Creating a website that looks amazing on all devices, is a key part of securing your success online. And this means creating a website that responds to the screen size, and orientation of the device used to access the website. To do this effectively, it’s important to follow some rules that have been set out through extensive research and testing. So what are these rules? And how can following these rules help your company achieve more online? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design and web marketing experts. We provide stunning web design solutions for companies and businesses across Manchester, and the North West, including Southport and Wigan. As a result, we have produced this guide to the rules for responsive web design.
What are the most important guidelines for responsive web design success?
There are several rules for responsive web design that any website should consider. These include:
- keeping to a minimalist design
- obvious buttons and links
- optimised images
- design consistency
Minimalist design
For a responsive website, your design needs to look good on the biggest screens, and the smallest. This can be a challenge if you have a primary goal in mind, of targeting the larger desktop website. With a larger screen, you will be tempted to cram this design with as much useful info, and as many relevant buttons and images as possible. But this will not translate well to a small screen. So think of your mobile users first. Mobile search has already overtaken desktop searches, so the chances are, a lot of your potential customers will be using a mobile device. And this means a minimalist design will be better. To achieve this, consider:
- removing anything that isn’t necessary from each page
- evaluate your website and only keep the necessary aspects that people are actually using
- keep the design central
Obvious buttons and links
For users to be able to interact with links and buttons on every screen size, you need to plan for the most difficult first. Mobile users can find it difficult to click on small links or buttons that are not big enough. So, when designing any call to action buttons, navigation links, or linked images, make them slightly larger than necessary. And always test on a range of mobile screen sizes too.
Optimised images
There is nothing worse than loading a website, and the images are simply the wrong size. Whether you’re using a mobile, and the images are too large to see, or a desktop and the images aren’t aligned or sized correctly, it can seriously impact on the user experience. Negatively. So make sure your images are optimised, to respond and adapt to changes in orientation and screen size.
Design Consistency
For effective responsive design, your mobile site needs to look like your desktop site. The design decisions including colour, sizes and typography need to be consistent across all designs, so that your users can make the link between them. You also need to make sure things like sizing are consistent on each page of your website too. Otherwise this can be confusing.
For more information or advice about the considerations for responsive web design, or any other web design query, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.