Tips on How to Make Responsive Website Design Successful

Responsive web design is no longer a trend or a buzzword in the web industry. Instead, it is a ‘must’ because without it you cannot sustain your presence in the business for long.

With the term ‘responsive’ it doesn’t mean that the world is shifting to smart devices so we should focus only on creating mobile savvy sites. It is, however, true that technology is evolving at an incredible pace but the old devices like desktop screens are not turning down. There are all type of users; some are comfortable to view the sites on the desktop, others choose mobile or tablets. But, the number of mobile users are slightly higher. Statista record worldwide 51.89% traffic from mobile.

So, a responsive web design is one which is tailor to the user experience. The factors which make the web design responsive is its content, design, behavior, and adaptability. It is therefore important for every business to have a responsive web design because non-responsive sites can be detrimental to business success.

 

How to make Responsive Website Design Successful

You should consider the following best practices to achieve a responsive web design.

1.Planning

With a proper plan, you can accomplish even the toughest battle because planning leads to success. Similarly, to start a responsive design create a framework keeping in mind the elements you want to include. It is not necessary to strictly adhere to the plan because changes in web take place swiftly. You may come across the evolution of devices, change in trends or sometimes priorities changes in between. So, your plan should be adaptable enough to stand for all changes.

Sketch your Thoughts: Sketching ignites creativity. No matter, what type of framework you choose, through sketching you can extend different possibilities for varying screen sizes.

Create Prototype: Prototypes are required to create the actual user experience. With tools like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and more, create several prototypes, take feedback and choose the best for your site.  

2. Build a Content Strategy

A content is like the foundation of the website. If the foundation is strong your website will have a firm support no matter how much elements you add in it. On the contrary, if it’s weak your site is jeopardized.

Therefore, content strategy is important before creating the layout because design and content both goes hand in hand. Also, know the different types of content, how you will display and what is the purpose.

For this, understanding user need should be a priority. For example: if you have an e-commerce site, your product content should display on the home page whereas, for academic or other sites, the content need varies. A good practice is creating a content strategy that is adaptable to all circumstances.

3. Easy Navigation

If you are looking on how to make a responsive web design successful, you should not neglect the navigation. On the desktop screens, the navigation is easily viewable but on mobile, the navigation is hidden under the ‘hamburger icon.’ But, it is not a good practice to hide the complete navigation under the icon because some users may not understand the icon.

If you don’t want your navigation to get in the way of your content, you should balance by making the site navigation simple.

Jump Links: The jump link menu is an essential link which jump the users down to the menu in the footer. It is easy to implement because it requires no javascript.

Drop Down: In the drop-down, the menu is revealed under the navigation through a sliding animation. It is achieved through javascript which hides the menu under the button until the user requests it.

4. Media Queries

A media query is the backbone of the responsive web design. It is the ability to shift the content and design of the site according to the screen size.

It detects the size of the screen and instead of adopting the media it renders the content according to the screen size.

A good place to start in this process is to mimic Bootstraps “mobile first” media queries which are defined as the following:

For:
Smaller phone viewpoints: Min-width: 320px
Small devices and most phones: Min-width: 480px
Most Tablets: Min-width: 768px
Smaller desktop viewpoints: 992px
Large devices and wide screens: 1200px 

5. Optimize Images

Think of the viewer who is visiting your site on mobile and the images are getting out of the screen. Wouldn’t it frustrate the user? Today the world is driven by technology which has given birth to million of websites. Not only this, but it has also make the users smart because they immediately leave the website when they find that it’s taking longer to load.

Optimized images are important for a responsive web design as it increases the speed. Therefore, it is important to delete the excessive and heavy images from the site. You can also use tools for reducing image size which make the images specific for web only.

Another solution for optimizing images is using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. They have the capability to scale well without increasing the file size. It is also easy to alter and adjust them. 

6. Fluid Layouts

There are four different types of layouts that help to embrace the flexibility of the web design. The choice of the layout depends on the nature of the website because each layout has its own constraints, strengths, and challenges.

• Fixed-Width: The fixed-width layout gives you more control on site by defining the width at which your site create graphical designs.
• Fluid Layouts: The fluid layout determine the dimensions by percentage instead of pixel measurements. 
• Elastic Layout: With an elastic layout you can define the width of the container. It ensures that the width of the container retains an appropriate line length.
• Hybrid Layout: It is the combination of the three layouts defined above.

The layout option depends on the design of your website. All layout gives you flexibility instead of the fixed-width because it has the size limitation. Adopting the layout, it becomes easy to adjust the design instead of rebuilding it.

7. Test Your Design

Before you lock your website, it is necessary to test its responsiveness on actual devices. It gives you the clear picture of how your website will perform including the network, form factor, and design.

If you have enough resources, it’s worth testing different devices with different users and on different networks. You can also perform the mobile-friendly test by Google. If in case, your website gets rejected it will also tell the issues behind it.

[Also Read: Responsive Web Design Tutorials For Beginners]

Wrapping It Up

These seven steps is a short guide on how to make a responsive website successful.

Since the web is an interactive medium of your business, it should be up to the latest web standards. Responsive web designs not only compact your design but also adds value to the brand reputation.

So, if your website isn’t responsive, it’s high time to turn it into one. If it’s not easy for you to achieve, there are various responsive website design company that can do the job for you.