- Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Store Bought
- Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Store Brand
- Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Store Locations
- Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Stores
A responsive design is an approach to web design that makes all web pages render to a proper size based on the device that is viewing the page. So for simplicity's sake, this means that no matter what device a user is using to view your website, your website will conform to the device of the user. Although Screenfly doesn't tell you what to improve, it does give you an overview of how your responsive website design look on different devices. This is the perfect tool to double check your design. You can check if your website has a responsive design for phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and even large tv screens. If you're emailing newsletters to your customers, engaging with them on social media, or promoting your content on blogs, your users are likely linking to your websites from these channels on their phones, and you want them to be greeted by a simple, responsive experience when they get there. Responsive sites garner better SEO rankings.
So, you've decided to venture into the creation of responsive web designs. Wonderful! With the browsing landscape diversifying into mobile devices, netbooks, desktops and so forth, responsive web designs allow web designers to provide different layouts for specific devices (based on screen size and browser features) giving site visitors an optimal user experience.
So now, you've determined that it would be beneficial to create responsive web designs. What tools can help you get the job done?
Tools have started to spring up to provide us with shortcuts and helpers for common responsive web design tasks. Let's take a look at just few that I find the most useful. Pricing strategies planning for brand and profit organizations.
I divided the tools in this list into four categories:
- Responsive typography
- Flexible images
- Responsive web page layouts
- Testing and cross-browser support
Responsive Typography
First, let's look at two tools (out of the many out there) that allow us to create beautiful, adaptive typography.
1. Lettering.js
Lettering.js, a jQuery plugin for controlling the appearance of your web type, is a great tool to help designers get a chokehold on their typography. Whether you're working with a responsive web design or not, having this kind of control over your web type can help you craft a truly creative look without resorting to image-based solutions.
In the context of responsive design, Lettering.js gives designers precise control over typography characteristics such as spacing, leading and kerning in order to produce an optimal reading experience in various visual spaces.
2. FitText
Another jQuery plugin, FitText helps you make your headlines responsive. FitText make sure your display text appears optimally on various devices. This plugin may be simple, but its flexibility leaves the creativity in your hands and is easy to implement.
Flexible Images
After setting type, we can move on to tackling the issue of placing images in our responsive web designs. There's one tool that should be a part of every responsive web designer's arsenal.
3. imgSizer.js
Before heading straight to the code of imgSizer.js, make sure to read through Ethan Marcotte's breakdown of what role this script plays in your responsive web designs. Essentially, this script was designed to make sure your images render cleanly in Microsoft Windows. Marcotte's script does a pretty nice job of cleaning up images that have been sized down automatically by the browser.
Responsive Web Page Layouts
At the core of every responsive web design is a fluid and flexible layout that adapts itself to the screen size and features of the user's browser. Let's move on to resources related to layout, where most of the action happens in responsive web designs.
4. Fluid 960 Grid System
If you've been using the ubiquitous 960 Grid System by Nathan Smith (plenty of us have probably used it for projects or experimentation at some point), check out this fluid adaptation of the original project. If you're comfortable with the original 960.gs, then you already know how to use Fluid 960 Grid System.
5. Gridless
If a grid system for web page layouts seems too restrictive to you, check out Gridless. Gridless is built to be leaner than other grid systems and was constructed with responsive designs in mind. The Gridless code bases its philosophy on the much-discussed mobile first method for crafting websites that must be delivered to a multitude of device environments.
For designers seeking more of a barebones, content-focused approach to responsive web design, you may find yourself quite at home with Gridless.
6. PXtoEM
A tedious mathematical process associated with converting fixed-width design work to a fluid layout is converting absolute units of measurements (i.e. px and pt) into relative units of measurement such as ems and percent (%) for typography, spacing, container widths, etc.
PXtoEM is a tool that provides users with a simple conversion tool to help them with all the math. The site also allows designers the ability to quickly and easily change the base font size of their layout to something that leads to more manageable math.
For example, in your HTML document, setting your body element's font-size to 62.5% gives you the more convenient conversion ratio of 1em is to 10px, making unit conversion a little easier to do.
Testing and Cross-Browser Support
Finally, as we create our responsive web design, we'll come to the point where our web type is clean and adaptive, our images are flexible and our layout is fluid.
Now we need to make sure that our site works in as many browsing environments as possible.
