Survival of the Fittest: Conquering Responsive Website Design

With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets today, serving the needs of mobile browsers is no longer acondary consideration when it comes to designing (or redesigning) your website. From the ground up, it’s critically important to ensure that you are building a platform that will look beautiful and perform elegantly no matter where or how a user might access it. While you can create a dedicated mobile site or app, responsive design offers a smarter, more flexible, more agile solution that will ultimately deliver a greater long-term return for your investment.

Defining responsive design

Responsive design is the concept of building a website so that the layout of the site adapts and changes according to the resolution of the user’s browser. Using this approach, you can build a single site that will look just as good on a monitor that’s 2048 pixels by 1080 pixels as it will on an iPhone that’s 320 pixels by 480 pixels and all browser sizes in between without the need to build a separate dedicated mobile version of your website. Ethan Marcotte, the forerunner in the field, identifies the three key ingredients of responsive design as follows:

• Fluid grids
• Flexible images
• Media queries

Wait, fluid what? Media what? Let’s take a step back and define these terms in plain English. Every website is developed based on a grid that governs the scale of and relative position of objects (such as navigation menus, images and text) to one another. A fluid grid has the ability to shift and reposition select elements of the site based on certain conditions in order to preserve the properly defined scale for layout, size and spacing. “Flexible images” mean that the images contained within the site’s design should scale in size and shift in position according to the dimensions of the device being used to access the site (larger images on large displays, smaller ones on phone screens, etc.) And media queries? Media queries are used to intelligently detect the size of the browser window and the device being used to access the site and bring back the correct layout for optimal viewing and navigation according to those parameters. But these technical elements only govern the mechanics of the site. What ultimately determines the success of a website that’s built on a responsive design framework is its ability to provide a user interface that’s both visually pleasing and easy to use. After all, responsive design isn't only about resizing stuff to fit within different screen resolutions; it’s about presenting users with a the best possible experience, both in terms of layout and content. With that in mind, here are five key UX/UI factors that must be taken into consideration in order to maintain the integrity of the user interface and protect the quality of the user experience when employing a responsive design framework.

Catering to the needs of visitors

Users accessing your website from different devices have different needs. For example, if someone visits your website from their iPad during their daily commute on the train, they’re only going to dig so deep. For example, while they’ll likely be interested in perusing your latest blog post, they’re not going to be looking for the bios of your board of directors or your privacy policy. You must think about each type of user that will be visiting your site and let their needs and interests dictate the way your site molds and conforms itself to the size of their browser or device.

Intuitiveness

Being innovative is a good thing; being too innovative is not. If, for instance, you decide to change the color of hyperlinks to an indistinguishable shade of black or invent new navigational conventions that perplex your visitors, you’ll send them running in the opposite direction,and the design will be a total failure. The purpose of responsive web design is to empower users to visit your website and browse freely and according to the conventions that are most natural and familiar to them, irrespective of the device they are using.

Touchability

Who can refute the fact that touchscreens are growing more popular with every passing day? Almost all major smartphones and tablets use touchscreen interfaces, and even certain laptops and desktops are being offered with touch functionality. Touchscreens needs to be treated differently. For example, in the world of the touchscreen, there is no such thing as a hover state. If, for example, you have “previous” and “next” buttons that would normally appear only when a mouse rolls over them, those elements would be unavailable to your touchscreen users. For finger-friendly navigation, all elements must be big, bold and obvious. Buttons that require users to mouse over them to get a sense of action must be replaced with style enhancements that draw attention to their “pressability.” It’s also a good idea when catering to touchscreen users to keep the navigation or sub-navigation menu to the right. Why? Because the majority of your users will be right-handed, so the menus will be more conveniently accessible if they’re on the right rather than on the top or left.

Images

While layouts, structural elements and text can be made flexible, images require special attention. Improper alignment of images can ruin even the greatest of designs. Images need to be automatically adjusted to ensure that the website looks awesome in either portrait or landscape mode (remember: most portable devices nowadays can switch instantaneously between views, depending on the user's whims and wishes). Also, when resizing images on the basis of the screen resolution of the device, care needs to be taken so that the images do not lose their quality. If a given image contains the logo or the name of the website, it needs to be given prominence, whereas footer images can take a back seat. The best is to load the images in their original size, unless the viewing area becomes too narrow for the purpose. When that happens, it means the user is on a mobile device, and the image needs to be narrowed in accordance with the screen width. This is the very essence of how smart responsive web design works.

What to show (and what to hide)

With responsive design, we have the ability to rearrange web elements and make every thing fit on the screen, no matter how small it is. However, making every single aspect of a normal web page available to mobile users is not only unnecessary but it can render your site practically unusable on smaller screens. For mobile devices, navigation, content and functionality must be pared down significantly to focus on those features that are most useful to users while on the go. For example, while mobile users frequently comparison shop on their phones, they might not be as likely to actually go through the entire purchase process on their handheld device. Therefore, while product information and pricing is key, e-commerce options should be extremely streamlined.

A Showcase of Responsive Design

To demonstrate just how effective responsive can be, let’s take a look at a few examples of companies that have embraced this new approach in building their sites. In each example, the full version of the site is show first, followed by a version as it appears on a mobile device.

Hicksdesign

Art Equals Work

City Crawlers: Berlin

8Faces

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The Next Big Thing in Website Design: Wearable Technology

5 years ago, if you would’ve told me that people would be using mobile phones with tiny screens to access website content, I would’ve said that you were crazy. Obviously, I would have been quite wrong.

