Responsive Design Principles

Nowadays, we have the opportunity to access the internet and browse websites from a plethora of devices. However, that also brings a significant challenge to website designers. It’s very difficult for them to create a website that provides a native look and feel for every platform. That’s where responsive design comes into play.

The role of responsive design is to help deliver a native-like experience by adapting the website to various screen sizes and devices. It all adapts seamlessly, which helps save development time while also keeping website visitors happy.

Go for a fluid layout

Fluid layouts don’t have a specific pixel value. Instead, the elements are specified according to the screen proportions. It allows you to change the position, height, and width according to the device’s specifics.

Start using flexible images

Flexible imagery is important because it will help deliver that native user experience. You can set the maximum width of images to 100% of the parent container. When the container resizes, the image will scale accordingly so it can fit.

Always start with the smallest screens

It’s a great idea to start focusing on the smaller screens first. Once you do that, you ensure your site is optimized for mobile phones and their limited resources. Afterward, you can focus on larger screens and include some features specifically for them as needed.

Pick the right typography

That’s important because having the right typography will either make or break your content’s readability. Some fonts will not work great for mobile users. That’s why you want to experiment with fonts; start with smaller screens first and see how the font would fit there. These smaller screens tend to bring the most challenge when it comes to responsive designs, so keep that in mind.

Focus on accessibility

Yes, accessibility is very important, especially for mobile users. Making sure that you add color contrast, screen reading, accessibility forms, keyboard accessibility, and other relevant features is a very good idea.

Add breakpoints

Breakpoints are crucial for responsive designs because they boost readability. In addition, if you add breakpoints where it makes sense for the content, it will help quite a bit. Don’t focus on adding breakpoints based on devices; focusing on the content here is very important.

We highly recommend taking these responsive design principles into account, as they can help improve your design process. Thanks to responsive design, you can easily improve the user experience but also ensure that you lower your maintenance costs. After all, it would be very costly to have two different sites, one for mobile and one for desktop users. With responsive design, you can circumvent that while having a customer-centric approach!