Imagine if you were to switch your old iPhone for a new one with a bigger, brighter screen only to find out that every website you visit is still adjusted to the small screen. It would be frustrating, wouldn’t it? Luckily this doesn’t happen thanks to a concept known as responsive website design.
People access the internet from all kinds of devices — be it mobile, laptop, desktop, tablet, or Kindle. Static websites no longer work as they don’t allow users the versatility to change devices and still have an enjoyable user experience.
Considering the significant weight of a responsive website in modern web design, this article is going to explore what a responsive web design is, why it is important, and how to make your website responsive.
We’ll also show you some of the most impressive responsive websites to inspire you on your journey of starting a website. Stick till the end of the article to find a bonus tool for creating a responsive site.
Now, if you’re ready to get geeky about web design, let’s jump right into it!
What is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive web design uses code that automatically adjusts the design to different screens based on their sizes and resolutions. It’s what allows users to have a smooth experience of a web page regardless of whether they’re viewing it on a wide desktop monitor or small mobile screen.
A large website header, for example, that consists of a few columns will be separated into several blocks stacked vertically on a mobile device to make it easy for the visitor to read the text and view the graphics.
In contrast to this, if the website design were static, it would maintain the structure of the web page where all columns of the header would remain next to each other horizontally.
Responsive web design accommodates not only existing devices but also any new gadgets that will be released as technology continues to progress. It also takes into consideration the location of the user to direct them to the correct version of the website, depending on where they’re accessing it from.
Why is Responsive Design Important?
So why exactly is having a responsive web design important? It sure requires a more complicated development process and affects the web design cost, but will the return be worth the effort? The answer is a definite yes unless you’re targeting one specific device with your website.
Most online searches come from mobile phones, but 41.5% of users still use desktops, and 2.7% use tablets to browse online. Putting all focus on just one of the gadgets and ignoring the rest would mean you’re passing up on a large segment of web traffic.
Common Website Layouts
There are three main screen widths, also known as breakpoints, you should keep in mind when designing your website. Let’s quickly run through them to ensure your website is responsive across the three major fixed layouts.
- Small: Mobile devices typically have a screen size of under 640 px. This is the smallest website width to adjust your UI design to.
- Medium: Corresponding to the size of most tablets and super large phones, the medium screen size is between 641 px and 1007 px.
- Large: Laptops, desktops, TVs, and other larger devices with a display width of 1008 px and above are another standard layout worth designing for.
Note that the dimensions will slightly change with specific mobile and computer models.
The Main Components of a Responsive Website
The term “responsive website design” was coined by Ethan Marcotte in an article published on A List Apart in 2010. Marcotte defines three foundational elements that create a responsive website: media queries, flexible images, and fluid grids. Here’s a breakdown of each.
Media Queries
A media query is a feature of CSS 3 that allows displaying web content according to screen size, orientation, and resolution. It checks the screen’s width before rendering the content to make sure the latter is appropriate for the screen. For example, if the screen layout is small, certain blocks can be rearranged to adapt the design to the display.
Media queries have two components: media type (phone, tablet, TV, etc.) and media feature (screen orientation, min-width, max-width).
Flexible Images
Flexible visuals are another key feature of a responsive design. They’re achieved by the use of responsive containers that automatically resize based on screen dimensions, scaling the image as well. When the max-width of an image is set to 100%, the percentage decreases as the website layout shrinks, thus scaling down the image. This also prevents the image from growing too large on extra broad displays and becoming pixelated as a result.
Fluid Grids
Following the same principle of adopting percentage values instead of fixed pixels, fluid grids adjust web content in proportion to the browser window. It’s because of fluid grids that horizontally lined up columns can be stacked vertically when the user switches from a wider to a narrower screen. This is just one simple example of rearranging components; there are many other ways of working with flexible grids.
