Responsive design aims to create a single site that people can access from different devices. There is no need to create
multiple versions of the same site. Today’s Internet users access the web from many different devices.
A website must work on all of these devices. Users are surfing the web with tablets and smartphones more than ever before and it is the wave of the future that more mobile phone viewing will grow.
Most users don’t appreciate sites that require them to do additional work to use them. Your site should be responsive if it is mobile-optimized. Users will be able to navigate the site easily. Page design should be accessible to both touch screen and mouse users.
Smartphone users might swipe across their screens to see all columns, but it is best to ensure they don’t have to. Images should automatically resize so that they don’t look distorted.
How to Make a Website Mobile-Friendly and Responsive
The method you choose will depend on how much time and resources you are willing to invest.
These are just a few options that you might consider.
Avoid Using Image-Based Headers
Responsive design has one drawback. If your website has an image header, it might not display well on all devices.
Responsive Images, a WordPress plugin, allows you to create headers of different sizes that load based on the device’s size. This plugin will allow users with less mobile device capabilities to download smaller images.
You can compress and resize images with BeFunky for free.
Get a Responsive WordPress Theme
WordPress is becoming more popular because it’s the most accessible solution. If you have a WordPress site, search for a responsive theme.
GeneratePress, Astra, and The Daily Dish themes are my favorite. WP Touch is a plugin you can use with most themes and has a consistent layout/design across all sites. However, a plugin may not be compatible with all WordPress themes.
Use Media Queries (CSS3)
You can add media queries to an existing design if you don’t have a responsive theme or an HTML/static website.
The browser will ignore the sidebar on devices with a minimum width of only 480 pixels.
Be Sure to Pick Your Programmer Carefully
Don’t be tempted to save money on development. You won’t get more than you pay for.
The price of good developers is worth it. You should be open to working with them and ready to discuss any details they might have.
Another thing to think about…
You wouldn’t want to hire people who leave only stock responses. Before you submit your job request, be sure to understand the project’s scope.
Take, for example:
Which elements of your website should be omitted or shown on mobile devices? List them. Be specific.
Determine if you need a complete redesign of your site or Media Queries to rearrange the content for smaller devices. This will significantly affect the cost of the job.
You should make a list of all components on your website that are likely to be viewed on mobile devices. This includes email forms, widgets, and menus. You should discuss these with your webmaster.
Make sure that they have a plan in place to handle your images. Do you have any websites you would like to use as a model for your design? If so, ensure to include them. Ask for examples of responsive design work that they have done.
Outsource Your Mobile Responsive Design
You can hire someone to do the job if you don’t want to bother with all of it. Sites such as Elance or oDesk can help you find qualified designers. You can also view their work history and get feedback.
If your current design is complex, outsourcing might be a better option to save you from having to redo it all again.
Things to Avoid with Responsive Designs:
- Thinking that one-size-fits-all will work
Mobile devices are smaller than computer screen sizes. You must use responsive design more effectively in the site layout.
You can use Smartphones to make calls or to find the location of users. Browsers should also access more APIs which will allow more web pages to be available anywhere.
- Hiding important content
Responsive design can hide any part of your website. You can hide your sidebar for tiny devices, for example.
This should make sense for your site. Mobile users should not face penalties for choosing the device they prefer. You must ensure that your website’s most important functions are accessible.
- Not using a robust design
No matter what dimension you are working with, your designs must be robust.
- Websites’ slow loading
You must ensure that your mobile users are willing to wait for the page’s loading to be fully realized if you want to offer a full-size experience on their mobile devices.
Other Things to Consider When Designing Your Mobile Website
- Pay attention to the hierarchy of your content
You can remove website content if it doesn’t work on smaller screens. Hide sidebars and widgets when resized to suit mobile devices. You can decide what you must hide and what must remain.
You can handle sidebars with responsive themes. They are below the content. No matter the screen size, ensure that you arrange your content correctly.
- How are menus managed?
Some navigation is not great when they become responsive. This can cause nav to break on mobile screens if you don’t manage it properly. When designing your website, think about the small screens.
- Use different devices to preview your design
Use different browsers to check the effectiveness of your designs. You can use different sizes and, if you are working for a client or a company, show them the different ways that the site will behave.
- Does your design handle video?
Video embedding can be a problem if you have many videos on your website. To properly resize your video content, you need to use specialized HTML.
If you’re a YouTuber, you don’t need to add anything extra because the embed code is responsive (iFrame).
Conclusion
Mobile website design is a complex process. You should test your site on every platform that you can find and provide
accurate feedback to your developers. Be specific about how you want the interaction to work.
It can be challenging to design responsively. Take your time and ensure you achieve the desired outcome to bring success to your business around the world.
I hope that this has answered some of your questions but if you are still not sure about how to create a website that will load as quickly onto mobiles as onto computer screens please leave a comment and we can discuss solutions.
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Warm Regards,
Lily Munday
Thanks for your post. With people using tablets, iphones, androids, it’s really important for website owners to make their websites able to load on these devices. When I launched my site, it wasn’t mobile friendly. I didn’t realize that my visitors didn’t appreciate that my site required them to do extra work in order to access it. So I made my site responsive and mobile optimized. I use WordPress as that is the best platform to use if you want your site to be mobile friendly. Their themes are fantastic and mobile friendly. Thanks again for your post.
It sounds like you understand about being mobile optimized Shalisha. It is so important as we all do a lot of research on our phones and that is only going to grow each year.
I think this is a problem I have with my website. I don’t think my website is user friendly thus leading to me losing people coming to my website. Maybe you can check out my website and let me know what you think. I will be sure to incorporate your tips into my next article.
I’m so pleased that you now understand how critical it is to make your website mobile-friendly. You can look under details in your website section to see the Google Site speed and make changes to speed up the loading of your articles.