RWD: WordPress can do more than just design

As web developers, almost every client we work with wants their website to have a mobile version of their website. As screen sizes and resolutions vary more and more, it will be impossible or at least impractical to design a website for every device and screen resolution out there.

In this post, we’ll start at a basic level by first defining what responsive web design is, why it’s important, and some brief considerations that must be taken into consideration when brainstorming a responsive WordPress website.

What is responsive web design?

Wikipedia defines RWD as:

The web design approach aims to create websites that provide the best viewing experience on a variety of devices, from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors, and are easy to read and navigate with minimal resizing, panning and scrolling.

Responsive web design involves the application of CSS media queries and a combination of flexible grids and layouts. I’m sure you’ve heard of CSS frameworks like Bootstrap, Foundation, etc. They all use media queries for mixed layouts to render pages based on screen size, platform, and orientation.

For example, when using Bootstrap, you can make your project responsive by simply inserting the following lines of code on the tag

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<link href="assets/css/bootstrap-responsive.css" rel="stylesheet">

In Bootstrap, media queries allow customizing CSS based on a variety of criteria (ratio, width, display type), but generally focus on min-width and max-width to

• Resize title and text to better fit the device
• Stack elements instead of floating when necessary
• Modify the width of the grid

Please note an entire hands-on series dedicated to teaching how to build responsive web designs using this specific framework

Why is RWD important?

In our discussion so far, we have established that an important feature of a responsive website is the website's ability to adapt to any screen size or orientation when a user views it. Beyond that, there are other important reasons why you should switch to a responsive website

Mobile device usage increases

Nowadays, quite a few people have access to mobile phones. This means that many of them access the internet through their phones. Statistics show that almost 20% of Google searches today come from mobile phones - which should tell you how important it is for users to be able to easily access and interact with your website.

With mobile internet usage surpassing desktop usage statistics, we need to ensure that users can identify our website no matter what device they are using without feeling like they are accessing a different or restricted version of the main website.

Significantly increase conversion rate

Conversion rate is one of the most commonly used terms among e-commerce websites and refers to how well you convert regular web visitors into paying customers. In the classic case of e-commerce solutions, think about how many people shop on their mobile phones.

If the average web user is forced to use the desktop version of your website for a simple checkout, then they will most likely choose to purchase the same product using another method. With a well-designed responsive website, users shouldn’t notice any difference other than using a smaller screen when conducting transactions on your website.

Improve search engine ranking

Search engines like Google openly promote responsive web design for many reasons:

1. It is much easier to crawl a responsive website, index it and organize the website content in a simpler way. This is because responsive websites use just one URL across all platforms, rather than having different versions of the same website on different URLs.
2. User experience can be easily assessed by looking at your website’s bounce rate. A website with a low bounce rate means users will stay on the site for a while, resulting in higher search rankings.

Cost-effectiveness

Running multiple websites for the same content can be expensive, requiring you to double the resources to maintain both sites. Having a responsive website is much easier because you will be able to invest all your resources and time into meeting the true expectations of your users.

Notes on Responsive WordPress Websites

There are many factors that must be considered before coming up with responsive web design in WordPress. In fact, WordPress is now used to build blogs, websites, and even apps, all of which may require a responsive implementation.

In the next article, we will look at implementation strategies on how to achieve this in WordPress development. Specifically, we will introduce

1. performance
2. Context
3. Gradually enhance

Understanding these three key factors requires an in-depth analysis to show why responsive design is more than just design, and exactly what role WordPress plays in it.

Summary

In this article, we briefly introduce the concept of responsive web design, defining what it is, why it is important, and why we should consider it in future projects.

Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below!

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