From big brands like Sony, Nokia, Microsoft to tech giants like Salesforce to online travel companies such as Expedia, they are moving towards responsive web design to stay competitive and reach wider audiences.
Regardless of the device your users utilize to visit your website, it’s your responsibility to offer an optimal experience. Developing a responsive web design should be a priority. There are some downsides to responsive web design that need to be addressed by developers.
In this article, we will discuss six common responsive web design problems along with their solutions. Let’s take a look.
- Hiding and Removing Content
Websites with elements such as advanced search results, data tables, calculators, UI elements, multi-step forms, dashboards with third-party scripts, and so forth often lead to problems as they contain so much information. The obvious solution is to hide or remove content, but some users assume they should have access all the available data even when using small screens. Often, users have no way to access all the desired information on the device they are using.
The solution is that the responsive web design services provider should plan everything from the onset. This will help them determine how the content can be placed so that they don’t need to hide anything from customers. The aim should be to optimize the content as much as possible, removing unnecessary elements and emphasizing the main structure of the website without adding extra details. Keep it simple and straightforward. The best option is to offer access to the full version of the website to the customers if they want to see it.
- The Appearance of Background Images and Icons
Images play a crucial role in enhancing the overall user experience. In responsive web design, icons and images need to be flexible to enable users to enjoy the graphics on the high-density enabled devices, which are becoming more prevalent. Every designer and developer should aim to make sure that images do not look blurry and poorly scaled.
Lazy loading images can assist in optimizing browser rendering and decreasing the number of HTTPS calls by deferring the loading of pictures that are not in the client’s view. Using SVG format, designers can create high-quality, light icons that will be retina-ready and scalable. This helps make sure visitors enjoy the website without compromising the quality on any device.
- Providing a Valuable Experience that Loads Quickly
One of the significant constraints is finding the balance between the rich-user experience and the quick pace of the internet. A website developed with responsive web design works for users of both mobile and desktop devices. This can result in slowing page load times and affects the user experience. Mobile users end up leaving your site if it does not show the expected results within five seconds.
The solution to this problem is conditional loading, which implies loading only those elements required by the user. The ideal process looks like first load content, then come the enhancements, and then everything else. Nowadays, users are want to see a lot images, documents, downloads, and galleries on a website. The designer should keep the mobile-first approach in mind and focus on prioritizing only those essential elements. The message of the website must be conveyed.
- Longer Developing, Designing, and Testing Periods
The responsive website has to work excellently on multiple devices all the time, all while offering an exemplary user experience, rich functionality, and complicated ensign elements. Therefore, the development of these sites takes longer than usual to build, design and test. Generally, it takes double the time to make a responsive site compared to general site development.
The problem itself has a hidden solution. The fact is that responsive web design takes a longer time to develop, but it also allows for gradual changes and natural evolutions. It does not require the incorporation of major overhauls to a site which is time-consuming and labor intensive. It enables the step-by-step evolution of the site, which ultimately saves time and effort in the long run.
Mobile users surpass desktop users in the current market and the possible solution to effectively cater to their needs is conditional loading. Future changes are relatively more straightforward in conditional loading as it utilizes enough automating tools for scaling and caching images.
- Mobile View vs. Desktop View
Let’s take, for instance, any website that has been created with a padding of 200px. The user will be able to view this website perfectly on the desktop. But when the same website is viewed on the mobile phone, it will look disoriented. This is one of the most significant issues found in responsive web design and must be checked thoroughly by developers responsible for the site’s mobile view.
This problem can be rectified by ensuring that your website is built with a responsive web design. The best possible solution to the above-discussed instance can be using “Percentage” rather than “Pixels.”
The “Percentage” option will showcase the content based on the resolution and size of the content. When the device’s screen size is small, the content should automatically get adapted according to screen size and shrink the content. Contrary to the pixels, it will showcase the fixed value of spacing as incorporated during development.
- Dismissing Touch
The main emphasis of the developer is to build a website that offers a seamless experience over the mobile device. But sometimes, they end up abusing or forgetting touch. In addition, scroll can be pretty messy and that can lead to poor user experience.
Ensure that all the sliders, buttons, and navigation are visible and easily accessible. To provide a better scroll experience, designers can utilize the smooth scroll feature to ensure the page’s navigation is smooth and precise. Additionally, scroll snap can be used to ensure that the scroll always snaps in the right direction.
Wrapping It Up!
As the number of smartphone users continues to grow, so should businesses’ efforts to accommodate mobile experiences. Companies need to watch for the top web development trends to offer a seamless user experience. Responsive web design is one of them. It plays a significant role in ensuring that your users get the best user experience while scrolling your site.
Author’s Bio
Brian Comel is a skilled web designer at a well-established company. He has thorough expertise and excellent knowledge of the latest web designing trends that make him a valuable asset for the company. When he is not at work, he spends his time writing technical blogs that are interesting and worth reading.
