Today we are going to talk about responsive web design as this is something that is always in the focus but people might have some confusion regarding the terminology as well as the design philosophy associated with responsive web design.
SO, WHAT IS RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
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Responsive web design is an approach that has the target of fulfilling a few things for all users and the primary thing is a seamless user experience across device sizes and screen sizes.
There are a lot of features as well as benefits of responsive web design and we are going to talk about all the pros and cons of responsive web design in this blog so that you can understand the entire idea of responsive web design.
The basic concept of responsive design is simply that the design is created in such a way that it can adjust its layout, font size as well as images no matter what kind of device is being used to access that website.
This was something that was quite impossible a few years back but responsive web design is a necessity in today’s day and age where the user can open a website on the smartphone as well as on a tab or a computer and expect a good experience.
If we understand what is responsive web design then we can move on to understanding the core values of responsive web design along with the advantages and disadvantages of responsive web design.
HOW TO CREATE RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN?
There can be a lot of minute steps required to create responsive web design that takes into account multiple factors such as user experience. It also takes into account website responsiveness as a core characteristic requirement and also mobile optimisation for multiple device support and versatility.
Let us look at a few basic steps on how to create a responsive web design.
LAYOUT PLANNING
The first and foremost thing you must do is to have a proper layout and that is why before you even start the coding process you must plan the layout. Along with that, you must also make sure to shortlist all the elements that will be necessary and also plan ahead on how the layout is going to shift sizes depending on the device screen size.
FLEXIBLE GRID SYSTEM
One of the marvels of modern web design is that you can utilise something called the flexible grid system. This will map out the website in a flexible grid which will ensure website design flexibility. Having this in place will make sure your website design is going to flow automatically into different screen sizes. You can choose between multiple grid systems that include the very popular Foundation or Bootstrap etc.
CSS MEDIA QUERIES
You can utilise something called the CSS media queries because there are several advantages but the primary advantage is going to be for different styles on your website. This will allow you to apply several styles depending on the screen size of the user’s device. Along with that, you can also utilise it for layout as well as images and also to adjust font sizes. This is great for design adaptability.
IMAGE OPTIMISATION
One of the primary ways to make your user interface more responsive and reduce load times is to simply optimise the images on your website. A simple thing to do is to not have big file sizes and this is especially important for mobile devices with slow internet speeds. You must also make sure that you follow this design philosophy of not including big file sizes throughout the design.
RIGOROUS TESTING
By now you have created your fast and responsive website but the only way to make sure that your web design is responsive is to do continuous testing. You must test the website with multiple devices of different screen sizes and you can even use emulators if you do not physically have a lot of devices. You can also utilise different services such as BrowserStack for detailed testing of your design. You must test responsiveness as well as multi-device compatibility and you must also make sure that there is design consistency.
HERE ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
Now that we know a little bit about responsive web design, let us understand the pros and cons of responsive web design.
PROS OF HAVING A RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
1. UX FRIENDLY
User experience should be the primary priority of every web designer and the best thing about responsive web design is that it focuses on the experience of the user. Everything from cross-device compatibility to the responsiveness of the entire design as well as the philosophy behind the mobile-first design, is there so that the experience of the user can be amazing.
This means you are creating a design that will be suitable for multiple devices across multiple platforms which will mean only one thing and that is engagement. Along with that, you are also going to get conversions.
2. SEO FRIENDLY
If you are the owner of a website then you are probably the owner of a brand and a company and you wish to become profitable online. That is where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in because SEO will determine how successful you are online.
Responsive web design ranks higher compared to any conventional web design simply because of multiple factors. One of them is that search engines do not need to deal with two different websites, one for PC and one for mobile because a single website is more relevant and optimised for different types of devices.
This means a single URL as well as HTML code will make it a lot easier for search engines to index your website and crawl through it. SEO will ensure better visibility of your website and that generally means high website traffic.
3. COST-EFFECTIVE
This is perhaps the easiest thing to explain and you already know by now what we are talking about because creating a website takes capital investment and if you are a new brand, creating multiple websites can be very difficult for you.
Responsive web design ensures that you do not need multiple websites so that you can focus on a single website that is optimised for all screen sizes and all devices which means you can not only make sure the design is cost-effective but you can also make sure to focus your investment in a single place.
That is why the website that you are going to produce keeping in mind responsive web design will ensure that the website stays relevant for a long time so that you do not need additional investments.
4. FUTURE PROOF
Responsive web design is the future and it is simply because you do not need a lot of maintenance as you can create a single website that will be relevant no matter if it has to adapt to screen sizes today all for screen sizes in the next couple of years.
