11 May

Responsive Web Design

Posted in (Tech Trends)

1997- The first micro browser was deployed in devices.

2006- Some mobile browsers developed the capability of handling technologies like CSS 2.1, JavaScript, and Ajax.

The growth in this industry has been exponential after that. Day by day new technologies and features are being added to devices and thousands of devices are flooding the market today. People constantly juggle between devices like Smartphones, Tablets, Laptops, Desktops, and Television. Just in the last two years, Mobile searches have grown at around 400%.

Image source:: Design you trust

Each of these display devices have different resolutions and screen dimensions. Since thousands of websites are being accessed through these devices and browsers, it’s only obvious that it would lead to the evolution of Responsive Web Design. Responsive Web Design is a product of this dynamic web environment. Its prime role is to make these websites compatible with these different devices.

Responsive Web Design in official terms essentially indicates that a site is crafted to use W3C CSS3 media queries with fluid proportion based grids, to adapt to the layout of viewing environment which probably may include the use of flexible media elements.

It increases the adaptability and thus enabling the applications to run on different platforms maintaining a code base and automatically re-engineer the layouts to suit the device resolution and mode.

Before the evolution of Responsive Web Design, developers used different methods to display websites for such devices which did not really give justice to the website. Some of the key issues were addressed by:

Redirecting to a mobile website
Fixing for browser’s compatibility on the main websites
Liquid/Fluid layouts or better display

Responsive Web Design is the answer to issues faced while accessing websites through a wide range of mobile devices. The core concept that makes the design responsive lies in 3 key technical features:

Media query and Media Query listeners
A Flexible Grid based layout that uses relative sizing
Flexible Media and images, through dynamic resizing or CSS

The key point while trying to display your website over a mobile device is adapting to the user needs and device capability. For example, if a user is accessing the website on a small screen. Taking the user needs into account does not mean just adapting the content to the device screen size. It also means thinking about what a mobile user would require first while browsing your website and then laying out the content. Based on the analysis, the content for the mobile user can be served differently. We might also want to consider the font sizes and interaction areas to respond better to a touch environment. Do not forget to pay attention to different device orientations as well.

Although Responsive Web Design is in its inception stage, there is a bright chance of it being widely adopted by the web design community. It helps developers and designers in saving the efforts of developing pages and forms for website and web apps for the innumerous display devices available in the market today.

Article author - N. Joshi

Comments by readers will be forwarded to the author. Response to comments will be posted subject to the editorial guidelines & policies of Rishabh Software.

Responsive Web Design is an essential ingredient for developing new age websites catering to multiple mobile devices. Contact us or call us on 1-877-RISHABH (1-877-747-4224) and learn more on how we can help you develop your next responsive website.

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