Responsive design is certainly the buzzword for web design these days, and for good reason. The proliferation of mobile devices, accounting for around half of all web searching, gives added importance to making sure your pages render well on any device. There is a lot to consider here, and if you’re not actually designing it yourself, (most of us are not!) you do need to have at least a basic understanding in order to explain your needs to your developer.
That said, let’s look at 5 tips you’ll want to make sure you address when implementing responsive design.
5 Important tips for Responsive Design
Make a plan – Real no-brainer there, but you’d be surprised at how many times specific plans are not made, resulting in far more cost and time wasted than need be. You have to be able to communicate your needs to the developer clearly, and doing so will require some work on your part.
Use images wisely – Imagery is an easy area to trip up on in responsive design. They have to be sized properly, and nearly as important, need a consistent path when they are called. This requires either setting exact measurements, or flexible grids based on percentage of page needed. If you do this, make sure to test it on every device platform to find out if anything gets distorted.
Keep your textual content brief – No one wants to read tons of text on a small screen, so don’t make them! Tailor your mobile content to hit the high points, and perhaps even summarize. Linking a more complete version of the content on your main site is not out of the question either.
Test calls to action and button sizes – On smaller screens, the size and visual impact of a call to action and accompanying button come in to play. You don’t want them to miss it, or worse, have the button so small that it’s challenging to actually click. Not good. Test religiously.
Aim for a clean design – Omit anything you absolutely don’t need, Mobile searchers are known for even less patience than the average Web surfer, and if your page is loading slowly thanks to unnecessary elements, you lose!
