Responsive web design isn’t just a feature anymore—it’s a necessity. People are accessing the internet via smartphones and tablets more than ever, and more than one in ten American adults use mobile phones as their only means of going online.With internet-ready mobile devices here to stay, In order to keep websites running optimally, implementing new techniques and refining your ongoing approach is a must.
Let’s take a look at responsive web design techniques you can apply today:
Media Queries
CSS3 looks to help Web developers separate content creation (their page markup and functionality in HTML and JavaScript) from the presentation of that content and handle layout for different dimensions entirely within CSS via the introduction of media queries.
A media query is a way for a developer to write a CSS3 style sheet and declare styles for all UI elements that are conditional to the screen size, media type and other physical aspects of the screen. With media queries, you can declare different styles for the same markup by asking the browser about relevant factors, such as device width, device pixel density and device orientation.
Media queries are one part of the solution to providing truly responsive Web layout; the other is content that scales proportionally to fill the available screen.
Scaling Your Site Layout Responsively
when we design responsive sites, we want to make the grid layout agnostic of the user’s screen size. This means we want our layout and content to scale to as much screen real estate as is available (within reason), instead of providing two or three fixed-width layouts.
Images and Photos
The biggest concerns around images relate arguably to the most important part of the user experience—namely, performance and page load time.
Can You Replace Your Images with CSS?
Most modern browsers (Internet Explorer 10, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Safari) support the following CSS3 features, which developers can use to reduce the number of image downloads a user needs while accessing a site. Also, for older browsers, a number of these techniques degrade naturally (for example, the rounded border just gives way to a square border on Internet Explorer 8 and earlier), and this way your sites are still functional and usable on older browsers.
Conditional and lazy loading
Conditional loading improves the user’s experience based on their device feature. Tools like Modernizr allow you to test for these features, but be aware that just because a browser says it offers support, that doesn’t always mean full support
Responsive typography
Typography is about making your content easy to digest. Responsive typography extends this to ensure readability across a wide variety of devices and viewports. Jordan Moore admits that type is one thing he isn’t willing to budge on. Drop an image or two if you need, but make sure you have great type.
CSS Sprites
One of the most effective ways to reduce a page’s loading time is to reduce its requests, and CSS sprites can do just that. Combine your small and common images into one single file, and then use that for your CSS sprites, allowing you to serve one site across multiple platforms.
The Grid
Using a grid system keeps your work clear and consistent. It facilitates a smooth workflow, allowing you to balance the elements of your design and work proportionally. It also gives your website an unchanging structure from one page to the next. However, you should make sure to keep your grid system flexible so you can adapt it to your immediate needs when you need to create a page with a different layout.