What is Responsive Web Design? - Web Design by Mirdon

In this day and age, there are a lot of devices that people use to access the web. Right now, it is very important to design a digital experience that is both visually appealing but is also compatible with many devices, systems, and browsers. As a popular Los Angeles digital marketing agency, we have seen how a bad website design can ruin a great company’s reputation. It is also understandable that when you cater to audiences across many devices, you are expanding your business even more. More device compatibility means a larger audience, better SEO, and successful marketing. For this purpose, responsive web design has been designed and is widely used today. If you aren’t using responsive web design, then you are behind your competitors, and you are missing out on a potential opportunity. Moving to responsive web design may seem daunting at first, but it is an essential step for successful online marketing. If you know exactly what you are planning to do, then making this jump can be easier than it seems. Our team has a lot of experience in this field, and we are here to help you figure out what responsive web design is and why you need to use it.

What is Responsive Web Design ?

Before you can start using responsive web design, you must first understand what it is.

Web Design

The market for gadgets and tools is only growing larger. To make up for this growth, web designers must be able to keep up. They must keep many new versions of websites that will be compatible with new screens and browsers. But, as you can understand, this is a very tiring and difficult process. It put extreme pressure on developers to create many custom-made products for each new device and type of user. This is right where responsive web design steps in. It is basically the solution to most problems that this extreme amount of customization created. It is a web development method that creates a flexible design that will be able to adapt on its to multiple platforms, screens, and orientations. This means the system will work whether the site is opened on a mobile phone or a large TV screen. The core idea of responsive web design is to have a single website that will work on multiple devices. The creation of responsive web design involves using cascading style sheets (CSS), and many other technologies. These lead to the creation of designs that have flexible layouts and can expand and shrink without impacting the usability of the website. For example, if one user switches from a Mac laptop to an Android phone, the site automatically adapts and adjusts to the different resolution and browser dimensions. In addition to this, responsive web design also creates adaptive web products that strive to recognize user preferences and previous settings. In fact, many people agree that responsive web design led to a complete revolution in digital design. Many websites developed and became more modern, requiring less effort and time for customization. Outdated versions of HTML were very restrictive and inadequate to fully adapt to a new digital world. Of course, these set up the path for the development of newer projects, but they are now only a part of history.

The Requirements

For successful, responsive web design, you are going to need these four tools in your toolbox.

Adjusting to different screens

Today, there are so many devices in use. When you walk around in the street, every single person is going to be using something different. Not to mention that some people also use multiple devices, depending on where they are. The more devices that are in use, the more varying screen resolutions, orientations, and color spectrums there are. This is why your website requires a responsive web design. It will allow your site to adjust to these different dimensions immediately. Most websites are tasked with fluidly adapting to transitions between mobile phones and desktop screens. Responsive web design utilizes fluid design strategies along with CSS to make the adjustment between small and large devices easier. This also applies to the transition between a landscape and portrait orientation on tablets and phones. The site must also maintain usability in both orientations. But, this step isn’t as simple as adjusting sizing. It should also involve adjusting functionality. Obviously, if you keep all options of a desktop and move them to a small phone screen, it would be burdened with all the options. But, you also want easy access to all options on a big screen. When responsive web design is used, all of these are taken into account. It will create the perfect website, which will be adaptable to both a tiny screen and a large screen. In short, functionality is also a must in this step.

Flexible pictures

When a user enters a site, the first thing that catches their eye is the images. This means it is important that image resolution isn’t too mangled. The maintenance of image resolution is always a headache for web designers everywhere. If the images on the site are optimized too small, then the low quality will be very obvious when viewed on a large screen. But if the image size and quality are way too large, then the website will function significantly slower. Both of these issues are going to impact the functionality of your website. Responsive web design utilizes creative CSS design elements, which will limit the use of images to make a beautiful layout on your website. These elements will also adapt images according to the screen resolution being used on the device. Both these processes will occur without affecting the loading time of your website.

