Responsive web design? Just a buzz word

Responsive web design? Just a buzz word

parrallaxResponsive web design is the current web-design age’s big thing, make no mistake about it. If you haven’t heard of it yet, it is very likely that your business website isn’t flourishing as much as it should. Whether you’re a marketer or a business owner, a dominating web presence is incomplete without an amazingly responsive web design.

Responsive web design is the layout of a website which provides your visitors with the easiest reading and navigational experience on any device or screen. When a website is responsive there is no need to resize a page or painstakingly pan across to see more information.

Responsive web designs mean more customers. Yes, we’re not kidding. We’ll show you the evidence shortly, and trust us, there’s a lot of it.

With mobile web browsing becoming the order of the day, it’s natural that people are becoming increasingly averse to websites that don’t fit their mobile devices’ screens well. Expect users to ditch your website and stick to competitor’s responsive website. So, wake up to the opportunity and enhance user experience with responsive designs.

In a study of the top 10000 websites, less than 19% were found to have utilized responsive design, and for the most-visited 100 websites that number is an incredible 12% which goes on to show that some of the largest companies in the world are serving up a very poor user experience to the users visiting their site.

Users are bound to find it tough to navigate those obscure drop-down menu options? Is it even possible to get back to the website home page once the user reaches the terms and conditions page? Fitting a traditional website into a responsive design template is important, but tough. However, the returns are worth all the trouble. In this context, we would like to mention that Eco-consultancy reports that 62% of companies saw increase in sales after converting to a mobile-responsive website.

So, now that we have convinced you that a Responsive web design is imperative for a booming business, what do you do? Well, we’ll tell you a little bit about what makes a website responsive but what you need to do is hire some people with excellent credentials to renovate your website and keep a hold of your old customers and at the same time, keep attracting customers from all your regressive competitors.

responsive-webdesign-essex

Many companies have accepted the challenge and have created specific design solutions or have attempted to address the issue of cross-platform. We’ll look at several tips to help with your design process and make it more efficient. These tips intend to equip you with actionable information to help you move forth towards a responsive website. Of course, if you’d rather have professionals do it for you, all that’s needed is a quick query at Off The Peg Design.

A solid Plan: As always, planning is the number one priority. Once you solve your design challenges on paper, you are ready to take on any challenges.

Use proto-typing Software: One such program is Adobe Edge Reflow, which allows you to use media queries, set breakpoints in the program and design your layouts to fit all devices. You can then copy the CSS into another program such as Adobe Dreamweaver or other HTML editor to further refine your design.

4461998438_9bd18d20b8_oOne size fits all – NOT: Size is important because people generally build the mobile site first, then scale up and build the tablet and desktop designs. One of the major problems for all three is the logo and text. If the text is easy to read on the mobile device then you shouldn’t have any issues with the bigger screens.

Common Navigation pitfalls: If your site has a limited number of navigational menus, you could include those in a simple menu on the screen. If there are multiple menu elements, you may want to invest in a single icon that opens into a menu of additional items.

The Exterior comes before the Interior: Some companies construct the entire layout of the interface first, before any coding begins. This makes it possible for the client to approve of the web design before they do any coding. An important point to remember is that the icons must be big enough for fingers, and the design must be a harmony of function and simplicity.

Don’t back down from using Many Software Programs: For many users, using a template with WordPress will be enough but if you want to build a complex design, You might have to use programs tailor made to your demands and code all your websites with individual care.

Importance of Optimized and Exact images: In responsive design layouts, use optimized images for each layout. This improves scaling and bandwidth issues. Prefer JPEG, GIF and PNG-8 file formats over PNG which will increase your site size by 5 times. Use Exact Measurements with Images, e.g. 600x750px at 590ppi, and find image dimensions to match. This will remove scaling and shall preserve the resolution and quality of your photos.

The How-to of Updating: If the website is to be a one-off production then updates won’t be a problem but if you plan to make the site and hand it over to your client, or even make sure that the person who develops it next has an idea where to begin make sure it’s easy to update it.

The perks of less text, more imagery: Use only the bare necessities, rather than trying to replicate your desktop site on mobile device as that tends to result in long boring websites which repel customers more often than not.

Need to know more? Google it! : If you visit Google’s Design Standards Page, you will learn what Google recommends when designing sites for use with smartphones.

In, conclusion, remember that with responsive design, performance is everything. Smart coding, testing of template components, and all the aforementioned things will contribute to sites that load fast, perform well, and ultimately do good business.

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