Responsive Website Design – The Modern Approach to Designing Quality Websites

Websites nowadays have extended their boundaries to make their appearance go beyond laptops and desktops. In the wake of keeping pace with increasing mobile devices, browsers, and platforms, clients want the online visibility of their sites to grow rapidly. The concept of responsive web design stems from this very consideration.

What is Responsive Web Design?

Abiding by the definition, it refers to building a website, which could work suitably on every device and screen size, irrespective of the type of device, whether desktop or mobile. The design reacts instantly to any change, depending on view port width among other factors. Professionals generally divide it into three main components, which include:

Flexible grids

For the website layout to be visible on any screen, the foremost requirement is to have a fluctuating grid foundation. These grids hold high importance since they allow the site to accommodate the small space of a cell phone or fit on a computer screen. Once the grid acquires a proper design, the content aligns itself automatically with the change in the browser size.

Flexible media

Images and texts that often find it difficult to fit into the screen dimensions get respite in the responsive web designs. This sophisticated way of designing websites allows the font sizes to be flexible, and the same goes for images. In case the website requires multiple versions of the same photo or demands to hide the image in order to emphasize more on the fonts, responsive web design is perhaps the best option.

Media queries

These queries come in handy when the designers target and include different website layout styles that use the same content. They combine with flexible grids and flexible media to make way for an ideal responsive website design. There are two important methods to initialize media queries. The first of these is @media rule, which the designers use inside an existing style sheet. The second method is the @import rule, which is useful when the designers want to include a new style sheet.

In all these three key components of responsive web design, several elements find their repeated use. These include:

• Navigation: The location of site navigation depends very much on the browser width. For users of laptop screens, it should either below the logo or at the top right corner. Similarly, for mobile users, the navigation should be at the top middle.
• Columns: The number of columns in a responsive website should vary between one and three, depending on the width of the browser.
• Calls to action: Presence of calls to action irrespective of the screen size enhances the essence of the responsive design.
• Branding: The branding elements should be clearly visible on the site, regardless of the screen size.
• Padding & white space: Apt margins and space in the website ensure that the page is free from misalignment.