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Responsive Web Design | What Is It, Why Is It Needed And Its Principles.
The theme of this article is the responsiveness of sites, so we decided to talk more about what adaptiveweb design is, why it is needed and what are the basic principles of adaptive web design.
Responsive web design is a fairly new direction in the design of web resources, but now it is one of the main indicators of website quality. In this article, we will talk about what responsive web design is and how it happens.
What is responsive web design?
Responsiveweb design is a web page design that provides excellent experience on a variety of devices connected to the Internet.
This means that the same site can be viewed on a variety of devices, regardless of resolution and screen format – smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc. At the same time, browsing will be equally convenient for all formats – users of mobile devices, for example, will not need to expand individual areas of the site so as not to miss the link.
Responsive design is designed to make web pages and display their content appropriate to the device from which they are viewed.
Why is responsive web design necessary?
1) A wide variety of devices from which you can access the Internet. Currently, there are many devices that people use, including in order to access the Internet. All of these devices differ in screen size, resolution, and, accordingly, how the website can be displayed on them. Therefore, it is important that your site looks good and displays correctly for any of the users, no matter what device it uses.
2) The popularity of mobile devices with Internet access and an increase in mobile Internet traffic. With the growing popularity of mobile devices, the number of users who visit their sites from them has increased markedly, so you can’t simply ignore them – this is not just one or two people in half a year, this is a significant part of your audience, and it should be convenient for them to use your site (otherwise they will not do this).
3) Urgent information. If your resource contains news / urgent information, and it is highly likely that the user may need to read this information from the phone (because he doesn’t have other devices at his fingertips) at a given time, you need to make sure that he has the opportunity to do.
The difference between an adaptive site and a mobile version (application) of a site.
Mobile versions of sites and mobile applications specially designed for various mobile devices also solve the problem with the convenience of viewing the site but have some disadvantages.
1) For each type of operating system, you need your own application/site version. This requires additional resources, both temporary and monetary.
2) The need to download the application. In order to use your application, users need to download it. This requires some additional effort from users, and many will not do this if they are not sure that they really need the application and plan to use it regularly.
3) Traffic separation. From the point of view of website promotion, a mobile application is not convenient in that it shares all the traffic of a resource into website traffic and application traffic, which will look like less website traffic.
4) The need to integrate site materials. In the case of a mobile application, you must either synchronize the site with the application (additional resources) or do double work to fill the site and application with materials.
Unlike mobile applications, responsive design is one site address, one design, one management system and site content.
Of course, a responsive design also has its drawbacks, the main of which is the relative novelty of the technology and, as a result, the lack of good specialists and knowledge about the design of adaptive sites.
Responsive Design Principles.
Design starts with a responsive mobile website. At this stage, designers seek to correctly convey the meaning and basic ideas using a small screen and just one column. Content is reduced, if necessary, by removing secondary information blocks and leaving the most important.
Design for mobile devices from the earliest stages (“mobile-first”);
Application of a flexible grid-based layout (flexible, grid-based layout);
Use of flexible images (flexible images);
Work with media queries (media queries);
Apply gradual improvement.
Responsive Layout Types.
In the article on Habrahabr The main types of adaptive layouts that exist at the moment.
1) Rubber.
Simple to implement and user-friendly type of site presentation. The main blocks are compressed to the width of the screen of the mobile device, where this is not possible – they are rebuilt into one long tape.
2) Block transfer.
An obvious way for a multi-column site: when the screen width is reduced, additional blocks (sidebars) are transferred to the bottom of the layout.
3) Switch layouts.
This method is most convenient when reading a site from various devices: a separate layout is developed for each screen resolution. The method is time-consuming, therefore less popular than the previous two.
4) Adaptability “little blood”.
A very simple way that is suitable for simple sites. Achieved by elementary scaling of images and typography. Not very popular because not flexible.
5) Panels.
A method that came from mobile applications, where an additional menu may appear with horizontal or vertical tapas. The main drawback is the non-obviousness of actions for the user: it is very unusual to see mobile navigation on a website. But over time, the method can become quite popular.
It must be remembered that the models presented above are not universal solutions – for each project it is necessary to choose the most suitable method for the needs and possibilities.
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