We have come a long way from the days of pinching and zooming shrunken desktop versions of websites on our phones when browsing the internet.
With the meteoric rise in the use of smartphones and tablets, you'll only be doing yourself a disservice by building a website that isn't designed to work on a wide array of devices. This is where responsive design becomes essential.
Responsive design is a design technique that involves structuring the layout, elements, and content of a webpage in such a way that it maintains structure and user-friendliness irrespective of the device it is displayed on.
On smaller screens, such as mobile phones and tablets, elements will automatically collapse on top of each other and form one single column.
What is UI & UX?
UI stands for User Interface, while UX stands for User Experience. These two terms are the most conflated and confused terms in web and app development. Although they are integral to each other, their roles are quite different and require different approaches.
User Interface (UI) is the layout or structure of a webpage or an app. It is the look, feel, presentation and also how you interact with the product. UI is the aesthetic aspect of web development and design. Principles such as colour theory, flow and creative use of negative space all come into play. We utilise things like screen layouts, transitions, interface animations, element colours and more to ensure that every UI we develop is easy to use and intuitive.
User Experience (UX) on the other hand is the overall experience of an individual using a website or web application. User experience is determined by how the user interacts with a product, especially by how easy and satisfying it is to use.
User experience is a result of the user interface. The two things are individual aspects of web and app design, but interdependent at the same time. UI determines what the platform's front end will look like, while UX is a result of what it looks like and how easy it is to use.
Are you in search of a company that will develop stunningly beautiful and responsive user interfaces? One that will nurture a positive user experience?
Why responsive design?
Responsive design offers users an optimised browsing experience that is a perfect balance of functionality, convenience and aesthetic appeal. It makes websites more user-friendly regardless of the device they are viewed on. This can help improve website rankings in search engines, boost site traffic and increase the length of time visitors spend on a site, very useful for sites that primarily function as click/sales funnels or as lead generation tools.