This future-proof design will ensure that your design stays relevant so that you can focus on all the other areas of your business without the headache of constantly needing to update the web design. This is a blessing that older web designers truly understand.
5. BETTER PROFITS
When you have a responsive web design and when you take care of things like web accessibility and make sure that your website is versatile for multiple devices ranging across multiple screen sizes you can only ensure one thing and that is profit. This is because your website will be supported by multiple devices which means multiple people are going to browse your website with ease and have an amazing experience.
The happier the visitors the better the conversion rates and if you recall the point about SEO, having a responsive web design will ensure good search engine ranking which will make sure that your website is among the top results whenever someone searches for something similar to what you are offering.
6. LOW MAINTENANCE
One of the other benefits of having a responsive web design is low maintenance. It is because of two reasons and the primary reason is that you only have to manage a single website which means all your web developers can focus on a single website and you can only imagine the level of attention that you will be able to put into a single website compared to multiple websites.
The second thing is that having a responsive web design is in of itself low maintenance because the design philosophy is such that you do not need to do a lot of updating once you have the website live. This is because you do not need to add and create new layouts for different devices because it is auto-adjustable.
7. EASY TO TRACK USERS
And last but not the least is the ease of use when it comes to tracking user activity on your website. Imagine the level of metrics and data you are going to have. Responsive web design will ensure that you can monitor different insights such as devices that are used the most to visit your website and user preferences and behaviour patterns etc
This will allow you to develop your website even more and also focus on the areas that might have been neglected. Perhaps your website is visited by smartphone users the most and that is why you can optimise that area even more etc.
CONS OF HAVING A RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
1. BAD COMPATIBILITY WITH THE OLD VERSION OF IE BROWSER
Responsive web design is at the cutting age of technology when it comes to website designing but there is a problem with this. Responsive web design does not work well with older web browsers. This is especially the case with older versions of Internet Explorer.
That is why if you have anything below Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) then you might face issues while browsing a responsive web design website and not be able to take full advantage of all the user experience benefits that other users might avail with the latest web browser.
2. SLOW LOADING TIME
Having a responsive web design philosophy is good for your website but there are some issues with it. This is because it is such a complex design philosophy that there are so many aspects and so many features in it that it might give you problems down the line with website loading times.
Of course, we have already talked about how you can solve this issue but all you need to do is to make sure that you do not have large file sizes and special large images and you should also avoid complex layouts.
3. TIME-CONSUMING DEVELOPMENT TIMES
Creating a responsive website takes a lot of planning as well as a lot of coding but most importantly a lot of testing. What this means is that it is conventionally more time-consuming than creating any regular website. This can also mean that in order to have the perfect responsive website you might need to wait a bit longer.
Sometimes this wait time can also translate to more development costs simply because you are hiring web designers and developers and you are hiring them for a project that takes a long time which means you might need to spend a little bit more compared to any regular website in order to pay them.
4. INFLUENCE ON THE LAYOUT
A responsive web design is layout-focused and not content focused which means that you are not creating the website layout depending on the content on the website but you are doing the opposite. That is why you might need to adjust a lot of content so that it fits well with the layout and it also means you need to remove some content for the sake of a functional layout.
This need for prioritisation of content can be a very difficult thing to do as no website owner would like to remove any piece of content from the website and they might feel that they are having to compromise on things.
5. FRONT-END ONLY
When we are talking about responsive web design, we are only talking about the front-end aspect of things which includes the client side of things as well as how the website looks and functions.
This means if you have a weak back-end which deals with the server side of things as well as database optimisation then it will be impossible to have a responsive web design.
6. DESIGN RESTRICTIONS
When you are creating websites with responsive web design in mind then you might need to do some kind of compromise with content because while you can adjust the layout as much as possible for every kind of device but that is not the same with content such as images and animation.
They cannot morph the same way as the layout and to some people, this might be a case of limiting their creative potential.
SO, IS RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN WORTH THE EFFORT?
Responsive web design is definitely worth the effort simply because the benefits totally outweigh the disadvantages. Having a responsive web design is the future because it provides a simple solution to countless problems. Everything from the user experience to SEO rankings and low development costs and much more is definitely beneficial.
Additionally, the aspect of the website being future-proof is also one of the primary reasons why you should think about responsive web designs more seriously in the future. Of course, this means you need to do a lot of planning as well as testing and development but the benefits are so good that the disadvantages do not even make any sense.
IMPORTANT TIPS FOR RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
DESIGN FOR MULTIPLE VIEWPORTS EARLY
If you want to make sure that you have a responsive web design then you must consider designing for multiple viewports early in the design process. This means taking into consideration how the layout is going to look for different kinds of screen sizes and devices. You must also find out the adaptability of the design and how it is changing with different-sized devices.
