Whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned web professional, creating a web design that is responsive can be very confusing. But because more and more consumers are surfing the web using mobile devices, it’s imperative that you have a responsive web design that shows your website correctly to users no matter what devices they’re using. Here is a short guide for helping you make sure your site’s design is responsive.
Optimize the Layout of the Content
The first order of business is to optimize the layout of the content. When you have your content layout optimized correctly by making some adjustments, even users browsing from cell phones will be able to see your entire site without having to zoom in and zoom out. Sometimes all it takes to optimize the layout of the content is to re-size some elements and do some things like not having so many columns on your site. Even eliminating drop-down menus can make a huge difference.
Adapt the Content that is Shown
When a potential customer visits your site from a mobile phone, they are probably not interested with how beautiful your site is because they’re looking for some specific information. Most mobile users are looking for opening hours, directions, phone numbers, etc. This is why you should have differing content presented to people in different screen viewing circumstances so people find what they need quickly. The good news is that mobile responsive design handles all of this for you without you having to make and maintain several versions of your site. But it is up to you to make sure your content is flexible, easy to share, truly mobile and adaptable.
Use CSS 3 Media Queries
Deemed the most crucial component of responsive web design, CSS3 media queries allows you to question the device being used about its resolution, minimum and maximum height, orientation, etc. This allows you to set breakpoints for common view ports, load style sheets and hide, show, move or re-size content accordingly.
Incorporate a Flexible Grid
Websites built on what are called flexible grids can be viewed optimally even in browsers and devices that don’t support media queries. When a site is not using a flexible grid, navigation text, logos, photos and videos can become warped when scaled beyond their optimal range, rendering them illegible. A flexible grid ensures that everything on your page will shrink or expand fluidly to stay in the view-able area.