How to make a responsive web design? A detailed guide

Whether you are a designer or a web creator who is ready to start on a new responsive project, you will need to adjust sizes and proportions instead of just focusing on a fixed layout. Responsive websites adjust according to their dimensions.

Start with wireframes

The first thing you need to do is to plan the layout. There is no better tool for early layouts than wireframes. A wireframe is a simple outline of a future design, useful for organising layouts in a clear and basic way. It focuses on structure without detailed design elements.

The two key attributes of wireframes are simplicity and speed. In the beginning stages of product design, you can experiment and see possible solutions for users. You don't need to spend a lot of time making wireframe pixels perfect. Try to create your layout and get validation from stakeholders and your target audience. Your main focus should be on information architecture and functionality instead of aesthetics.

It's common among people to use tablets, mobile phones, and desktops to browse the web. When creating wireframes, try to address all three groups to see if your design scales well across them.

Responsive breakpoints

A responsive web design is supported by breakpoints. These are the pixel values at which the design is adjusted to allow visitors to see the best possible version of your site on any viewport size.

CSS media queries width and height define the breakpoints. These media queries find the conditions under which specific media attributes are applied. It allows you to change style based on the type of browser or device rendering the content.

Try your best to keep the fewest breakpoints. As designers need to adjust content according to breakpoints, it is ideal to strive for 3 breakpoints for device flexibility. Your primary objective in choosing breakpoints should not be your devices. You should focus on content, and your content must determine how to adjust the layout to its container.

Be mindful of what to show or hide at different breakpoints. For example, we often hide top-level navigation options on mobile and use hamburger menus instead to save space and focus on content. But try not to hide important content that could harm the user experience.

Create responsive layouts for small screens first

Most designers prefer a mobile-first approach when creating responsive web designs. They start by designing the content to fit a small screen size. It is ideal to create a layout suitable for the smallest breakpoint and then adjust it for larger viewports.

Adopt a content-first mindset

When designing for mobile, designers need to decide what content to show and in what order. The limited screen size encourages designers to assess and prioritise content to focus on what's most important for users. This process eliminates essential content from unnecessary elements that can become a distraction on smaller screens.

If you prioritise content, it helps you establish a clear visual flow helping users understand what to focus on first, second, and so on. 

Account for device characteristics

When designing for mobile you design for small screen size and touchscreen. The content and interactive element ls should be optimised for comfortable interaction with a finger. You can use media queries like orientation and aspect ratio to define condition checks and change the design based on the user's device.

Test your design on actual devices

A design may look appealing on your desktop but after some interaction with it on a smartphone you notice potential drawbacks. To avoid this, define a few key tasks users want to accomplish on your site and then perform these tasks yourself on a mobile device.

Construct a fluid grid

A fluid grid is a two-dimensional framework consisting of rows and columns. It allows you to precisely position UI elements on a page. With the right use of a grid, you can avoid situations where individual UI overlaps in different screen sizes, often resulting in a solid, fully responsive layout.

A fluid grid provides the flexibility of creating a customised layout for each already-defined breakpoint to make content and design fit each viewport. If you change the number of rows and columns in a grid, along with sizes and spaces, it will create a better layout for site visitors. There are two types of grids that can define the size of rows and columns

Fixed

You will need to set the size of your columns or rows to a specific number of screen pixels to create this grid. A fixed grid type means one or all of your rows and columns will maintain a fixed size across all devices.

Fluid

This type of grid automatically adjusts to the available screen space to maintain a consistent look and feel across multiple screen devices. You will use fractions as a measuring unit to make the size of grid items proportional to each other.

Images Optimization 

The quality of images has a great influence on the perception of design. A web page with crisp, properly sized images will make a more positive impression on visitors.

But there is one problem: as images are not naturally fluid, you can still change them to varying resolutions. Make sure your visuals retain their highest quality and correct aspect ratio on every screen size. Here are a few things you need to consider:

Resize images with CSS

You can resize your images with CSS with its width and max-width attributes that allow images to adapt to different screen resolutions. 

The width property sets a specific size for the image, whereas max width adjusts the size of an image while maintaining its aspect ratio.

Use Scalar Vector Graphic Images

Images in JPG and PNG formats have fixed resolutions but SVG images don't depend on resolution because they are a vector format that allows the images to scale in size without losing quality.

In the end, SVGs maintain the same quality at all resolutions without needing any extra optimization. You can easily scale SVG files and vector graphics.

Choose responsive typography

Like images, text is also a building block of responsive web design. Good readability and legibility together ensure a great user experience.

When selecting a font family, make sure to choose ones that work well on large and small displays. This will allow your typeface to scale perfectly across different resolutions and screen sizes. It is highly recommended to use web-safe fonts or other best fonts like Roboto and Helvetica to optimise a good look at different resolutions.

After choosing a font family, you must ensure your text is scalable when you resize the screen. There shouldn't be a need to pinch or zoom the mobile screen to view the content. 

Test your Responsive Web Design

Once you have created a responsive website, you must use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to test its mobile-friendliness. 

Then, test your site across various screen sizes using tools like Chrome Developer Tools. During testing, ask yourself the following questions.

• Does the layout adjust properly to maintain the correct number of columns on different screens?

• Does the content fit neatly within layout elements and containers on all screen sizes?

• Are the font sizes appropriate and readable on each device?

Using these tools and answering these queries will ensure that your website looks and functions perfectly across all devices.