Responsive Web Design – RWD, the earliest responsive website was audi.com released by Audi in 2001. However, the name and theory of responsive web design were officially established by Ethan Marcotte in an article published in the online magazine A List Apart late in 2010, coincides with the mobile devices from scratch and gradually to dominance.
With the popularity of mobile devices like smartphones, mobile APPs are blooming these years. Over 50 percent of electric transactions are through mobile devices. Therefore, born for large screens traditional website has reached its critical juncture.
Because the traditional website does not take the small screen mobile terminal as a consideration in its design concept originally, its performance on the mobile side is a disaster. Whether it is expression form or content presentation and interaction, it is unbearable ugly.
However, the traditional website has been developed for decades of years, and the whole internet world has literally left its mark, and moreover, the traditional website is not a bullying, arrogant and willful one. It deserves to be kept and continually contribute to our world.
Fortunately, with the rapid development of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, the adaptability of traditional web pages to mobile terminals is getting better and better.
The core concept of responsive web design
- Mobile priority. When building a website, based on the smallest screen, then build these basic elements to achieve a reasonable display of the big screen. This is a complete subversion of traditional web design in terms of methodology.
- An artist lives everywhere. A set of code that adapts to all terminals. With responsive programming, we can run across browsers and devices with just one set of code. This is a good way to save money and economic for both programmers and customers. After all, it is us, are the so-called common destiny.
- Mobile orientation thinking. A key element of responsive design is to allow users to do everything on the phone as convenient as on the phone. Moreover, users cannot be required to learn another set of knowledge systems in order to operate the website on the mobile phone.
- Redefinition of images and videos. Since the range of adaptation may be from 320 pixels up to 2000 pixels, it is necessary to prepare the image processing and performance differently. A picture with a strong impact and appeal on the big screen is likely to give the user very strange sensory stimuli on the phone, which is definitely not what we want. Same as the video.
- Everything needs to be natural and fluid. Users will not pay attention to the story, theory, struggle, sadness, and so-called mental journey behind web design. They only care about their own experience and feelings. This is human nature, no one can be an exception, including you and me. So, please note that the wild and bold headlines on the desktop may be forcibly interrupted and changed on a much smaller device. The font size needs to be changed according to the screen size, but don’t think that the small screen means impossible small text. User experience, user experience, user experience. Repeat three times for important issues.
The benefits of responsive web design
Some people have summarized the top ten benefits of responsive web design, here I emphasize one of them, and list the others instead of, which is the benefit of SEO. Responsive web design sites have an additional SEO advantage over these search rankings for search engine optimization and high-quality content, stronger backlinks, and better bounce rates.
Beginning April 21, 2015, Google Search will expand its mobile-friendly applicability as an algorithmic factor in search rankings. – Google
Having a responsive website instead of a separate desktop and mobile version can avoid the drawbacks of content duplication, and content duplication can have a negative impact on the search ranking of the website.
Other benefits of responsive web design:
- More traffic from the mobile side;
- Enable faster mobile development at a lower cost;
- Reduce maintenance requirements;
- Faster web pages;
- Reduce the bounce rate;
- Higher conversion rate;
- Easier analysis report;
- Improvements in the online browsing experience
- Improvements in the offline browsing experience
The future development of responsive web design
With the popularity of the H5 responsive self-service website system, more companies and individuals can complete the production of responsive websites. The rapid development of responsive website technology makes responsiveness no longer based on display level adaptation, but incorporates more interactive features, greatly improving the user’s browsing experience.
Nowadays, the Internet has entered the era of mobile. The way people access the Internet has changed a lot. The screen size is extremely uncertain. If a corporate only needs to build a website to adapt to different terminal systems, different applications network carrier, so it has excellent convenience, but also helps to reduce the cost of building a website and the manpower of website operation!
The traditional website is limited by fixed width or height and shows the same content with the same style model to different devices. Well, the so-called responsive website means that the content displayed on the front end of the webpage is alive, that is, the content and the style will be different on different devices such as desktop computers, notebook computers, mobile applications, etc. With this technology, the webpage can adapt to any terminal that can display the best results on any terminal.
In terms of current development trends, a responsive web page will replace the traditional web design, both in terms of the market and the design. The Internet is changing every day, with the development of more technologies, more powerful ideas will emerge.
Conclusion
Responsive web design has been applied almost 20 years. With the renewal of concepts and changes in demand, the combination of adaptive web design and PWA will be the trend in future. Which is, it is not good enough just considering the layout and style, the market needs more, like APP function for example. If you have a need for responsive web design and PWA features, please contact us.