3 Tips to Help You Create a Responsive Web Design – Our Guide

Perhaps the best design you can ever think of when creating a website is one that’s called “responsive design.” This is a design that allows the website to adapt to any given screen, meaning that any device accessing that site can adequately display it without issue. 

Of course, creating a responsive web design is much easier said than done. If you’re wondering how you can make the most out of responsive design, or how you can create a responsive website, here are three practical tips to help you out: 

1. Utilise flexible layouts

Other than there being hundreds of different kinds of mobile devices and screens, desktop browsers can also be resized by the user. This means that your website must cater to an infinite amount of resolutions and aspect ratios that come with different devices.

How do you ensure that your website will correctly display on all these different screens without having to create thousands of separate sites for each? Well, the answer is easy: create a flexible layout!

Flexible layouts have become more common in recent years. They allow your webpage to adjust all its content accordingly—images, written content, and others—depending on the screen size that it is being displayed on.

2. Upload resizable images

Images that can resize according to the device are vital in the function of the website across multiple platforms. Unfortunately, images are also one of the hardest problems to tackle in creating a responsive web design. This is because different models tend to resize incorrectly, leaving pictures distorted and blurred.

If you do run into this problem, one of the fixes for this is to implement a max-width rule. This rule states that the width of the image will always be a hundred per cent the size of the screen or browser. This means that if the screen size changes, the image will proportionally resize to fit the new size while still maintaining the right dimensions, effectively avoiding distortions. 

Another way to fix this is to detect what size of the screen the images are displayed on. With that, the browser will load up the right image (either small or large) to ensure that the quality of the picture and loading speed of the site isn’t sacrificed while ensuring that the image fits the screen.

3. Use multiple custom layouts

In some cases, using one responsive layout across multiple devices might not be the best option because not all screens are of the same aspect ratios. For example, a desktop monitor might not have the same shape as a phone’s screen, let alone if the phone is used in portrait mode.

In cases like that, switching to an entirely new responsive layout is a better option. While the website is being displayed correctly on both screens, the layout on a mobile device will be different to capitalise on mobile-friendliness. For example, the text and images might be stacked on top of each other on a mobile device as opposed to side-by-side on a desktop monitor.

There are many ways you can create a responsive web design. Just remember that the main goal here is to create a website that can adapt to any screen it is displayed on, big or small, rectangular or square, portrait or landscape. By implementing strategies such as flexible images, custom layouts, and multiple layouts, you’ll be able to cater to your audience effectively regardless of what they use to access your site, allowing you to enjoy more traffic and a wider reach.

If you’re looking for a web design agency in Leeds, LS25 Web Design is your best option, get in touch with us today to see how we can help.