Today, I have clients who see more than 50% of their traffic come from mobile devices. The rise of those devices has changed the web design industry more so than any other thing I have seen in my 15+ years of designing and developing websites. Today, I see some of the signs I saw at the start of that rise in the growing popularity of wearable devices.

In this article, we will talk about what these wearable devices are, how they are used, and how their adoption may affect your business and your website.

What are wearable devices?

As the name suggests, “wearable devices” are ones that consumers actually wear on their body, as opposed to ones that they simply carry with them like a smartphone. Popular wearable device examples would be smartglasses, like Google Glass, and smartwatches, like the Moto 360 from Motorola or the forthcoming Apple Watch.

Each of these devices allow users to connect to the Web and access online content, and all of these devices feature screen sizes that are much smaller than what you will find on current smartphones. If you thought that it was a challenge to get your website content to be effective for a mobile phone, think about that same task now applied to an even smaller form factor!

It is that smaller form factor that is often given as a way to dismiss wearable devices ever being used to visit websites. Many people question whether a person would even want to access web content on those small screens. This is the same argument that was made early on in the rise of mobile devices like smartphones. The problem with this thinking is that it assumes that the wearable device is being used on its own, when in reality, the strength of these devices is how they connect as part of a larger ecosystem.

A connected ecosystem

Recently, we have been testing and experimenting with some wearable devices in our offices, including the aforementioned Moto 360 smartwatch and Google Glass. While these devices are amazing and powerful in their own right, they really begin to shine when they are paired with other devices, like a smartphone.

Yes, the tiny screen of a smartwatch makes reading long blocks of content or doing data entry on a webform uncomfortable, but those tasks can easily be bumped over to a connected smartphone. The watch can be used to filter this information. Instead of digging into my pocket to get my phone to check my emails or view online updates, I can more easily scan that information on the watch. Then, once I have identified something that requires my attention, I can switch to the phone, a tablet, or even a laptop of desktop computer to complete that task. In this way, I am using each device for what it does best – and both of them are accessing web-based content.

By connecting devices, you can also create actions or “triggers” based on certain parameters. For instance, in our testing we were able to take a picture with Google Glass and automatically publish that image to our Twitter account. Pretty cool, but we wanted to really take it a step further and see how far we could push this concept of connected devices and automatic actions. To do this, we purchased a MindWave headset from Amazon.com. This device measures brainwave activity. By using Bluetooth to connect that scanner to Google Glass and a smartphone, and with a little additional programming, we were able to create triggers that activated when certain thresholds were met. The first of those triggers caused Google Glass to snap a photo. The next trigger posted that photo to Twitter. These “triggers” were activated when the brainwave scanner sensed a change in a person’s brainwave patterns. We were able to demonstrate the process of automatically taking a photo and uploading it to social media – all with no input required other than changing the way we think.

Admittedly, this demonstration was a bit over-the-top by design. I do not expect consumers to start running around with brainwave scanners anytime soon, but the lesson here is that these devices, when connected as part of a larger ecosystem, can become so much more than the sum of their parts. As website owners, we really need to stop thinking about devices on an individual basis and start considering them as part of a larger whole.

Embracing the concept of "one Web"

When smartphones began to really gain popularity, companies realized that they could no longer ignore mobile by simply allowing their “normal” site (which was created to be used on a desktop computer, not a smaller handheld mobile device) to be sent to those phone screens. The solution that many companies embraced during this time was to create a separate “mobile-only” site for visitors using a smartphone. This solution became strained as tablet devices entered the market next.

Technically considered a mobile device, but with a screen size closer to a laptop than a phone, tablets really forced companies to question this “separate sites” approach. Yes, you could create one site for large, desktop monitors and another for mobile phones, but would you now create one for tablets –

leaving you with 3 sites to manage and maintain? With the rise of wearable devices, will you need to create a new site for each distinct wearable category? That is a long and expensive road to travel.

The desire to have only one website to manage and maintain has led to the adoption of responsive web design as an industry best practice. Responsive web design allows you to have one website that will automatically change its layout based on the user’s screen size. This was helpful when we had to consider mobile phones and tablets. With the rise of new wearable devices, this concept of “one web” is even more important.

If you intend to develop separate sites for each possible screen size, you will always be playing catch-up. As new devices enter the market, you will need to create a new site for each device type, which means you need to endure the time and expense of constantly rolling out new sites. This can quickly becoming overwhelming.

The reality is that there is no “mobile web”, there is just one Web and as the emergence of wearable devices has shown, our customers are using a variety of devices to access that Web and the content we put out there.

To do now

As wearable devices go from a novelty being used by the few to a way of life for the many, we want to make sure our sites will be ready. Don’t think wearable devices will ever be popular with consumers or used to regularly access web content? Again, that is exactly the argument that was given when smartphones first began gaining popularity, and we can see how that turned out. No, the question of wearable devices is not “if” they will impact our websites and audience, it is “when” they will do so.

If you have not already embraced the “one web” approach on your website, now is the time to really start exploring that option. You can begin by testing your website out on a variety of devices. If you have the ability to purchase these devices at your business, that is great, but even if you do not have the budget for devices purchases, you can still test your site on them. Visit your local Best Buy or other electronics retailer and see what new wearable and mobile devices are available today. Access your website on those devices to get a feel for what your customers may be seeing if they are visiting your site with similar devices.

You can also speak to your web or marketing agency about the rise of wearable devices and how to best prepare your site for them. By being proactive about wearable device support on your website, you can be a leader in the rise of these new devices, instead of a company trying to play catch-up after the fact.

 

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