Ghost escapewatermelon gaming. Ghost Gaming is an Atlanta-based organization cultivating the best talent in gaming and providing platforms to create unique partnerships in sports, music, lifestyle, and entertainment. Ghost Gaming has a roster of professional esports players across multiple videogame titles, including Fortnite, Rocket League and homegrown Atlanta games. (Mar 20, 2020) Anonymous said: DONT READ THIS. YOU WILL BE KISSED ON THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. NOW THAT YOU'VE STARTED READING, DONT STOP. THIS IS SO FREAKY. 1 say your name 10 times 2. Say your mum's name 5 times and your.
7. Adobe Device Central
The best way to test your website on different devices is to actually test it from within the devices themselves; nothing compares to seeing how your website actually looks and behaves within a particular mobile gadget or computer.
However, for those of us who don't have the budget for hundreds of new gadgets, the solution comes in the form of Adobe Device Central. Device Central is one of the better pieces of software I've used for testing a site out on different devices.
If it's variety and range you seek, Device Central won't leave you disappointed. With an actively growing device library to choose from, users will find pretty much every major device on the market, ready to load in and test.
Testing websites has been made easy as well: Simply input the URI of the web page (local or remote) and then you can freely switch between the devices you want to test it in.
8. Web Developer
While Device Central (above) is cheaper than purchasing a bunch of devices, it still may be outside the price range of some designers' pocketbooks.
A fantastic alternative (or additional tool alongside Device Central) is the Web Developer browser extension. Available for Firefox and Chrome, this extension provides designers with several tools that come in handy when developing responsive or fluid websites.
Most notable is the built-in ability to resize your browser window with the click of a button. New size presets can be saved and used instantly.
Other helpful features include viewing CSS by media type and outlining your containing elements, which I find useful for quickly identifying break points (or potential break points) in a design.
9. Respond.js
One of the glaring disadvantages of using media queries is that they are part of the CSS3 specifications and therefore is an absent feature in older browsers, such as in IE8 and below.
Of course, one might argue that we don't see a lot of mobile devices running IE6. But one thing to note is that responsive web design isn't just about mobile devices, it's a way of developing sites that become optimized for all types of browsing situations. For example, IE7 or IE8 users might still benefit from a site that renders a different layout on large, widescreen monitors versus a small-screen netbook.
Fortunately, we have Respond.js, a lightweight, open source script that gives us more options for executing media-query-driven responsive web designs in IE6, 7 and 8.
The script is small — only 1KB when served gzipped to site users — and is unobtrusive, so there's little excuse not to use it!
10. Modernizr
Much like Respond.js, Modernizr is here to bring designers the power of HTML5 and CSS3, even in older browsers. While it's not as lightweight as Respond.js, it does give you media-query-like abilities in older browsers.
The other exciting capability Modernizr brings us, as it relates to responsive web design, is some added support for the very intriguing — but currently problematic and tumultuous — W3C specifications of the Flexbox model that allows for easier and more robust web page layouts.
Modernizr also provides conditional loading features. If you're concerned about loading many resources because of page speed concerns, Modernizr allows you to conditionally load certain resources based on the user's browsing circumstances.
Responsibly Responsive
Not every responsive web design project is going to require all of the resources mentioned here. As always, restrict your design projects to only the components that are required to achieve the goals desired. And then, when appropriate, sprinkle in features that can enhance the user experience for as many users as possible without degrading it for anyone else.
These resources were chosen based on their ability to help you complete your responsive web designs more efficiently.
Adaptive and responsive web design practices are still in its beginning stages, but they are important because the diversification of browsing devices and viewing methods — like 3D on the Web, for example — is going to continue as our industry progresses into the future.
If you know a tool that can help in building responsive web designs, share them in the comments!
Related Content
PXtoEM is a tool that provides users with a simple conversion tool to help them with all the math. The site also allows designers the ability to quickly and easily change the base font size of their layout to something that leads to more manageable math.
For example, in your HTML document, setting your body element's font-size to 62.5% gives you the more convenient conversion ratio of 1em is to 10px, making unit conversion a little easier to do.
Testing and Cross-Browser Support
Finally, as we create our responsive web design, we'll come to the point where our web type is clean and adaptive, our images are flexible and our layout is fluid.
Now we need to make sure that our site works in as many browsing environments as possible.
Ghost escapewatermelon gaming. Ghost Gaming is an Atlanta-based organization cultivating the best talent in gaming and providing platforms to create unique partnerships in sports, music, lifestyle, and entertainment. Ghost Gaming has a roster of professional esports players across multiple videogame titles, including Fortnite, Rocket League and homegrown Atlanta games. (Mar 20, 2020) Anonymous said: DONT READ THIS. YOU WILL BE KISSED ON THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. NOW THAT YOU'VE STARTED READING, DONT STOP. THIS IS SO FREAKY. 1 say your name 10 times 2. Say your mum's name 5 times and your.
