Responsive Web Design
There are many elements of web design that can make it challenging at times. Modern web designers must meet the working requirements of a website’s standards. Compared to back in the day, websites today can be extremely complex and tedious to work on. One of the main things about websites, if not THE main thing, is that it needs to be responsive. I will touch on exactly what responsiveness is a little throughout this blog. One of the main issues a lot of web designers have is that there are no responsive options for a mobile platform. Visitors cant probably view the website and all its information because of this. This can drive away potential clients, giving a negative impression to users, driving them away.
What is a responsive web design and why is it so important for designers today to use it? Responsiveness in a website occurs when the website responds to the use and the type of device that is being used. Whether it is a phone, tablet, or computer, responsiveness is what makes websites fit any screen without breaking or moving the information on it. Using viewports and breakpoints, there are specifically noted dimensions as to when a website will completely resize all of its content to fit a certain size display or screen. Creating a responsive website may be a little more work in the beginning, but over time it can save time, money, and design problems. The modern web designer must know how to utilize responsiveness in their website design because it has now become both the standard and expectation for higher-level critics and clients. Not only that but doing so enables an easier establishment of design between you and the user.
Above is a pretty neat and clever way to demonstrate how responsive web design works. I thought this was pretty cool, but also really helpful!
So how did responsive web design even come about? A website called “Audi.com” was the first known website to feature the use of viewports as a sign of responsiveness, launched in 2001. Although this was considered advanced for its time, there were some issues with it technically. In one internet browser, everything would work fine without having to manually do anything to show the responsiveness. However, on another browser for example, the page would have to be constantly refreshed from the server when it was resized. As years went on and the internet and its design became more advanced, terminology came about to designers that really began to revolutionize responsive web design. 2013 was named “the year of responsive web design” when it was at its true peak. There have been a huge number of developers and designers along the way who have improved and really taken web design to the next level. Having the ability to create responsive websites without the headache of coding is today’s craze in web design as it thrives in the industry.
One of the most widely used software tools in responsive web design is Adobe Muse. I have used this for an app landing page and it really shocked me to how easy it really can be to create a responsive website without coding (if wanted). With this software, you can create and publish real and responsive websites easily. With free-form layouts and fast loading options, a website can become a work of art. When working with Muse, I discovered that the main goal was to work with the breakpoints. Breakpoints are points and sizes in a website in which the content automatically resizes and scales to fit on the breakpoint size. When I designed my app landing page, the main thing I continued to question in my head was “what size are the devices I am designing this website for?”. With that being said, you would continue on to create a breakpoint at the width of each platform size, since your height is not what will be affected with the resizing of the website.
On the subject of careers in web design, there aren’t too many jobs out there that specifically have the title “Responsive Web Designer”. In this day and age in web design, it is kind of just expected for someone who is knowledgeable of web design to know about and apply the principles of responsiveness. A local job search for “responsive web designer” got me the results of “Junior Web Designer”, “Website Developer”, “WordPress Developer”, etc. The thing that all of these jobs had in common was that they want employees who can make specifically responsive websites!
I hope that this was an eye-opener to you about modern web design. Good luck!
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