Responsive Web Design Guidelines: What It Is and How to Use It

Before getting into the details of responsive web design guidelines, let’s have a short background introduction. The responsive web design, firstly put forward by Ethan Marcotte, is not just about the adaptiveness of screen resolution or the auto-scaling of pictures. Instead, it’s more like a new way of thinking where designers need to consider many factors, such as the device performance, Dom node number and the screen size, etc. Following are several responsive web design techniques for your reference.

How about responsive product design?

The responsive design is out of the product design, which requires the engagement of product managers, interaction designers as well as engineers. It’s of necessity for us to break the traditional way of thinking in the design, shifting from the web to mobile applications. The first step is to build a clear information architecture, then get the design started on the smallest display of mobile devices with the abandon of interference so as to ensure the best experience of the core function.

Meanwhile, the participation of interaction designers should deal with the responsive design problems and the issue of how to make the module much smaller and flexible. They also need to confirm the design style and framework. For the developing engineers, their responsibility is to make the test of coding and programming on the basis of the completed project, taking full advantage of individual device’s characteristics and building frame structure.

Does the traditional media query breakpoints still go popular?

From the perspective of traditional design, it’s possible to change the page layout through Media Query. For instance, we can change the layout in a fixed width (that’s what we call breakpoint). The usual way of thinking is to set breakpoints in accordance with some devices, such as desktop, tablet and mobile phone. As a matter of fact, the media query breakpoint is unreliable as the screen size will continue changing with the development of technology.

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