Responsive web design is an awesome solution to a number of different screen sizes and resolutions that designers have to deal with. You have got different devices with different needs and for that you need layouts and content that work across devices. If your site doesn’t adapt to the users’ device, you lose eyeballs. Website development companies work in tandem with SEO agencies to optimize the sites for that very purpose. But what is it all about? Whether it is design or development, you have to make sure that you have a firm grasp of the basics before you begin. So, let’s get started.
You can make virtually any site usable simple by sizing elements and content correctly. The most important rule for great progressive web app content is not to let content inadvertently overflow horizontally, especially on the mobile. Lots of sites break this rule by making images, inputs and other elements on the page with fixed sizes. Using relative measurement units, EM, REM, or percentages, will reduce the severity of this issue.
Adding a viewport Meta tag will solve a lot of problems. It tells the browser, the size of the virtual viewport on which it renders a web page. Without setting the viewport Meta tag correctly, most browsers scale down a page to fit a virtual 980 pixel wide viewport. The initial scale value sets the zoom default for the page. Setting a maximum value will make it impossible for users to zoom, so don’t do it. One other thing to keep in mind is that the viewport Meta tag will mess up the layout for fixed-width sites. The viewport Meta tag is designed to work with responsive layouts.
You might think that relative sizing would fix everything but that isn’t enough as it might present massive differences between content areas of desktop and mobile. A Media query solves this problem. Use different CSS for different sized viewports based on width. That means, you might want a single-column layout on your phone, a two-column layout on your tablet and a three-column for desktop and so on.
New devices keep emerging and so do variables like pixel density, display, quality etc. Don’t force your designers or developers to make a change every time a new device appears. Start the design process with the smallest form factor, then add major breakpoints for the form factors that you work with–phone, tablets, laptops etc. You can then create minor breakpoints to handle specific changes to elements that don’t affect all the elements. The last thing to keep in mind is to optimize the content for reading. A width of 70-80 characters is ideal; wider than that will make it hard to read.
Responsive design is about more than just changing layouts. You might actually want to manipulate content depending on the viewport size and device type. For images, you can use different image crops. For videos, the general rule is to use a smaller resolution for a smaller viewport. Plan content and functionality carefully, don’t just assume that your users will want less functionality on mobile and more on desktop.
Bottom line
A responsive website hugely reaps the benefits of SEO services, thereby making it more accessible on the internet. However, you need to keep in mind that simplicity is the key. Design in a way that users can get to what they want as quickly as possible. Study shows that every step to get to content loses 20% of users so no matter what you do, don’t complicate it.
