What are the Fundamentals of Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design, better known as RWD, comes under the umbrella of web design and development, and takes the approach that a website should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based upon the size of the screen their using, the platform the site is being viewed on and its orientation.

Responsive web design in more detail:

Consisting of a combination of flexible grids and layouts, images and the strategic use of CSS media queries, as the user goes between multiple devices, the website should automatically switch too, to ensure the quality of resolution, image size and scripting; pages should run well on a variety of devices, browser windows and screen sizes. Here is the best option for this, wordpress.

In more simple terms, a website that is truly responsive, should have the technology to respond automatically to the preferences of the user. If you have a real estate business then you may need to visit your property site with your clients and that time your customer can ask to see the property images from the website via mobile. In that case if your website is not responsive then it would not work perfectly from mobile. That’s why you need to hire a good real estate website designer. If this can be achieved, every time a new gadget or device comes on the market, there would be no need for a different, updated design and development phase for websites.

The growing need for responsive design:

The numbers of people accessing the internet from mobile devices continues to grow at a rapid pace, and recent studies have shown that more and more people all over the world – including less-developed countries- are using the internet on mobile phones. With numbers not set to decrease, it’s become even more important for web designers to get to grips with responsive design, and ensure that every site they create, performs well on all devices.

Google and RWD:

Resulting from the upsurge in mobile internet users in recent years, Google began boosting the ratings of sites that are mobile-friendly, and needless to say, if your site performs well on a mobile device, you stand a much higher chance of securing a top ranking in the search engine results pages.

What are the fundamentals of RWD?

If you’re a beginner in web design Toronto, or simply curious about how it works, the following information should help you:

• Get started with a website for mobile phones

While you can of course, begin creating your responsive website for any device – and there will be some differences in the width – it makes sense to start by creating a basic one for mobile phones. Begin with a site that doesn’t understand JavaScript or media queries, and then, should you so wish, you can move onto improve it for bigger screens and smarter devices. One other advantage of starting with a smaller screen, is that you can gradually add styles rather than having to invalidate them.

That said, small screens obviously provide you with less room for maneuvering, and you may have to forfeit some desktop features.

• Choose your font style

Using fancy fonts may look cool, but if they increase the sites loading speed (which they very often do), then you risk favoring style over substance. What you may choose to do, is stick to using system fonts that are light, clean and simple, and if you’re working with a web design agency, they’ll help you decide which font will work best. Experiment and see what look good and what doesn’t.

• Select your layout

As mentioned previously, using a fluid grid as opposed to the fixed width grids is recommended, since it enables you to create a website layout that will resize itself dynamically to any width. While currently, only traditional CSS layouts used fixed grids, even these will soon be forced to change, as devices become more varied and screen sizes and browser widths continue to expand.

In a web page that has been designed responsively, each section is positioned in relation to the other columns, and each column in turn, is given a relative percentage or size, rather than a specific height and width. The use of breakpoints in RWD, enables the websites design and overall layout to change in accordance with the devices and browsers its being viewed on.

• Maintain a good viewport

The internet can be accessed through so many different devices nowadays, but laptops, desktop PC’s and mobile phones are by and large the most popular, and a website that has a truly responsive web design, will work well on them all and maintain a good viewport and viewpoint.

When viewed on a smaller screen, a websites content should flow downwards, and you can achieve this by giving the browser instructions through met tags on how it should regulate the scaling and dimension of the pages. Content that flows vertically generally gives users a good viewing experience, and helps to optimize the text when being read.

So, as you have read, there are several fundamental aspects of responsive web design, and keeping up with the constant stream of new devices and resolutions when creating RWD, can seem like a constant battle. However, it should be of comfort to know that for every struggle you’re facing, someone with the qualifications and experience to handle it, has tackled it before you, and they’re now perfectly placed to assist you.

Asking for help when creating a website that ticks all the boxes and is truly responsive, is sometimes the quickest and safest way to achieve your business goals. Most web design agencies have tons of experience under their belts, and because they work in the industry, they’re well versed in all the aspects of web design that help businesses to thrive, and they’ll work tirelessly to help yours get to the top, and stay there.

To know more about responsive web design, or to find out how you can create a new site that will function well on all devices, reach out to a reputable web design agency today.