‘Responsive Web Design’ has been the buzz word in the industry lately. Not only are designers going gaga over it, even businesses have realized its virtue and are willing to make their website responsive. The question is whether all of us are completely aware of what a responsive website is. Most people will tell you that a responsive website is one which works on different platforms. While this definitely is one element of the concept, there is something missing here. A site would be truly responsive when it not just works on different platforms, but also offers the same level of performance. What is the advantage of having a multi-platform website when its user experience isn’t consistently appeasing, across platforms? Following are certain things that shall help you efficiently craft a responsive experience for your website users:

Performance

Do you love adding a lot of elements to your website? It, sure, might fascinate you but too many elements are definitely not good for your site’s mobile version. You should learn to prioritize performance over features, and discreetly select only those elements that are extremely important.

Optimized Images

While images look great for your website, they might considerably slow down your mobile site. A simple suggestion here would be to avoid high resolution images, especially in the content pages. If you necessarily need high res images, you can create a separate gallery for the same and link it to the content pages. Certain tools like Adaptive Images might also prove to be helpful. Media Queries: Media Queries are highly popular with website designers as they add more attractiveness to the site. They have become increasingly popular in the recent times. While we agree with the same, the problem is that they might make your website look trail, in case of responsive designing. Again, the advice is to be discreet; keep those Media Queries that are necessary and do away with the rest.

Testing

While testing has become an important part of website development, most part of such testing is performed on fast internet connections or 3G. Do you think that all mobile users can access the internet with such fast internet connections? Many mobile users still use slow connections to access your site. Therefore, you need to test your website on slow connections and/or 2G network to help you target a broader section of people.

Bounce Rates

You would be suggested to keep a track of bounce rates for your website. In general, you can expect the bounce rates for your mobile website to be higher than that for desktop/laptop sites. However, if the deviation is unexpectedly higher, then you might have to relook your web design to ensure that it is well suited to be accessed via a mobile device. Therefore, some of the above mentioned points might be helpful to you in making your website truly responsive. After all, with the escalating eminence of mobile devices to access the internet; having complete knowledge of responsive designing shall hold you in good stead.