Building a responsive website: Our Process
There are a huge amount of variables involved in building a responsive website, and there is no ‘standard’ template - each and every project will be different because each website will have different goals. An important part of the design process is determining the goals for your site.
We use a ‘mobile-first’ approach to thinking about websites. This means thinking about your site with all of the constraints of mobile – small screen size, limited attention, limited bandwidth. Designing with all these constraints in mind allows the mobile experience to be the best it can be. It will also service the core priorities for your site – improving the experience for users across all devices.
Small screen sizes force you to prioritise what really matters to your customers and business. There simply isn’t room for anything else. Slow connections and limited data plans require you to be vigilant about performance, resulting in fast-loading websites everywhere
Luke Wroblewski - Mobile First
We will work with you to help define the priorities for your business and for your website – developing a robust underlying structure and information architecture for your site, focussing on navigation and user flow through the site.
Once this solid foundation is in place, then we can start the visual design process – how your website will look, considering the layout both for large and small screen sizes. We will present you with static design mock ups, but may also utilise responsive wireframes to demonstrate layouts for different viewports.
Depending on the project we will be also be thinking about, image sizes, handling high-density screens, javascript usage and page size and download time. All of these factors come together to provide not only a great mobile experience, but a great mobile experience across all devices – a responsive website.
If you’re interested in how your website could be more ‘mobile-friendly’ then drop us a line and we’d love to talk you through your options and see how we can help your business.