If you are a business owner, you just cannot make do without a website in today’s day and age. A website is undoubtedly the biggest and most effective channel to bring revenue to your business. Responsive websites are the ones that not only help in customer acquisition but also customer retention. That is why having a responsive website design is essential. You cannot just build a simple website and expect it to fuel your business. Without a responsive website design you will remain at the risk of enormous losses.
When you have a responsive website design, the traffic generated onto your site is immaculate. If you check out any responsive web design example you will notice how noticeably true this is. A responsive website design helps build trust and create a comfort filled environment for your audience. It also increases the chances of reaching new customer segments. A responsive web design does not discriminate and helps reach even the customer segments that you may not have included in your target audience initially.
However, before you set on the journey to create a responsive web design for your business, you need to have ample information on what responsive websites really are like. You need to be made aware of the features necessary to classify your website as part of responsive websites. So, keep reading this article further to learn more about responsive website design.
What is Responsive Web Design?
Responsive web design is the act of making all the web pages on your website compatible with all kinds of devices and internet browsers. Regardless of where someone is accessing your website from, if they can view your website in the full proper format, you have a responsive website design.
Responsive websites use the web development approach that makes all the web pages on your website adjust according to circumstances. That too, without the need for the viewer to change any settings on their device. This means a good responsive web design example does the most with asking the web page visitors to do the least to assist it.
A responsive website design is a further developed version of an adaptive website design. Where an adaptive website design has a predetermined set of templates that it chooses from, there is no such case for a responsive website design. Responsive websites come up with a layout according to the current need on the spot instead of picking one from the already existing ones.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
10 Ways to Attain a Responsive Website Design
Below, you may find listed and explained 10 ways to attain what it takes to be part of the list of responsive websites. Remember, if your website design has all these features, it will be able to grab and maintain your audience's attention, which in turn will help you grow your client base faster.
1. Accurately Placed Breakpoints
A breakpoint on a website is the extent to which a website will automatically adapt to the type of screen it is being viewed from. If not placed appropriately, your responsive website design will flop instantly. That is why this point is at the top of our list today. The most basic element of any responsive web design example will help you go a long way, even if you slightly mess up the rest of the steps to create your responsive websites.
2. The Fluid Grid
In contrast to the websites that were created with the help of pixel measurements, responsive websites are now made up of a fluid grid. Like breakpoints, the fluid grid is an essential part of a responsive website design. The fluid grid is made of web elements that help proportion the website contents following the access point of the website. Columns, widths, and heights of all the website content are scaled with the help of a fluid grid, making it easier to be viewable from any screen.
3. Consider Images and Videos
Even if you make use of accurate breakpoints and a well-designed fluid grid, still images and videos on your site will most probably have to be coded separately. That is why you need to note every image or video on all of your web pages. You can only provide your audience with a completely responsive website design experience.
If you use a website development platform with a drag and drop interface, you can most likely insert all kinds of images and videos into it without disturbing the code sequence. You can also consider using information designs, vector art, and cinemagraphs to make your web pages more enticing and appealing to the audience.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
4. Typography
Typography on a website has to do with the font sizes of any words that appear on your website. For a website to be considered built on a responsive website design, it needs to have a defined and adaptive typography. The typography needs to be coded to fit the viewer’s screen.
In case of using a website building platform, you will most likely have the option of setting a consistent font style throughout your web pages. Ensure consistency in the way your font looks when your website is browsed through different devices.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
5. Testing Your Design
Once you think you have done everything you need to do to make your website the ultimate responsive website, you have to test. This shouldn’t be an option for you. It should be an essential part of achieving the best responsive website design. This way, you can trial and error and decide what variables best fit your website design. Some ways you can use to test your website’s responsiveness are:
- Use the toggle feature on your browser
- Open your website from different kinds of devices
- Try accessing your website from new IP addresses
- Use the Google resizer
6. Consider More than Just Layout
Yes, the layout is not only important but imperative to consider and perfect a responsive website design. But, a smooth user interface is important too. Once the layout aspect of it all is completed, you need to check whether the interface is still running smoothly or not. Speed and buffer time is all included in this. For instance, if your web pages load super fast on a desktop but take too long on a mobile device, you might face a high bounce rate as most people might be viewing it from their mobile phones on their first visit.
Image taken from Strikingly user’s website
7. Utilize Gestures
Gestures are a feature that is comparatively recent in its emergence. It makes navigation across web pages super easy and also fun! It is compatible with mobile phones and helps make any layout come to life without giving it speed issues, hence creating a responsive website design.
8. Use Javascript as a Backup Option
If Javascript is programmed onto your website design, it will automatically be activated if it ever fails to be responsive for a device. More often than not, Javascript will be able to develop a responsive enough option to be considered acceptable on the viewer's device.
9. Flexbox Layout
Sometimes a fluid grid does not work. That is when the flexbox layout comes in handy. A CSS design module approaches the situation at hand differently than a fluid grid does. It diversifies the responsive qualities of your website one step further.
10. Pick And Choose
Not everything needs to appear on all screens. But what appears needs to appear properly for it to be a responsive website design. So, for the case of smaller screens, decide what part of the web page need not be visible and code your web pages accordingly.
The Modern Ready to Use Website Templates
There is a rising trend of individuals and organizations using website building platforms to create their websites. The reason is that these platforms or tools provide templates that are entirely ready to use. All you need to do is select one that best suits your purpose, and use it as a ready-made website design.
If you build a website on Strikingly, you can access many website templates, which allow you to add your website content to them through our user-friendly editor. The editor has a drag and drop interface that saves time in arranging your content elements. Our features are built with the ease of use of our customers in mind.
Image taken from Strikingly
The best part is that all our templates give a responsive website design to your site. Your site visitors can browse it smoothly through any device without getting the menu stuck or seeing jumbled-up content.
At Strikingly, our objective is to provide all our users a convenient and time-saving experience of creating, launching, and maintaining a website. When your site is responsive, your viewers also have a good experience spending time on it. This, in turn, works out well for your search engine rankings.
Besides being responsive, our templates are also attractive and easy to navigate. This further helps our users direct their audience's attention towards their products and services. We intend to continue providing flexible and excellent customer support to our users through our live chat.
If you are interested in making a responsive website design but prefer not having to work on it from scratch, you can also develop a website on Strikingly by signing up for your free account on our landing page.
