The Art And Science Of Responsive Web Development

Many surveys have highlighted that a large percentage of modern people access websites on their mobile devices. So it becomes essential for businesses to ensure that their websites deliver quality user experience across different models of smartphones, tablets, phablets and other devices. As a modern approach, responsive web design (RWD) helps programmers to create websites that deliver quality viewing and interaction across devices with varying screen sizes, resolutions and orientations. They focus on the website’s features, design, content and performance to make it deliver quality user experience across a variety of devices and browsers.

Understanding Basic Elements of Responsive Web Design

Breakpoint: RWD uses breakpoint to determine how the layout of the website will appear on various devices. However, the breakpoints differ based on the width of individual web browsers. The designers are required to use a design above a breakpoint, while applying another design below the breakpoint. The two designs customize the website’s layout for each web browser.

Viewport: RWD further requires developers to use viewport meta tag in both simple and complex web pages to build multi-device experience effectively. The viewport meta tag will convey browsers how to scale the web page to fit the screen. So without viewport the design will not work seamlessly on many devices. The developers also have option to configure the meta tag to customize the page’s look and feel.

Reshuffling Page Elements: Based on the size of the screen, the viewport can grow or shrink automatically. So the developers have to reshuffle the page elements according to the current state and size of the viewport. For instance, the same website content needs to be displayed in two columns on a tablet, a single column on smartphones, and three columns on desktop computers. RWD requires programmers to reshuffle the content and elements of a web page effectively by using proportion-based grids.

Delivery of Same HTML Content: RWD relies on open web standards like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The tool emphasizes on delivery to same HTML to each device. So the developers have to use CSS extensively to customize the website’s look and layout for individual devices. CSS further makes it easier for developers to create view ports of varying sizes without creating multiple code bases. Also, a single website can be accessed seamlessly on a wide variety of devices.

Flexible and Relative Units: The pixel density varies from one device to another. So RWD required designers to make the units relative and flexible to overcome in fluctuations in pixel density. The designer can overcome the pixel density issues by using relative units instead of static units. For instance, they can define units as a percentage of the screen or viewport, instead of mentioning specific pixels. At the same time, they also need to specify the max and min value of each unit to make deliver customized content according to the screen-size of individual devices.

Nested Objects: The web developers also need to control the elements dependent on each other efficiently. When the elements are defined relatively, it becomes difficult to control them based on their dependencies. So the programmers must use a container to wrap the related elements in a clean, structured and maintainable way. However, the container must be defined as static units and in terms of pixels. For instance, the designers can define buttons, logos and other content as static units as they are not required to be scaled.

Focus on both Content and Performance: RWD emphasizes on readability of website content and seamless user experience across many devices. The designers have to use mobile fonts and use simple navigation options to ensure that the users can access the website content easily and seamlessly. At the same time, they also need to identify and eliminate all performance issues in the design of the website. They have to assess the source code of the application thoroughly to ensure that the same code is delivered to each device.

Usability Testing: The primary objective of RWD is to create a usable experience across a wide variety of devices. The designers often reshuffle elements around the web page to make them fit in the screen properly. But the reshuffling of elements often results in changing user experience from one view of the application to another. That is why, the business needs to ensure that the usability and user experience of the website are tested rigorously in a variety of environments.

However, it is always important for the business to make a comprehensive plan to identify the design challenged to be solved. The organization can further adopt a mobile-first approach to make the website deliver richer user experience.