Different visitors operate different websites through different devices; for many of the websites creating a version for a different resolution and devices is next to impossible. But should this become a reason for us to lose our valuable visitors from one device, to get the benefit of gaining visitors from other device? The answer would be definitely a big NO!
So what’s the solution to this? Well, we do have a solution for it and that is Responsive web design.
What is Responsive Web Design?
This approach consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and excellent use of CSS media queries which helps in switching to a different resolution as the user switches to a new device respectively. This means that the system will automatically respond to the user’s preference without the need to develop different designs for each gadget.
Here are some tips that you will definitely find useful for responsive web design…
1. Progressive Enhancement:
This process will focus on developing layouts for the smallest screen resolutions and enhance progressively through the resolution spectrum. The advantage of this method is that the mobile devices will download only the minimum required images and CSS. Progressive enhancement allows the browsers to view a simplified version of the site.
2. Flexible Grids:
Using flexible grids will allow the developer to develop web pages that can easily scale up and down. The main focus here while using the grids is on the front-end of the site and it is tested on different devices with different resolutions, which will help to solve any design issues at the time if their occurrence.
3. Media queries:
This is a significant part of the responsive web design, these queries allow the developer to apply CSS to a webpage depending upon the device parameters such as display width and height, screen resolution and device orientation; this will allow the site to respond properly on the device.
4. Gap Filling:
Unfortunately the older browsers could not support the features such as CSS3 and HTML5. But there are polyfills or shims available that help to plug the gaps. They are usually available in the form of JavaScript, HTML or CSS which provide support to these missing features. Some of them are
- Modernizer.js: This JavaScript library that makes the use of feature detection to show the developer about the features of a particular browser.
- Respond.js: This feature provides support for minimum and maximum width media queries.
- Selectivizr.js: This feature provides support for the pseudo-classes of CSS3.
I wish you the best of luck in reaching your goal and I hope the points above will guide you in the right direction!
