What is Responsive Design?
Responsive design is the adaptation of web design and display to allow for content to seamlessly respond to a user’s preference. With the integration of mobile devices, marketers must account for the ways in which users are consuming content. In order to generate relevancy for marketing campaigns or entertainment, a developer’s web design should feature a responsive layout that can fit onto the screen of any mobile device. Using the intelligence of CSS media queries and fluid grids, developers can now enhance web layouts to provide users with an optimal experience.
Why Use a Responsive Design
This form of design is meant to adapt web layouts to continue the user engagement on any device or screen that they engage with. Based on the preferences on how a user wishes to consume content, the web page can adapt to fit their needs. This level of detail and accommodation can increase user interaction, and engagement, by responding to the device preferences of the user. Furthermore, in a competitive digital market, developers must consider responsive design as means to stay up to date and current with trends.
Benefits of Responsive Design
- Simplified Coding: When developing websites to feature a responsive design, a developer is not required to write code for every layout scenario. Instead, through grid layout and mathematical percentages, web layouts are able to adjust themselves based on the actions taken by the user. This creates an efficient and simple method to have any website feature a responsive design.
- Device Evolution: With internet consumption increasing through mobile device use, developing websites or applications that adaptively respond to any screen size is a necessary investment for marketers. Dependency on mobile devices is a strong influence for interactive content and as such, marketers must remain up to date on developing web pages for new devices and integrating responsive designs.
- User Retention: Responsive design prioritizes the preferences and needs of the user which can increase user retention and customer relationships. For businesses providing content in any format, the ability for the user to manipulate the display as they choose can instill reliability and trust within the content they’re consuming.
Features to Consider for Responsive Design
While the main adjustment of a responsive design layout is the resizing of a display to fit the user’s preferred dimensions, there are additional small features that developers need to consider as well.
- Graphics: Images and graphics can still appear with responsive design, however, based on the display of the device a lower image resolution may be a more viable option. Less graphics on mobile devices can ensure a faster, and more efficient, speed that includes all content downloaded in a prompt manner.
- Mouse Vs. Touch: Another feature that developers must consider when adapting a responsive design from desktop to mobile is the interaction the user will have with the touchscreen surface. The specified content that engages users with a mouse will need to feature a unique direction to adapt to the touchscreen on smartphone devices and tablets.
