast, creating a positive user experience for your website visitors and enhancing your SEO. Moreover, using crisp content means you can define your purpose very well and at the same time it is advisable to use typography wisely and keep the fonts cohesive. 

 

Therefore, it is rightly said to use only the words you need.

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Final Words

Responsive web design is slowly gaining momentum and that too for better. Designing a website doesn’t mean it has to be daunting and you don’t have to stress too much out either- just watch out for one of the leading web development companies across the globe and in the end you will be able to come up with a robust, scalable and high-end solution for your valuable clients. 

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Responsive Design for Every Device and Screen Size

If you found this post useful you might like to read these post about Graphic Design Inspiration.

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