Simply having a website for your brand or business is not enough today. You need to have a responsive website if you want to gain success through the sole use of a website. People are no longer satisfied with a simple information-providing website. It needs to give them something more, something new. Otherwise, your website will not stand out, and it will not be able to do what you intend it to for your brand.
If you want to make the best out of your website by making it as responsive as possible, make sure you read this post until the end. We will discuss what a responsive website is, the essential features it must have, and how to build one using a code-free platform for website development.
What is Responsive Web Design?
A responsive web design is essential if you plan to bring in revenue to your business through your website. Having a responsive web design is one of the best ways to drive conversions because a responsive design ensures that anyone who visits the website will have a clear way to sign up for more. When a website is responsive it makes you feel welcome regardless of who you are and what the website is trying to offer you.
To have a responsive website design means that whatever one wishes to do when they reach your landing page, they can do it easily. Whether it is to navigate to a different web page or get an answer to a query. A responsive website ensures that you are at ease constantly and you do not wish to click off because of the lack of information you are receiving.
A successful website and a responsive website have merged into becoming synonymous terms. Because the purpose of creating a website for any business can only be fully carried out if it has a good response due to its responsive design.
A responsive website is, in its simplest terms, a responsive website is any website that renders well on all kinds of devices. It does not discriminate its viewers based on what device they use to reach your website. The responsive website ensures that it is equally compatible with all possible devices from which it might be viewed. Continue reading below to learn a few ways to ensure that your website has a responsive web design.
5 Tips to Achieve a Responsive Website Design
Below, you will find listed 5 ways to make sure your website is responsive enough to qualify as a responsive website:
1. Insert Appropriate Breakpoints
We have added this point at the very top of the list for a reason; people are often misguided regarding breakpoints and think they do not matter when it comes to having a responsive web design. However, if you insert breakpoints throughout all the information and paragraphs on your website, it definitely increases its chances to render properly. The website has a better opportunity to show proper interface in a wider variety of screen types by rendering properly. Without messing up the other elements on the web page like the media and animations, that too.
2. Have a Fluid Grid
Instead of pixel measurements, website building software now uses a fluid grid. The fluid grid predetermines the placement of elements on a web page. For a responsive website, it is essential for the fluid grid to be able to adjust per the screen it is being viewed on. It is much easier for a fluid grid to do so compared to pixels. That is why it should be used to build a responsive website.
3. Test the Responsive Web Design Yourself
Probably the most efficient method to ensure that your responsive website is functioning as it should is to test it out yourself. This is much better than asking other people to check for you. The results this way are accurate and tell you exactly what needs to be fixed so you can figure out how to do so.
4. Use Only Eligible Media
By eligible media, we mean using media compatible with the plethora of possible screens that your website can potentially be viewed. People often make the perfect responsive website by doing everything right, but they add a bunch of incompatible media to ruin it all. Please make sure to avoid doing that at all costs.
5. Pay Attention to the Button
Specifically, make sure that any buttons placed on your site for navigation are easy to tap on from even the smallest devices. If they can do that, they will be easy to use from any kind of screen, touch or not!
A Few Examples of Good Responsive Web Designs
Here are several good examples of websites that are impressively responsive.
1. Dropbox
If you are looking for the perfect example of a responsive website that has used fluid grids to their full potential, then Dropbox is the website for you. They have perfectly incorporated their media and other animations into their grid that it does not matter what device or type of screen you access the website from. It will be perfectly responsive for your device wherever you access it.
Image taken from Dropbox
2. Shopify
Shopify does a great job in not only making sure that their website is responsive but also that the layout is consistent on all websites. This is a very rare circumstance where a site has been successful in being able to do so. Only the call to action portion of their site adjusts according to the device you view it with.
Image taken from Shopify
3. Slack
In contrast to what Shopify does, Slack’s responsive website is very good at completely transforming its layout according to the device it is being accessed from. And it does a mighty good job in doing so for sure. That is because the rate of responsiveness in its web design remains top-class no matter how much the layout changes.
Image taken from Slack
4. Wired
The Wired responsive website is always full of surprises. You can never guess what it will look like when you access it from a new website. Even if you have accessed it before as well. They keep innovating their layouts by testing their responsiveness, and this obviously turns out to work in their favor.
Image taken from Wired
5. GitHub
Github does wonders with the animations it uses on its website. And at the same time, it maintains its responsive nature as well. It is truly an experience to visit this website regardless of the device you use to visit it. Whether you browse its mobile website or open it up on a desktop, it looks equally neat and beautiful.
Image taken from Github
The rest of the responsive website examples we have below are from sites created on Strikingly. Strikingly provides responsive templates that allow users to build code-free websites, which can be browsed smoothly and neatly from any kind of device.
Image taken from Strikingly
Most of our users do not have to put in any effort to convert the desktop version of their website into its mobile version. When you are in the Strikingly editor, you can simply click on the mobile icon at the bottom of the left panel to view what the web page will look like from a mobile device. If you want, you can make minor adjustments to how the website content shows up on a mobile phone, but that’s usually not required.
This ease of use of the Strikingly editor is among the main reasons our platform has built a large customer base worldwide over a relatively short time.
6. Lever & Bloom Coffee
This is the responsive website of a company that sells coffee and other expresso-based drinks. The two screenshots below show the desktop and mobile versions of the site. You can see how the text and images adjust perfectly to the screen size they are being browsed.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
7. Natural Shilajit
This is another website built on Strikingly that promotes and sells herbs and other organic ingredients good for health. The screenshots show the subscription form on the site from the desktop and mobile versions. The form and the image next to or above it fit perfectly on any screen size. The website's color scheme also blends in nicely with different types of devices. This is thus a typically good example of a responsive website.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
If you are interested in building a responsive website on Strikingly, you can start by signing up for a free account with us today. Once you verify your email address and sign in, you will be taken to the template selection page to choose your favorite web design. After that, you’ll get access to your new site’s editor, where you can add, edit and update your site’s content.
It’s really that simple. Get your website up and running on Strikingly, and enjoy showcasing your business initiative on it today!
