The Internet is home to many million web pages. Every day, websites are added to the World Wide Web. Advancements in technology and innovation have made it possible for people to access the Internet even when they are on-the-go. Different devices that support internet access come with varied specifications. This is one of the challenges that website designers face. This is also one of the reasons why responsive web designing has become a buzz word these days.
What is Responsive Web Designing?
Responsive Web Designing also known as (RWD). This concept deals with designing and creation of web pages that are compatible on a wide range of devices that support Internet. RWD includes designing a web site that provides users with the best possible viewing, reading and navigation experience. In a nutshell RWD boils down to three elements. They are:
- Media queries
- Fluid images and grids
Media Queries
Media Queries are the most important aspect that a web designer has to take care of while working on RWD. They deal with a set of guidelines and rules that help designers design websites in such a way that they are viewed minus distortion of any kind regardless of the device the user views them on. To achieve this, guidelines and rules must be saved in an individual CSS style sheet. It is recommended that these guidelines and rules are not stored in the universal style sheet of the document. As a web designer you can create a new style sheet and link the same in the HTML code. The number of media queries that a document can have are limitless.
Fluid images and grids
Website designers are working on designing websites that can be viewed on a plethora of screen sizes. To ensure that your website can be viewed of different screen sizes that exist and that do not exist, you must work on creating flexible layouts. Initially, only standard layouts were popular. However, flexible layouts have gained a lot of popularity these days.
Websites have images and text as part of their design. Web designers must ensure that the respective image does not fall out of its box when viewed on various screen sizes. To achieve the same, the maximum width of the image is set to 100 per cent of the width of the screen or the web browser.
Tools to achieve RWD
RWD can be applied to existing and new websites. You can take advantage of the various tools that are available in the market. Here’s a list of a few of the most popularly used tools.
Responsive Design Testing
This tool helps you test your website as you design and build it. To test your website all you need to do is enter the URL in the address bar section on top of the page. Visit the link http://mattkersley.com/responsive to use this Responsive Design Testing tool.
Mobile Emulator
This tool lets you test your website’s display in a mobile phone terminal. You will be asked to enter the real screen size in inches. To use this tool visit the link http://www.mobilephoneemulator.com/
Other RWD tools that you can use are Code Bomber // Resizer, Responsive Design Bookmarklet, resizeMyBrowser and Screenfly among others.
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