One of the hot topics for website design is responsive web design. There’s been some buzz about it ever since the explosion of the smart phone, tablet, and other “smart” technologies. But what does it mean for a website to be responsive?
You know how sometimes you pull up a website on your smart phone and the picture looks distorted? Well, that website isn’t responsive. The goal of RWD is to make websites viewable from different windows of technology. Whether you have a tablet, an iPhone, or a laptop, a responsive website will appear equally clear on all mediums. These days, a lot of web designers recognize the importance of RWD, but it’s still a pretty advanced technology. In 2012, more website design companies will be investing time in responsive sites to increase the viewing population of their clients’ websites. At CODANK web design, we work with our clients to ensure their designs are responsive to a variety of forms of technology.
There are three important things to consider when dealing with RWD: flexible grid, responsive images, and media queries.
Flexible grids make the template of your website moldable on different technologies. You can download flexible grids, or make them yourself from scratch. There are also several types of tools to help you sketch out your templates. First, there are sketch sheets and sketchbooks, which allow you to see what the template will look like before your website goes live. You can keep the designs just like a real sketchbook. Responsive wireframes and multi device layouts also help you see what your template will look like before you proceed with other steps in your responsive web design.
Once you’ve laid out the template in a sketchbook, you can proceed with a template. There are lots of tools out there for making flexible grids.
Next you have to consider responsive images. You don’t wait your images to be distorted when viewers see your website on their smart phone or iPad. There are tools to help convert images on your website as they move from the computer screen to the smart phone. Responsive images are adaptable no matter what the viewing device.
Lastly, media queries help shift your web pages’ elements to make them responsive and adaptable.
Read these articles for suggestions on the specific tools that are out there to help you with responsive web design. As technologies become more advanced, and screens become smaller and more portable, responsive web design is going to become essential in the world of web design.
Getting Started with Responsive Web Design:
50 Fantastic Tools for Responsive Web Design:
Showing posts with label mobile web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mobile web. Show all posts
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Why you should create a mobile website
These days, more and more people are accessing the Internet on the go, leading to the rise of mobile Internet. It is predicted that within a few years, the number of people who use their mobile devices to access the Internet will outnumber those who use desktop PCs and laptops. Although there are a few years between now and then, you should still make sure you have a stripped down mobile version of your website ready since there is such a large chunk of mobile users. If that isn't enough to convince you to optimize for mobile use, here are a few more reasons why.
Non-mobile layouts look cramped. There is nothing worse than trying to use a site on your mobile device where the layout is crammed together and items are overlapping. The small screen size forces elements on top of each other, making it difficult to use. Websites that rely on images or tables are especially bad; elements can mysteriously disappear or render in strange ways.
The navigation doesn't always work. There have been instances where I've tried to use my phone to access a website, but have been unable to because of faulty navigation. Using the arrow keys doesn't always get me where I want to go, and sometimes links are inaccessible due to the way the site is coded and laid out. There are also problems if the navigation uses dropdowns (which don't work in all mobile devices) or if your device uses a touch screen and you're unable to click on the correct link. If users can't navigate a site, they'll go somewhere else for their information.
Mobile Internet is often slow. There are some users who already have 4G and don't have as much of a problem, but there are still users who have 3G network speed and below. My phone doesn't even get 3G speeds, so it can take a good while for non-optimized pages to load. This is especially true if you have a lot of media, JavaScript, or images on your pages. People tend to be impatient when they're on a mobile device - more so than when they're browsing the Internet on a desktop computer. So if you want to keep your mobile visitors, make sure you have a mobile version of the site and test it to make sure it loads within a couple of seconds.
Creating a mobile version of your site is not hard to do - and you don't have to do it alone. You can contact a design company, such as Codank Web Design, to help you create an optimized mobile version of your website so you won't fall behind the times.
About CODANK Web Design
CODANK is a top rated Web Design and Internet Marketing firm located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.
For more information, visit us at www.codank.com
Non-mobile layouts look cramped. There is nothing worse than trying to use a site on your mobile device where the layout is crammed together and items are overlapping. The small screen size forces elements on top of each other, making it difficult to use. Websites that rely on images or tables are especially bad; elements can mysteriously disappear or render in strange ways.
The navigation doesn't always work. There have been instances where I've tried to use my phone to access a website, but have been unable to because of faulty navigation. Using the arrow keys doesn't always get me where I want to go, and sometimes links are inaccessible due to the way the site is coded and laid out. There are also problems if the navigation uses dropdowns (which don't work in all mobile devices) or if your device uses a touch screen and you're unable to click on the correct link. If users can't navigate a site, they'll go somewhere else for their information.
Mobile Internet is often slow. There are some users who already have 4G and don't have as much of a problem, but there are still users who have 3G network speed and below. My phone doesn't even get 3G speeds, so it can take a good while for non-optimized pages to load. This is especially true if you have a lot of media, JavaScript, or images on your pages. People tend to be impatient when they're on a mobile device - more so than when they're browsing the Internet on a desktop computer. So if you want to keep your mobile visitors, make sure you have a mobile version of the site and test it to make sure it loads within a couple of seconds.
Creating a mobile version of your site is not hard to do - and you don't have to do it alone. You can contact a design company, such as Codank Web Design, to help you create an optimized mobile version of your website so you won't fall behind the times.
About CODANK Web Design
CODANK is a top rated Web Design and Internet Marketing firm located in Charlotte, NC. We are dedicated to providing the highest quality, cost effective custom software development services, delivering a broad range of business consulting and outsourcing services.
For more information, visit us at www.codank.com
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