7. Adobe Device Central
The best way to test your website on different devices is to actually test it from within the devices themselves; nothing compares to seeing how your website actually looks and behaves within a particular mobile gadget or computer.
However, for those of us who don't have the budget for hundreds of new gadgets, the solution comes in the form of Adobe Device Central. Device Central is one of the better pieces of software I've used for testing a site out on different devices.
If it's variety and range you seek, Device Central won't leave you disappointed. With an actively growing device library to choose from, users will find pretty much every major device on the market, ready to load in and test.
Testing websites has been made easy as well: Simply input the URI of the web page (local or remote) and then you can freely switch between the devices you want to test it in.
8. Web Developer
While Device Central (above) is cheaper than purchasing a bunch of devices, it still may be outside the price range of some designers' pocketbooks.
A fantastic alternative (or additional tool alongside Device Central) is the Web Developer browser extension. Available for Firefox and Chrome, this extension provides designers with several tools that come in handy when developing responsive or fluid websites.
Most notable is the built-in ability to resize your browser window with the click of a button. New size presets can be saved and used instantly.
Other helpful features include viewing CSS by media type and outlining your containing elements, which I find useful for quickly identifying break points (or potential break points) in a design.
9. Respond.js
One of the glaring disadvantages of using media queries is that they are part of the CSS3 specifications and therefore is an absent feature in older browsers, such as in IE8 and below.
Of course, one might argue that we don't see a lot of mobile devices running IE6. But one thing to note is that responsive web design isn't just about mobile devices, it's a way of developing sites that become optimized for all types of browsing situations. For example, IE7 or IE8 users might still benefit from a site that renders a different layout on large, widescreen monitors versus a small-screen netbook.
Fortunately, we have Respond.js, a lightweight, open source script that gives us more options for executing media-query-driven responsive web designs in IE6, 7 and 8.
The script is small — only 1KB when served gzipped to site users — and is unobtrusive, so there's little excuse not to use it!
10. Modernizr
Much like Respond.js, Modernizr is here to bring designers the power of HTML5 and CSS3, even in older browsers. While it's not as lightweight as Respond.js, it does give you media-query-like abilities in older browsers.
The other exciting capability Modernizr brings us, as it relates to responsive web design, is some added support for the very intriguing — but currently problematic and tumultuous — W3C specifications of the Flexbox model that allows for easier and more robust web page layouts.
Modernizr also provides conditional loading features. If you're concerned about loading many resources because of page speed concerns, Modernizr allows you to conditionally load certain resources based on the user's browsing circumstances.
Responsibly Responsive
Not every responsive web design project is going to require all of the resources mentioned here. As always, restrict your design projects to only the components that are required to achieve the goals desired. And then, when appropriate, sprinkle in features that can enhance the user experience for as many users as possible without degrading it for anyone else.
These resources were chosen based on their ability to help you complete your responsive web designs more efficiently.
Adaptive and responsive web design practices are still in its beginning stages, but they are important because the diversification of browsing devices and viewing methods — like 3D on the Web, for example — is going to continue as our industry progresses into the future.
If you know a tool that can help in building responsive web designs, share them in the comments!
Related Content
- A Quick Look at Mobile Web Designs
No matter what industry you work in, your business plays a critical role in business success. Modern consumers don't want to call companies to ask questions. They want to find information online. Responsive web designs make it easier for everyone to access the information and services that they need. When you use responsive designs, expect to see the following benefits.
Responsive web designs help websites get higher search engine rankings
For years, developers suspected that Google gave higher rankings to websites that used responsive designs. Google confirmed in 2018 that it gives preference to sites that follow best practices for mobile-first indexing.
Google spent about a year and a half experimenting with its approaches to indexing and ranking before deciding that it would prioritize mobile versions over designs made for desktop computers. If you have a design for mobile users and a design for desktop users, Google will base your ranking on the mobile version.
Responsive web designs ensure that your website always gets the ranking it deserves. Since it conforms to the requirements of diverse devices, you can count on your SEO to work even when you make designs on a desktop computer.
A higher ranking practically ensures more traffic
Your website cannot succeed without a high ranking from search engines. Nearly 29% of people click on the top result when they search for something on Google. About 16% of searchers click the second result. Only 11% will click the third result.
By the time you get to the tenth result, only 2.5% of people will click.
