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Today, accessing the internet is done not only through a laptop or desktop but various other devices like your smartphone, your iPad and even your Kindle. Naturally, as the ways of accessing the internet increased, so did the requirement that a website look the same in all the interfaces, irrespective of screen size and platform. Not only does the website need to look the same, but it also needs to perform according to what the user is using to access it. So, when you design a website keeping in mind visitors from a particular device or platform, you miss out on visitors from other platforms or devices, which is something website owners want. Hence, what is the solution? The solution is a web page that responds to the users’ environment and behaviour and changes the size, orientation and working of it accordingly. And that in short is what Responsive design is.
Responsive Design: A Short History
The first person to come up with the concept of a responsive web design was Ethan Marcotte in 2010. His suggestions included using media queries, fluid images and flexible grids to create a website that automatically fits the screen size of the device that is accessing it. When his article was published, it was a sensational hit in the web design community. Ethan Marcotte forever changed the way we design webs and so the term he created was used to characterise this kind of web design.
Since then web designers worldwide have focussed on these three components and others while designing their client’s website. However, there is two distinct division among them; one group designs primarily focussing on the desktop while the other design keeps in mind mobile devices. The latter, in recent years, has become more important than the other because of Google’s ranking, which goes in favour of mobile-first responsive web design. This is still a new territory when it comes to website designing, and its future is going to expand as more devices emerge like AR headsets and smartwatches.
What Are The Three Main Components Of Responsive Web Design?
Before delving into the upcoming trends of responsive web design, let’s first see what the three main components of Responsive web design are, as envisioned by Ethan Marcotte.
Fluid grids
The main problem with people using different screen sizes to view a website is that, when designed for one platform, the design elements will not sit properly when viewed from a platform it was not made for. The concept of fluid grids was introduced to solve this problem. Fluid grids are flexible columns within a web design that can grow or shrink depending on the screen size of the device the user is using to view the webpage. That means elements placed within those grids will also resize making the website look the same and easy to access no matter where it was being displayed.
Flexible Images
Flexible images also run on the same principle; the content inside a fluid grid can resize depending on the screen size, and so should the image. And that is done by using the “max-width” trick. The reason why images often “overflow” is because the container is flexible but the image is not. Hence when the container resizes, and it is lower than the set width of the image, the image overflows. “max-width” solves this by setting the width to 100% and the image resizes itself as the container resizes.
Media queries
Media queries are CSS media queries which was a newly introduced concept when the idea of responsive web design was proposed by Ethan Marcotte. It became mainstream in 2012 when W3 made it an official recommendation. Media queries are nothing but CSS rules that are triggered depending on certain options like media type screen, print, etc. or features like width, height, etc.
The media queries when introduced were very simple but developers were able to use them to implement the basic breakpoint. A breakpoint is how a website changes its design layout depending on the device width or browser window. But today more sophisticated media queries are used to create responsive web designs.
2024 and beyond is going to be a Renaissance period for responsive web design as the way users access the internet is changing fast. So, let’s take a look at the trends that are going to be at the forefront in 2024.
Important Trends Of Responsive Design For 2024
Dark mode optimization
Mobile devices long have the option of going to dark mode where users see light-coloured text in a dark background. Mobile devices automatically turn on dark mode to save the eyes of the users, especially if being used for a long time. One of the emerging trends for responsive web design in 2024 is going to be having websites that look good when in dark mode. This is to make sure that the website design remains the same no matter which device’s dark mode it is being seen on. Some of the elements that are essential to this optimization include:
The contrast between the background colour and the colour of the text is well-balanced so that the users can easily read it and the text looks legible even when the light is low.
Considering the visual hierarchy of the elements that are present within the UI (User Interface). This is achieved by using different shades of dark colour in the design to maintain separation, depth and focus of the interactive and key elements of the page.
It gives the option to the user to toggle between dark and light mode while browsing the website. It also focuses on automatically selecting the mode depending on the mode being used by the visitor’s device.
