Responsive web design is a term that we hear quite often within
the digital world. But have you ever stopped to think what this
responsiveness actually means? Or how it actually affects users
in the real world?
Responsive web design actually means the craft of where web designers
and developers implement the website such that it realigns itself
on devices based on their screen sizes. As a result, users will
be able to access your website on any device - whether it be laptops,
personal computers, tablets, or even varying mobile screens.
Responsive web design became even more important with the
introduction of the mobile-first indexing by Google. This indexing method
is where the sites are indexed on Google based on their mobile version
of the site instead of the web version.
How Does Responsive Web Design Actually Work?
Responsive web design is made possible through fluid grids that align themselves accordingly based on the screen the site is being accessed on. For instance, if you were to open eCommerce websites on your big PC monitor, you may find a different layout compared to the view of the site you get on your mobile phone. This is because responsive web designers make certain that your website is carefully arranged in a very simple and smooth layout to fit the screen without any clutter.
To do so, fluid grids make sure that the website's elements are defined in terms of proportion. This means that instead of defining elements in fixed pixel sizes, they are defined relatively based on the positioning of the neighbouring elements.
For example, if your website has two columns of equal widths on the screen, a responsive website would position them as 50% of screen size instead of defining them by a fixed pixel size, such as 300 pixels. By doing so, the site knows that regardless of the screen size it needs to take 50% of the width for each of its columns.
Things To Consider For Responsive Web Design
The Mouse Vs Touch Impact
This is one of the most popular focus areas of responsive web design. On a desktop or laptop, the user will be using a mouse to browse through the sites. However, when using a touchscreen device, the user will be browsing the site using his finger. Therefore, the web design agency needs to make sure that enough space is allocated on the website elements such that the users can comfortably touch and browse the site.
Graphics Density And The Download Speed
Loading images and other graphics on a mobile device takes comparatively more time. Therefore, mobile content should prefer fewer graphics and smaller advertisements than desktop site content.
Mobile Sites And Mobile Applications
With the diverse OS platforms such as iOS, Android, and Blackberry, it is quite complicated to develop applications to fit each category of devices. This is why it is more effective to go ahead with mobile responsive sites instead.
Why Should You Shift To Responsive Web Designs?
As we are aware, nowadays most people opt to use mobile devices due
to the convenience they offer. Therefore, having a website that does not respond
to the different screen sizes being used would be a huge blow to your
organization’s online performance. Because no user is going to be satisfied
with a website that is difficult to use with overlapping site content
and excessive scrolling. Hence, it is time to make a move into responsive web designs.
This could be achieved by visiting a professional web design company in Toronto,
or even with the use of a website builder such as WordPress.
Posted by: Angela Wilkins
Angela is a web developer, content writer, blogger at the team of Intrango Web Design.(An affordable web design company in Toronto, Canada). Angela skilled and talented web designer who has a huge knowledge of eCommerce website design and modern SEO approaches.