CHOOSE MOBILE-FIRST
If you want to make sure that your design process is simple then one of the clever things to do is to start designing for smaller devices and when we talk about smaller devices, we mean smartphones. This is a very good practice to follow because when you start small it is very easier to scale up for the larger-sized screens and this will also make sure that you do not miss out on mobile optimisation.
LIMIT MEDIA QUERIES
Try avoiding unnecessary queries and overlapping queries because that will simply slow down the responsiveness of the website. You can do this by utilising only the most necessary breakpoints. In order to make sure you have a very responsive design you need to limit how many media queries you are making no matter how essential it is for creating responsive designs.
KEEP TESTING
The thing about bugs is that they tend to hide around in the code and pop up when you least expect them. In order to find out all the vulnerabilities and breaking points of your design you need to keep on testing all the aspects of your website and design and that includes testing with multiple devices so that you can have compatibility without sacrificing user experience.
CONCLUSION
So, in conclusion, you must definitely consider responsive web design for your website because it is the future and considering the multiple advantages that it brings to the table it would be unwise to not create a responsive website that is compatible across devices and also future-proof. And if you want more tailored control over how your website behaves on multiple devices, there is always adaptive web design.
And if you are someone who is willing to invest in such a design that is low-cost and responsive along with excellent SEO then we are here to help you because we are one of the pioneers of responsive web design in India.
We are Think to Share IT Solutions Pvt Ltd and we do anything and everything related to web designing and development and along with that, we are the complete solution when it comes to anything IT from web designing to app designing as well as anything else that you have in store for us. We welcome you to check out all our services.
HERE ARE A FEW COMMON QUESTIONS RELATED TO RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
1. What is the purpose of responsive web design?
In order to understand the purpose of responsive web design we must understand its goals. The goal of creating a responsive web design website is to ensure excellent user experience along with excellent compatibility for multiple screen sizes and devices.
This is achieved with flexible grids and media queries and a lot more so that a website can function responsively no matter if it is on a TV screen or on your smartphone.
2. How does responsive web design work?
Responsive web designs basically work on three levels and the primary level is utilizing flexible grid systems such as Bootstrap. This is important because it allows all the different elements of the website to adapt themselves according to the device and screen size.
The second level of it is the inclusion of media elements such as images but as percentages and not as fixed pixel dimensions. With fixed pixel dimensions you do not have the option for resizing and rescaling but if the media elements are in percentage, they allow for adjusting and repositioning according to the screen size.
The third and final level is media queries which are used to apply specific styles. You can utilize this to hide different elements or even change things like the font size etc. This gives the developer a good amount of control regarding the website.
3. What is one advantage of adaptive web design over responsive web design?
Although adaptive web design is more complex because it is the creation and maintenance of multiple versions of a website but the thing about adaptive web design is that it is more targeted and customizable and much more specific when it comes to supporting devices and platforms.
Responsive web design is a ‘one solution for all philosophy and design technique’ where there is only one website and it adapts to different devices and screen sizes. While this might be excellent in some cases but if you want to have a more customized approach for the website when certain devices open it then you cannot have it in the case of responsive web design because it is a one website for all solution.
But adaptive web design is when you create multiple versions of a website and you create them specifically for specific devices and you know what that means, a lot more controlled and a more curated and tailored experience for users.
4. Disadvantages of using templates in web design?
There is a single great disadvantage of using templates in web design and that single great disadvantage can be subdivided into multiple categories but the main thing is that you cannot have a unique website if you use templates. You must understand that when you are using templates you are not using unique code and you are not using a layout that has been specially created for your website needs and specifications.
This means disadvantages such as security issues can pop up because the template has not been created keeping a specific website in mind and you can also face other issues such as scaling issues as no template is created with expansion in mind and if you want to scale up your website you cannot do that with a template website.
You can only expect the best results from your website if your website has been specifically created with your requirements and needs in mind and not general requirements like in the case of a template.
5. What are the major differences between designing for web and mobile?
In order to understand the major differences between designing for web and mobile you must understand the different use cases when it comes to the two kinds of devices.
One of the major differences is quite apparent and it is the screen size because smartphone or mobile screens are generally smaller than laptop or desktop screens. This means that designers have to keep different design philosophies in mind when they are designing for mobile and web.
The other factor is going to be user behaviour because user behaviour is different when it comes to a smartphone and a desktop. Designers need to study the differences in user behaviour when it comes to the two devices to create a more responsive design.
There are other factors such as connection speeds but that difference is disappearing as we see more smartphones using 4G and other fast protocols of the internet. You can also find a difference when it comes to the operating system and the processing power and designers need to keep that in mind when they are designing for web and mobile.
