The following tips for mobile website design and responsive design will help you make sure your site is both responsive and mobile-friendly too. Here are some of our best tips for responsive web design:
1. Learn How Your Visitors Use Mobile
Understand that people will use websites differently on desktop computers than on mobile devices. Consider surveying your website visitors or using analytics to figure out why they're accessing your site with a mobile device and which pages and elements they access the most. This information will help you understand which pages and other elements of your website need to be readily available on smaller screens.
2. Plan Your Design First
Before designing your site, it’s helpful to plan the layout first. Most web designers start by creating a wireframe and then the visual design of the website before moving onto the coding part. Not only will this help you create the exact look and feel that you want, but it will also make it easier for you or your designer to customize the template and integrate it seamlessly with your brand.
3. Be Careful With the Navigation
The navigation is the most critical part of any website. It serves as a roadmap for your visitors and allows them to access other pages on your site easily. On desktop versions of your site, your navigation will usually have visible links to all the relevant pages. On mobile devices, the regular practice is to use a hamburger icon and hide the links behind it.
4. Optimize Images
Images play an important role in your website’s design. They can help you make an emotional connection with your visitors and allow them to visualize the product they're interested in buying. As such, it’s crucial for your images to be optimized for the web.
5. Consider a Mobile First Approach
Another way to approach responsive design is to design a mobile version of your website first. This allows you to see how the images, text, logos, and other elements will look on smaller screens. If they display without problems, then you shouldn’t have any issues adapting your design to larger screens.
6. Learn How to Use Media Queries
Media queries were first sketched as a part of the initial proposal for CSS, but didn’t become a reality until browsers added official support for them in 2012. The main role of media queries is that they allow you to optimize the layout of your website for various screen widths.
1. Learn How Your Visitors Use Mobile
Understand that people will use websites differently on desktop computers than on mobile devices. Consider surveying your website visitors or using analytics to figure out why they're accessing your site with a mobile device and which pages and elements they access the most. This information will help you understand which pages and other elements of your website need to be readily available on smaller screens.
2. Plan Your Design First
Before designing your site, it’s helpful to plan the layout first. Most web designers start by creating a wireframe and then the visual design of the website before moving onto the coding part. Not only will this help you create the exact look and feel that you want, but it will also make it easier for you or your designer to customize the template and integrate it seamlessly with your brand.
3. Be Careful With the Navigation
The navigation is the most critical part of any website. It serves as a roadmap for your visitors and allows them to access other pages on your site easily. On desktop versions of your site, your navigation will usually have visible links to all the relevant pages. On mobile devices, the regular practice is to use a hamburger icon and hide the links behind it.
4. Optimize Images
Images play an important role in your website’s design. They can help you make an emotional connection with your visitors and allow them to visualize the product they're interested in buying. As such, it’s crucial for your images to be optimized for the web.
5. Consider a Mobile First Approach
Another way to approach responsive design is to design a mobile version of your website first. This allows you to see how the images, text, logos, and other elements will look on smaller screens. If they display without problems, then you shouldn’t have any issues adapting your design to larger screens.
6. Learn How to Use Media Queries
Media queries were first sketched as a part of the initial proposal for CSS, but didn’t become a reality until browsers added official support for them in 2012. The main role of media queries is that they allow you to optimize the layout of your website for various screen widths.