However, even with a responsive web design in place, it becomes a complex matter to keep the visitors on your page. If you don’t know how to pull off a quality responsive design then this will surely interest you. A better responsive design is what you are looking for to make all your efforts count. Ahead are some best practices for a responsive web design that actually works.

Basic Function: Cross-Device Platform

Keep in mind that the basic purpose of a responsive web design is to provide a better experience to users on various mobile devices. Nonetheless, a small screen is not the only matter at hand. Remember, it needs to fit all the screens and prove to be beneficial for all. Responsive designs are directly associated with mobile screens because mobile users make up the largest percentage of the traffic. Keep a mobile-first approach and take it from there.

Beyond ‘fitting screens’: Context

When a website is converted to a mobile page, it becomes a little more than just about fitting it. Single column layout is now a span of multiple columns as and when the size increases. You wouldn’t want the layout to change really for the essence of ensuring relevance to the visitors is context. Based on the usage of different devices, the content that is most relevant should be a part of the UX decisions which may include location, past visits to the site, device, etc.

Content: Priorities!

Doing away with multiple columns to a single column layout for a smaller screen is a regular trait of the responsive site. For instance, take into notice a website that has a list of articles with featured stories on the right and images on the left of the list. When viewed over a mobile device, it may reduce to simply a list of articles hence making it easier for the viewers to view and select the articles. You need to prioritize differently for various situations.

Beware: Image Quality VS Download Speed

For websites that have images as primary visuals greeting the users, the good quality image size will make the size of the file to grow. When going responsive, you need to work out a balance between visuals and the performance of the overall page. Eliminate any rich visuals that are unnecessary or reduce the 4 images to a single image for less animation scripts as well as images. Optimize the rest of the images.

Use of Icons: A Wise Option

Icons can help replace lengthy text if need be. For small screens, where space can really be a sensitive matter, icons can play a positive role in traffic conversion. Deliver the icons to a website using the SVG file format as they are good mobile-friendly sites and can be resized, without adding a little extra to the image size.

Font Size: Pay Great Attention

Typography is amongst the fundamentals of the overall website design which cannot be ignored. The type designs need to change as well, alongside the other aspects in the overall layout. To choose the right typeface, do not rely on the one that fits well on the desktop version. What if it’s barely readable in a small device? It will certainly not be acceptable. Maintain a good line-height with the wider column with a 16pt body type to work well with all sizes.

While these may not be the end of the world or the only components to a better responsive design, you can take up on wise approach as you deem fit. Whatever you do, don’t forget to test the design on all devices, yourself!

You may not be the best judge of how you have done but the basic mistakes can be improved even before they are implemented. So test it before going live. If you are not an expert, call a web design company and a team of professionals will be at your service to do the needful.

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The difference between the two

A responsive web design is quite fluid and is flexible in so many ways. It adapts well to the screen size of the target device as it uses CSS media queries.

Adaptive design, however, makes use of static layouts. They are breakpoints-based and don’t respond when loaded first time. It is usually designed for 6 common screen widths that tend to detect them gradually as they load.

Adaptive may seem like a complicated version but responsive web design is more complex as improper use of media queries can create performance issues.

When Creating Adaptive

Adaptive web design can be used for an existing site as it helps in making it more mobile friendly. Multiple, specific, viewports can be made out of this.

Apart from that, if you are looking forward to creating an adaptive site right from the beginning, media queries can be used in expanding the layout. It allows the web design to be viewed for higher resolution viewports.

To create a site that needs to be used for retrofitting, it seems like a lot of work for designing and developing a site and that too for multiple viewports.

When Creating Responsive

Perhaps the best thing about responsive designs is that even the less experienced designers and developers can create it, easily. It has been made possible due to ready-made themes via CMS systems like WordPress, Drupal and others.

The control is not as good as Adaptive but it requires minimum effort in building as well as maintaining a Responsive web design.

Since its all layouts to be designed as one, this can make the process somewhat complex. Mid-resolution is what you should aim at and then adjust it for high or low res with the help of media queries.

The BIG Decision

When making a decision as to which one to use, Adaptive or Responsive, a tip is to take your audience into account. Getting a customer insight is important for you to know what kind of devices they have got handy and will be using to access the site. Content and everything else also comes to you easily once you have collected the very insight on your target market.

Another factor to be taken into account is whether it’s a completely new thing that you are developing or simply revamping. Responsive works better when you are starting from the scratch which is why everybody is using it.

Responsive is mostly used today due to the heavy maintenance that Adaptive demands. The latter hasn’t died on us, yet, even if the world has fallen in love with the Responsive design. If there are solutions to making Adaptive web design all the more better, it eventually will become the number 1 choice as it lingers for glory.

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