If your website doesn't make it to the first, you won't get much organic traffic. Hardly anyone ever bothers visiting the second page.
Adopt responsive web designs so you can make your website more competitive by earning a higher ranking. The more attention you get from search engine crawlers, the more organic traffic you can expect.
Responsive designs help you reach more consumers
Even if responsive web designs didn't help sites reaching higher search engine rankings, it would still make sense for developers to use designs that adapt to mobile devices.
Global increases in smartphone penetration have made it cheaper and more convenient for consumers to shop with their mobile devices. Shoppers don't need to visit retail stores to buy the products they need. People don't even need to sit down at desktop or laptop computers to shop. They can find everything they want on their smartphones.
Surveys show that most people in 'developed' nations own smartphones. The United Kingdom has the highest rate of ownership at 82.9%. Other countries with more than 70% of smartphone ownership include:
- Germany (79.9%)
- United States (79.1%)
- France (77.5%)
- Spain (74.3%)
- South Korea (70.4%)
Even 'emerging economies' have surprisingly high levels of smartphone ownership. Overall, about 45% of people living in emerging economies have smartphones. Considering that these countries often struggle to build or maintain telecom infrastructures, many people find that smartphones offer them more reliable access to the internet. Without other affordable options, it makes sense to own multipurpose mobile devices instead of larger computers.
Shoppers use mobile devices inside stores
Perhaps you know that most of your sales come from people shopping in your stores. That doesn't mean you can avoid the significance of mobile shopping. In fact, people probably use their smartphones while shopping in your stores.
According to one report:
- 69% of shoppers use their phones to read reviews before talking to store employees.
- 55% of shoppers use smartphones to find product specifications while shopping in stores.
- 53% of shoppers search for deals on their phones before speaking with employees.
For the most part, people don't seem to like talking to retail employees. They would rather use their phones to find the information they need to compare and choose items. If you don't have a responsive web design, you're either annoying them with a difficult website, forcing them to talk to your employees, or encouraging them to shop elsewhere.
Earn more money with responsive web design
The motivation to adopt responsive web design becomes even more obvious when you see the amount of money involved in online sales. From November 1 to November 30, 2020, consumers in the U.S. spent $39.9 billion while shopping from their smartphones. Shoppers spent $60.7 billion from their laptops and other devices.
Considering that about 40% of the month's revenue came from smartphone sales, you cannot afford to miss the opportunities that responsive design creates. Refusing to adapt means that you could miss nearly 40% of sales. People won't stop buying items because your website doesn't cooperate with them. They will simply use the websites of other companies. Your competitors will pick up the money you leave on the table.
Keep visitors engaged to lower your bounce rate
A standard, desktop-centric website design might work on a mobile device, but the content will probably load slowly and make it difficult for shoppers to find what they want to buy. Modern consumers will not tolerate long load times. Anything longer than a few seconds will send them to other sites.
As Joe Cahill, a freelance designer with more than two decades of experience working with clients like American Express and Saks Fifth Avenue, says, 'We're looking at mobile devices and getting annoyed after a three-second load. Looking for information instantaneously is going to be a key thing with how Generation Alpha interacts with devices and everything that's going to go on around them.'
The habits of today's youngest consumers will become economic drivers within a decade. Conforming to their preferences now broadens your brand's appeal and keeps you on the cutting edge of technology.
You can save time and money with responsive web designs
Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Store Bought
You don't have to use responsive web designs to reap these benefits. You can have your developers redirect mobile users to a separate site designed specifically for them. Unfortunately, this approach means that you need to pay for two websites. You don't necessarily double your expenses because you can use some of the same assets on both versions. You will, however, spend much more than someone who chooses a responsive web design.
Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Store Brand
Best practices for responsive web designs
For the most part, responsive web design does most of the work for you by adjusting to the user's device. You should still follow some best practices to make your site more successful. Some examples include:
Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Store Locations
- Testing website prototypes on as many devices as possible.
- Making content easy for users to scan.
- Adding call-to-action buttons.
- Choosing intuitive navigation menus.
- Using an internal search feature to keep users on your site.
Make responsive web design easy with UXPin
Responsive Design For Your Website Blog Or Stores
Get the most out of your responsive web design by reading UXPin's ebook Responsive & Active Web Design. The ebook offers pages of advice that will put you on the path to success.Don't struggle to make websites that respond to the demands of mobile devices. Start your free trial with UXPin, the most advanced design and prototyping tool on the market, and see how easy responsive website design becomes when you use the right prototyping tool.
