As the web matures and the number of devices we access it from increases exponentially, the world of web designing is growing more complicated. In this blog, we’ll focus on big concepts (not the basics) of web design to give you a solid foundation for developing your skills.
They include:
- The multitude of devices
- Web standards
- Progressive enhancement
- Responsive web design
- Accessibility
- Site performance
So, let’s get started.
A Multitude of Devices
Until 2007, our biggest concern was dealing with multiple desktop browsers. The introduction of the Android and iPhone smartphones, as well as the 3G network, introduced a huge shift in web surfing habits. Since then, tablets of different sizes, as well as web browsers on TVs and other devices, were already in existence.
The challenges of designing for all existing is not just about fitting differing screen sizes. There is a significant difference between browsing a website over broadband and over the latest 5G network. Some users browse the web on a smartphone while using a fast WiFi connection. Put simply, it is complicated!
In the future, an increasing number of people will be accessing the web on devices other than desktop computers.
The existing tools and technologies are not entirely suited to support this variety and web browsing pattern. The way you see your designs on a desktop is not how it will be experienced by everyone. Being a web designer, you should keep this in mind.
Web Standards
The HTML, CSS, and JavaScript standards are a good way to start dealing with the diversity of devices, web browsers, and users. These three standards are documented by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
All web designers should stick with these standards to design websites that work well on all standards-compliant browsers. It also makes your content compatible with evolving technologies and browser capabilities. In addition, you can tell your clients that you create “standards-compliant” websites.
Progressive Enhancement
The diversity of browsers introduces many levels of support for the web standards. But until now, no browser has implemented 100% of all these standards because of evolving technologies. So, web designers must work with a wide range of browser capabilities – known and unknown.
Progressive enhancement helps in dealing with unknown browser capabilities. This makes the content or functionality available to even the most assistive devices or rudimentary browsers. Then, you layer on advanced features for compatible browsers.
Responsive Web Design
By default, web browsers on small devices shrink web pages down to fit the screen. Although you get zooming and moving mechanisms, this is not a great experience. The text is too small to read, and the links are too small to tap.
Responsive web design provides custom layouts to devices based on the size of the browser window. It serves a single HTML document to all devices while applying different style sheets according to the screen size. For example, a web page appears in one column with large links on a smartphone. The content of the same page is rearranged into multiple columns for a desktop browser view.
Add Examples of Responsive Mobile vs Web View
It’s worth noting that responsive web design solves the layout problem. But it doesn’t address all web design challenges. To deliver the best experiences for your users on their chosen devices, you may need to think beyond adjusting the look and feel of web pages. In some instances, servers detect the device and its capability to decide what to send back and how to display. For some websites, it’s best to create a separate mobile site with a customized interface and features to leverage phone capabilities like geolocation.
A responsive design doesn’t fix everything, but it’s an important practice for satisfactory experiences on almost all web browsers.
Accessibility
People access the web differently – with mouse pointers, screen readers, joysticks, magnifiers, and more. Web designers must design pages while eliminating barriers to getting information, regardless of the user’s device and ability to access the web. In simple words, design for accessibility.
Primarily intended for users with disabilities, the techniques for accessibility also benefit other users with less optimum browsing experiences, such as slow modem connection or handheld devices or with JavaScript turned off. Furthermore, accessibility is one of the key ranking factors for search engines, such as Google.
Four major categories of disabilities that affect how people interact with their computers and the web:
- People with vision impairment may use an assistive device such as a braille display or a screen magnifier to read content from the screen.
- Users with mobility impairment (limited or no use of their hands) may use special devices such as foot pedals, joysticks, or modified mice and keyboards for web browsing.
- Users with auditory impairment rely on multimedia alternatives, such as transcripts for audio tracks or video captions.
Site Performance
Website performance is critical no matter how users are accessing it. A study by Amazon.com showed that every 100ms in added page load time costs 1% of your business revenue. Many other reliable studies have proved the significance of speed for websites.
Our team of web designers at Symphony Software does many things to improve the performance of your website. We can optimize images on your site, keep JavaScript to a minimum, don’t use unnecessary elements, and do everything that can improve your website’s speed.
Are you looking to benefit from all the big concepts of web designing? Discuss your project with Symphony Software.
Our team consists of experienced and skillful web designers who can design the best-performing websites with cross-browser compatibility and accessibility.
So, contact us today for web design services.