Mastering responsive design for mobile devices.

You need a mobile website for targeting mobile users. Many web developers follow the path of cramming everything from desktop version of website into mobile version of their website. You may have spent months to optimize the content but mobile platform is different game altogether. The goal of mobile website design is to not shrink the current website but designing a different website optimized for mobile devices. Here are few tips to follow to get a responsive mobile website design.

Understand what responsive design means

The primary aim of responsive design is to create optimal user experience across all devices. The responsive design are He Hheheh responds well to user interaction and provides easy navigation control and reading. The user should be able to bring up content on the screen he/she wants within few taps

Making a responsive design doesn’t mean hiding or abandoning the content to keep things simple. The user expects to see the same content (of desktop website) on your mobile website but just in a different format. Many mobile websites use the Hamburger menu but that is not always a good idea. There is no point in making the user hunt for information. You have only few seconds to convince the user until he chooses to leave your website. Responsive design calls for balance between content and navigation.

Don’t hide the content behind menus

Use Adaptive images

It is a proven fact that images speaks better than words. Using product pictures is important in mobile website but you need to optimize images for a responsive site. You can use image management technique that scales images automatically as per the size of the device screen. Adaptive images are easy to use. All you need is a line of JavaScript, one .htaccess file, and one PHP file. This allows you to drag and drop images in root directory. You can then customize images like anything and ensure they are displayed well on all screen sizes.

Mobile device have a touch screen interface. But don’t make a mistake of sacrificing design aesthetics to achieve responsive design. You need to understand the difference between a touch/tap and click. The elements of the design should be simpler, larger and should respond well to the imprecise touch of human finger. It is necessary that your design is able to size the average human finger. Too small design will show that your website is not optimized for mobile devices.

Don’t ignore design for the touch

Take advantage of all mobile technologies

Just having a perfect layout is not going to help. It is necessary you leverage every mobile technology available to make design more responsive and user friendly. For example, the “Call Now” button on your mobile website should initiate a call. The design should also incorporate features like user’s location, auto-fill forms, image recognition, and barcode scanning.

You need to focus on creating fluid layouts as you never know which devices your customer are going to use. Hence, you need to design a layout that changes and adapts automatically to the screen size and orientation. You can easily achieve this by designing the layouts in percentages and not in pixels. This way you don’t have to worry about screen size or pixels and find perfect layout for every device.

Keep file sizes smaller The loading time directly depends on the file size. To provide

optimal user experience, you need to focus on avoiding large file sizes. You can include same content as your desktop site but reduce the file size for faster loading times. This way you can ensure, users do not have problems accessing your website even on slower data connections. You can make the menu more accessible and place content within links. Users wouldn’t mind accessing more content through menus if it is easily accessible.

Be creative Though you have to be watchful about nitty-gritty technical aspects

while designing your mobile website. You should never forget your brand is equally important. Try to be creative in your design. If you fail in your efforts, it’s worth as a learning experience. Don’t be afraid to try new things, you never know what might click with your targeted audience.

These simple tips can be taken as guidelines when you design responsive website for mobile devices.

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