Paying ample attention to the typography of the design so that dark mode text is easily readable and legible. The fonts and font-weight need to be selected carefully so that it doesn’t appear heavy or bold when seen in dark mode. The designer needs to select the font colour and size very carefully so that it doesn’t become illegible when seen in dark mode.
Mobile-first approach
Another trend in responsive design that is going to be very important in 2024 is adapting the mobile-first approach while designing a website. As said before, the need for responsive web design started when there were multiple ways of accessing a website. Hence when designing a website, a web developer could focus on either the desktop-first approach or the mobile-first approach. In the last few years, there has been a sharp rise in mobile devices being the preferred choice of accessing the internet. Hence the approach of the web designer is now more on mobile-first than desktop-first, and this is going to become more important in 2024 and beyond. One of the reasons for that is Google’s algorithm which pays attention to this while ranking a website. As for how this is done, and what are the benefits of adopting a mobile-first approach, here are some important ones:
In the mobile-first approach, there is a limitation to the usage of unnecessary scripts, large images and complex layouts. By designing a page that has minimal of them, the page loads faster for both mobile and desktop. With a proven fact that users go away from a website if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds, this only increases the traffic of the website and also the retaining of visitors.
The core functioning of a website and its content can be easily viewed irrespective of device and platform when a website is designed with a mobile-first approach.
The mobile-first approach is the natural successor of responsive design because it uses a fluid grid system and media queries to create a website that is adaptable to any screen, size and platform from day 1.
SEO is the lifeblood of website traffic and mobile-first approach to design fits perfectly in it. As said before, search engine algorithm prefers website with mobile-first design more than others and it also ranks higher because such websites are also accessible to people with disabilities.
Scalable Vector Graphics or SVG
One problem many developers face when using images is that they sometimes lose quality while scaling. Responsive design means flexible images, hence this problem is often a hurdle for website designers. The solution to it, which is becoming important and will be in 2024 is Scalable Vector Graphics or SVG. It can be used not only for images but also for illustrations and icons as well. This is an XML-based vector image format where images are defined using mathematical formulas. This is sharply different from raster-based image formats generally used like PNG or JPEG where fixed grids of pixels make up the image. In SVG, every aspect of an image, like its lines, colours, and shape is described through mathematical formulas. Hence when it is scaled, there is no loss of quality or clarity. As for its benefits, here are some:
The images created through SVG are scalable to any size without loss of quality. The shapes and lines of the image remain the same whether viewed on a desktop, smartphone or even a smartwatch!
Since the images don’t depend on pixels, resolution doesn’t matter to its look. Hence it looks the same whether seen on a high-resolution supporting device or low-resolution supporting device.
The file size of an image created through SVG is much smaller than a raster-based image. Hence when used on a web page, it means the page loads faster.
Since SVG images have text alternatives, they are ideal for differently-abled users who can access the image easily. They can read the content of the page better because of that.
Responsive animation
Another aspect of responsive design that is fast gaining importance and will see much development in 2024 is responsive animation. Simply put, this is a kind of animation that adjusts itself depending on the user’s device and platform. It is used for various functions from providing feedback, guiding users, creating transitions, enhancing visual designs, dynamically showing data, making the website more usable and accessible, improving the performance, etc. Various technologies go into making of responsive animation from SVG discussed above to CSS, JavaScript, Web Animation API and Canvas. Some of the most important types of responsive animations are:
Scroll animations: This is fast becoming the most important and used responsive web design element as it can perform various functions. Used when users are browsing or scrolling a website, it can guide user’s focus, create an interactive experience, trigger events or actions, hide parts of the website, etc.
Parallax scrolling: This kind of responsive animation results in a webpage where different layers of the website scroll at different speeds. This technique is used to create an illusion of movement and depth and the user is immersed in a sense of storytelling and is also drawn to the important element of the page that the website wants to focus on.
Though introduced just a decade ago, responsive designing is now the backbone of website design. One can truly say that this decade and the coming years are going to be the Renaissance period of responsive web design as newer technologies and trends come up. The world of responsive design is changing fast, and so, to keep up-to-date with the changing times, you need to familiarize yourself with these trends that are going to be very important in 2024.
