Your Checklist For Responsive Web Design In 2020
"Responsive" is no longer just a buzzword. It has now transformed into a crucial industry standard in website design, and for all good reasons. The responsive layout offers significant advantages over the traditional layout, enabling streamlined and SEO improvements, along with better user experience across diverse platforms.
To help you take advantage of responsive website design and reach new heights of success, we'll cover the basics of responsive design and offer some proven best practices.
1. Content is the king -
Are you wondering how content can influence your website design?
When your audience visits your website, they're not seeking a pretty banner or cool graphics; they need content that you can offer.
Place your valuable content in positions where it is easy to find, even when screen space is limited. Do this by ensuring that the content header and the content itself are visible on mobile devices without scrolling.
2. Know the media query -
One of the most important features of responsive design is the capability to change and format content based on screen size, known as "the media query."
It determines how content is displayed on different sizes of screens. The site then makes a choice to render a specific stylesheet for the particular screen size.
3. Have a "mobile-first" mentality -
When building a responsive website, begin with mobile styles as a foundation. This way, if a potential customer comes to your website using a device or browser that doesn't support media queries, then they can see the mobile version of your site.
4. Easy navigation -
Even after being an essential asset of a website, it's one that most "responsive websites" get wrong.
Make sure your navigation menu does not get in the way of important content. But also look for ways to place it in prominent positions so that visitors can easily navigate no matter what device they're using.
It is smart to hide the navigation menu on smaller screens and allow visitors to access it when necessary.
5. Optimize your assets -
Having large assets that take too long to load is probably the prime reason why visitors leave a website.
Don't let your audience wait to download a 6-megabyte image when a 300-kilobyte version would satisfy and take much less time. Also, understand that many mobile visitors have limited data plans, and you don't want to bother them by offering large files.
However, we cannot ensure that all your assets (images, videos, PDF, etc.) are fully optimized for all displays and devices.
The bottom line -
Responsive website design has now become a crucial factor for business, especially for those who operate online. For this, it is important that you consider a few tactics that we have stated earlier. The steps mentioned above are not for making you a design expert overnight. However, they will guide you through creating a streamlined, user-friendly, and content-centric responsive website.