Web apps are getting rigorous competition from native apps. When so many companies out there are investing in native apps, web apps are still running high on the key benefits they provide. The development cost of web apps is low. They are accessible from anywhere and allows easy data sharing from one machine to another. Although there cannot be an outright competition between the web app and native app, it won’t be wrong to say that web apps are faring well in the current technological scenario.
A responsive and well-hydrated web app can work wonder for the business, increasing brand recognition, and enhancing knowledge-sharing capabilities. Before we take a deep dive into the techniques of the responsive website application.
Let’s first understand why responsive web design is so important.
1. Understanding the Importance of Responsive Web App
The responsive web app is about providing an optimal experience, no matter you are using the desktop, mobile, or a tablet. There are several factors such as fluid grids, CSS styling, and flexible images that render it according to the width of the browser and impact the users’ experience. Designers and developers need to work together on different aspects of UI and UX to achieve designs that work well on all the platforms and devices.
2. Responsive Web App: What to Look for
Device: There will be around 2.5 billion Smartphones in 2019, and there are 6 different types of smartphone displays available on the market. For the web app designers and developers, it is critical to identify what device type is getting more traffic and focus on design that suits their audiences.
Browser: Different web browsers, each having unique capabilities to render sites, turns the attention of the developers on browsers. Like Smartphones, there are different versions of browsers and it is likely that not everybody has the same version.
Fluid Grid: The grid helps in converting the targeted design into the scalable figure.
3. Those considering Web App, here are 5 Life Hacks to Keep the app Responsive
For companies striving to enhance their competitive edge, they need to work harder on simplifying complexity and put emphasis on enhancing the value for their customers and business. Responsive web apps can help remove mundane and time-consuming aspects of the web app and simplify and speed up rendering, enabling businesses to provide a smooth customer experience. Here are the 5 lifehacks:
4. Managing Browser Width and Transitions
A Minimum of 3 Layouts for Different Browser Widths Smartphones: Keeping the content under 600px to suit most of the Smartphones
Tablets: Ranging from 600px to 900px for tablets and notebook type hardware devices
Desktop: Above 900px for personal computers and laptops Developers generally use media queries to design web apps that automatically adapt to the browser width and then they resize with each query. However, each time the query is sent, the application takes a huge leap from the old style to the new style. CSS transitions can reduce the size of the leap. This could be done by shrinking the body type when the width of the browser decreases. You can then add the code for the transition to resize the process smoothly. The transition can be added to any image or any other element you want.
5. Optimizing Images for Smaller and Larger Screens
Most website’s images are optimized for desktop, which is usually too heavy for mobile phones. To address the issue, developers can drop the .htaccess file into the root web directory, using Apache web server and reference RWD-images.js from an HTML page. To scale and load the image responsibility, the mobile-friendly image size will be referenced with a “.r” prefix to the file extension and to reference an image of large size, HTML5 custom attribute data-full src will be used.
5. Designing around Content of Your Site
Hardware keeps getting updated as per the latest technological trends. So, when designing, always keep your focus on content, considering the following factors:
- Focus on the content users might be looking for
- Keep the hierarchy of layout in proper order, as there is a limited amount of space in mobile and the users must understand the message clearly
- Navigation should be simple, and the users must not feel confused or take too much stress on finding what they want. Pick the one that suits your requirement the most: Hamburger style menu, expand and collapse type menu, drop-down selection, or tabs to scroll horizontally.
Increasing Interaction Mobile users like using reading with their hands. And so, keep the content images in zoom or slide pattern. The basic fact is to analyze the normal finger size of the users and accordingly create the tappable user-elements. According to Apple, interface elements and layout can change during multitasking, in split view, or when the screen is rotated.
The tappable area needs to be maintained is somewhere around 44pt X 44pt. With the help of Simulator, you can preview the app for clipping issues and features like colored imagery.
Readability Margin: The safe side is to keep the text line short to enhance readability and provide a better experience.
Optimizing HTML Email for Mobile
To optimize your HTML email for mobile, you have to create a different set of style to recognize the @media query. Media queries are a simple yet effective way to provide content to different devices, dealing with the viewpoint’s height and width. These life hacks are easy and will help you create a responsive web app.
If you are not sure of how responsive is your web app, take help from a website development company. A responsive web app is key to smooth user-experience and put in your best efforts to make this part a success.
