Author: Bella Crowell, Marketing Strategist
Over 50% of the internet market share is performed on mobile devices. The use of mobile devices has taken over the utilization of desktops and tablets when it comes to accessing the web. With the increase in internet market share, it is critical for businesses to have mobile-friendly websites. However, only 12% of the top 10,000 sites use responsive designs. With that in mind, 80% of people will try to use a website that is not easy to use and does not work. Creating a responsive design allows businesses’ websites to be mobile-friendly.
What is Responsive Design?
Responsive design is the method of “designing web pages that appear in their optimized form on all devices.” In other words, it redesigns your website to be compatible to fit any screen size by using fluid proportion grids. Any text, images, and tap targets will be repositioned to make them easier to view. The goal is to avoid tedious scrolling, zooming, panning, and resizing on sites that make them difficult to navigate. Responsive design does not leave out information to fit smaller browsers, instead, it adapts its content to fit any browser.
Why is a Responsive Design Better?
A responsive design is better for businesses and for users. It helps keep maintenance very minimal. “Responsive websites serve the same HTML to all devices and use CSS media queries to change how your website should look on each device.” A business will not have to manage several websites, which is very costly in the long run. Instead, they will only have to focus on one. For the users, a responsive website will create a better user experience. Typically, a responsive website will have a 21-24% increase in click-through rate as compared to strictly mobile websites. Thus, this increase in user experience will reduce the bounce rate, and increase search engine rankings. Search engine rankings also consider page load speed. A responsive website will reduce the page load speed and allow the content to be easier indexed.
How to Create a Responsive Design?
There are free and paid versions available for responsive design on HubSpot, Squarespace, WordPress, and Wix.
One of the most critical steps in creating a responsive design is setting up the website for the viewport. The viewport is the “size of a window or visible area of a screen on mobile and tablet devices.” Enter the following <meta> element into the header of all the web pages:
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″>.
Important Responsive Design Tips
Other important responsive designs are font size, tap targets, media queries, and images. The font size should be defined for each text element on the web pages. The best practice according to Google is 16 CSS pixels.
Tap Targets
Tap targets, areas on a webpage that a user interacts with to carry out commands, are recommended to be 48 pixels wide by 48 pixels tall. There should be 8 pixels of space between tap targets to accommodate for the difference in finger size area compared to a mouse cursor. Tap targets and other interactive elements should be positioned in the middle for optimal usability.
Media Queries
Media queries can be used to define different styles for different browsers; they design the CSS code. When designing CSS, it is best to start with the design for mobile devices before beginning the design for desktops or other devices. Starting with the mobile devices first will make the page display faster on smaller devices. For example, choosing to lay images out horizontally or lay them out vertically, depending on the device being used. Another example would be setting certain CSS properties that will appear only when a browser window is wider than its height for “landscape” orientation. A more common use for media queries would be hiding elements on different screen sizes. In regard to font size, as previously mentioned, media queries can change the font size of elements on different screen sizes.
Image Properties
Images should be responsive due to the use of the CSS width property which sets a percentage value to an image size. This will scale the image up or down depending on the size of the browser. Including images that are of high resolution and not too large will also help the page load speed. By utilizing the width property and setting it to a certain percentage as well as ensuring the height is set to ‘auto’, it will be ensured that the image will be responsive and scale up and down. Other image properties to keep in mind are max-width, background image size, and using different images for different browsers.
Takeaways
Responsive web designs are not a fix-all to the ever-changing technology world. Instead, with the correct implementation of responsive web design, it is a great resolution to improving user experiences and simplification for a business. Starting by creating a simple responsive website utilizing a viewport, font size, tap targets, media queries, and finally, images will ultimately create a better experience. A responsive design will be cautious of layout, structure, sizing, and navigation. Responsive design means business.
HubSpot, I. (n.d.). Website Optimization Course: How to Increase Page Performance and More. HubSpot. Retrieved October 29, 2022, from https://app.hubspot.com/academy/21253762/tracks/96/intro
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