Usability

Technology has significantly adapted today and is only getting more modern. This means that a good website must have usability, so it must be able to adapt to the capabilities of any device being used. When this is designed, many factors must be kept in mind. For example, the website will be accessed using both a touchscreen and a mouse. This means you must not assume that touchscreen users will always be people using mobile phones. Many desktop monitors are using touchscreen technology, meaning your website must be flexible enough to adapt to this format. Responsive website design understands the interface while also maintaining usability as much as possible. Usability must always also include accessibility. For example, users with bad sight or elders will be unable to read small text on small screens. Not all of your users will be able to see or hear. Usability takes into account the difficulties of your audience members and will try to give them the best experience while they consume the media on your site.

Compatibility

Browser and device incompatibility with web technologies have improved significantly over time. Now, developers can easily rely on different browsers and operating systems that read code in similar techniques. But, this does not mean the problem is solved all the way. Incompatibility between preferences, systems, and settings is still a big challenge for developers everywhere. It is ensuring that your websites will work on different operating systems and browsers are essential to reaching a wide audience. The more devices your website works on, the more people you are going to reach.

A responsive website is basically a way to change the layout of your website according to what device it is being viewed on. This design must include elements such as readable text that doesn’t require zoom, adequate space for tapping, and no horizontal scrolling. Now that you know what a responsive web design really is, it is time to move on to the reasons why it is a requirement for your website.

Responsive web design offers us a way forward, finally allowing us to design for the ebb and flow of things.

Ethan Marcotte

Benefits of Responsive Design

The Experience

The most important benefit of having responsive web design is the insurance that any user will be able to have the best experience with your website, no matter what device they are using. It means they will also receive consistency, no matter what they use. By using responsive design, you will also be able to refine your information. This means that the users who access your site on a mobile phone will only see the most important information. With the current Google algorithm, a website with responsive web design will also have higher visibility on search engines since these sites are much more mobile-friendly. Google actually drives 96% of mobile search traffic, so you will surely be gaining clients with this design. A website that has a horrible mobile experience will show up much lower on the results. Another benefit of responsive design is consistency. This means the website will more or less look the same no matter what device is accessing it. Most people love consistency, and it creates a very professional look, leading to the gain of more clients. Increased Reach Imagine if your site only worked well on desktops. Any person accessing the site on a mobile phone will immediately be disappointed by the bad design and will turn to your competitor. This means you will be losing potential clients every single day. With more accessible website design, you will be reaching more people and gaining even more clients by the minute. A good design is an investment that will surely please your current clients and make casual viewers into long-time customers.

Tracking

It is almost impossible to manage a site well without looking at how it is currently doing. You must always be on track and monitor all the stats of a website to see where it is lacking and how it may be improved. This can be difficult to do with multiple sites. With a responsive web design, you will be able to do all this in one place. You can view your analytics, track your increases, and decreases and do the reporting in one place. There will be no need for difficult software installations and multiple platforms to track how your website is doing. Instead, all these processes can be viewed and analyzed in one easy step.

Time and Cost

This may be stating an obvious fact, but most people do not realize how much time and cost they will be saving. With a website that adapts on its own, there will be no need for constant site content management. This means you will be hiring fewer people to monitor your website, and saving a lot of money on this. The time you would use to customize a website to each version of software and browser can be used on other much more important tasks.

Competition

With a responsive web design, you are sure to be staying ahead of the competition. In fact, about half of Fortune 500 companies are not even mobile-ready currently. A client on their smartphone who needs information fast will obviously prefer the company with a great mobile website. A good website on multiple browsers, screens, and platforms signifies a professional company that knows what they are doing. One easy step and you will be miles ahead of your competition.
Now, you can clearly tell that we are in a new era of digital design. With the increased usage and functionality of all types of devices and the availability of them on the market, websites must also be able to keep up. Your website must be flexible, fluid, and compatible. As you can see, using a responsive web design is currently the best choice. Not only is it going to give your site a sleek look and functionality, but it will also put you ahead of all your competitors in the market right now. There really is no reason not to implement this web design method. If your team is not very up to date with these techniques or if you are considering selecting a new web design partner, then make sure you are choosing a team that is professional and experienced in this specific field of responsive web design and its implications!

Responsive Web Design – What It Is And How To Use It