We use multiple devices daily. Today, because of their variety, it is important for web content to be accessible no matter the screen size and device type. In other words, we need to aim for the responsiveness of our web content. In that case, Responsive web design (RWD) is a way to adapt web pages to different screen sizes and device types. In this topic, we will cover RWD, explain why we need it and how it works. Let's get started!
Responsive Web Design
As mentioned above, Responsive web design (RWD) is a web design approach that adapts web pages for all screen sizes and resolutions while ensuring good usability. Responsive web design is essential because it provides a better user experience for all website visitors. The main goal of RWD is to guarantee a consistent user experience on the website regardless of the device in use.
The primary techniques in responsive web design is using fluid, proportion-based grids, flexible images and media queries to adjust the layout of a website based on the size and resolution of the user's device. We'll cover these techniques in later topics. This topic is a general introduction to responsive web design. In recent years, as more and more people access the internet on mobile devices, RWD has become increasingly important. Because of the variety of devices and dimensions, you might want to switch from an eight-column layout on a desktop to a four-column layout on a tablet to make the content easier to read and navigate. Users will still want to access the same content, that's why, by creating a website that can adapt to different screen sizes and device types, businesses and organizations can ensure that their content is accessible to the largest possible audience. Here is an example of responsive web design:
Now let's talk about the reasons why we need responsive web design.
Why responsive web design?
A lot of users accesss the web from different devices. With the rise of smartphones and tablets, there has also been a rise in different dimensions of those devices as well. In such cases, RWD makes it easier to access and navigate through the website from any device.
RWD ensures that your website is optimized for any screen size which improves overall user experience. Better user experience results in easier navigation and interaction with the website which, in the end, leads to increased engagement and conversions.
Search engine optimization (SEO) also benefits from RWD. Responsive websites provide a better user experience. In addition, optimizing your website and its content increases its rank in search results, since search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo take into account the mobile-friendliness of your website when determining search rankings.
Thanks to RWD, you can save time and resources because you don't need to create multiple versions of your website for different device types. That is, you need to only maintain one website instead of multiple.
As we've already mentioned, with the rise of various devices with different screen sizes it's essential to future-proof your website by ensuring that it's responsive. Future-proofing ensures that your website remains accessible and user-friendly for years to come.
To summarize, RWD is essential for providing a better user experience, improving SEO, saving time and resources, and future-proofing your website.
How responsive design works
Responsive web design works by using flexible grids and layouts, fluid images, and media queries used for the adaptation of the layout of a website to different screen sizes and device types. In this section, we will cover how to achieve RWD.
- Flexible grids and layouts are one of the ways to achieve a responsive website because the layout is based on proportions instead of fixed pixel values. This simple practice adjusts the layout and scales it based on the size of the screen. By using flexible grids and layouts, you arrange the website's content in columns, and the size of those columns is based on screen width proportions rather than fixed pixel values.
Here is an example of a flexible grid that shrinks its columns based on screen size. The first image is a desktop version of the grid:
And here is a behavior of the same grid on the phone version:
- Fluid images play an important part in website design. They can also slow down the site's load time if they are not optimized for different screen sizes. RWD scales up and down fluid images based on the size of the screen, which ensures that the images fit the resolution of the device. Also, RWD optimizes fluid images which ensures a faster loading time for the website. Here is an example of a fluid image that scales up as the screen gets bigger:
- Media queries are a set of rules for websites to detect the the screen size and adjust the layout accordingly. Used with a website's CSS stylesheet, media queries define how the layout should change with different screen sizes. For instance, if the size of the screen is set to 800px, the image will shrink, or the website should switch to a single-column layout from a two-column layout.
When your website design is responsive, the device will automatically detect the screen size and resolution and adjust the layout accordingly based on flexible grids, fluid images, and media queries. The methods for RWD listed above allow the website to look fluid and function well on any device, providing a seamless user experience.
Conclusion
In this topic, you learned what about responsive web design. To summarize, we use RWD to:
- improve user experience;
- easily access and navigate websites no matter from what devices we are accessing it;
- benefit from SEO;
- save time and resources, and
- for future-proofing.
We also briefly described the methods you can use to achieve RWD. Now, let's test what you learnon in this topic.