Responsive web design: what it is, how to use it, and 30+ resources to get you started

With mobile browsing so common nowadays, responsive design seems to be more expected – the aim being to display websites perfectly, no matter what device is being used.

What is responsive web design?

Essentially, responsive design uses a few neat bits and pieces like fluid images, media queries and fluid grid layouts to serve up a website in just the right way to suit the user’s device or screen size. Ethan Marcotte originally coined the term in his book, Responsive Web Design.



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It still employs the standard practice of detecting the user’s device first, but responsive design removes the extra step of serving up a separate stylesheet for each device. Instead, you can use a single stylesheet with varied information for different screen sizes.

The prevalence of mobile browsing from devices like tablets, laptops and smart phones has put pressure on web development to respond and adjust accordingly. Initially, the best solution seemed to be creating multiple stylesheets for different screen sizes. With responsive design, a single stylesheet can now service a site on multiple devices. Less code to look after – doesn’t that sound good?

The ingredients:

The two main elements that make up responsive design are media queries and flexible grid layouts.

THE FLUID GRID:

Using a grid layout makes your design scalable by using percentage-based column widths, rather than fixed pixel-widths. With responsive design, the grid columns can stack on top of each other on smaller screens.



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MEDIA QUERIES:

Media queries let you use conditions (such as minimum or maximum width) to deliver custom CSS. This gives you the ability to stack your grid columns and change formatting for smaller screens, by checking the dimensions of the screen before serving up the stylesheet.

But why?

Of course, in a perfect world we would have the time and extra hands needed to create a separate site, completely optimized for mobile devices. For those of us who aren’t Facebook or Google, however, we need to find the best way to give users an optimized experience without piling on huge amounts of labor.

You’ve probably worked it out by now, but the big hoo-ha about using responsive design (for developers, anyway), generally comes down to how much time and effort you can save.

For back-end devs, responsive design means there’s only one version of the site to be updated. All the content can go in the same place, and the entire project becomes more simple.

For front-end devs, while there can be a lot of work involved to make a really slick responsive design, the process is almost certainly a better choice than creating multiple stylesheets. Imagine all of your CSS code in the one place, and no more multiple edits for a single tweak.

Or why not?

I could hardly justify a post like this without presenting both sides of the argument.

As with any new method for design or development (of anything), responsive design has its detractors. Here are some of the reasons put forward for avoiding responsive design:

1. There is no load-time benefit for the user

Whether this is a reason to choose to avoid responsive design is debatable, but as a general point, it’s valid. Even if a user doesn’t see all the site’s elements because they’re using a mobile device, that doesn’t necessarily mean those elements aren’t loaded in the background.

Fluid images (that is, images that scale to fit the screen size) probably pose the biggest issue for load-time (hence the multitude of techniques for using them in your design – I’ve included five at the bottom of this post). The process of downloading image files sized for desktops and resizing them to display on tablet or smartphone screens can put pressure on the limited power of mobile devices.

2. Some mobile browsers don’t support media queries

This is likely to be a temporary problem that regular mobile OS updates and the growing popularity of responsive design should fix. For the moment, though, it may be something worth considering. You can always follow Smashing Mag’s guidelines to gracefully degrade your media queries, though.

So, what does it look like?

For the visually-minded, here are some great collections of responsive design implementations for your viewing pleasure:



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Responsive web design – ideas, technology and examples

21 inspiring unique responsive web design examples

60 examples of responsive web design

10 beautiful examples of responsive web design

50 examples of responsive web design

Examples of great responsive website design

24 excellent examples of responsive web design

Responsive web design: 50 examples

30 creative examples of responsive web design



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Where to start?

If you’re keen to create your own responsive designs, here are some fantastic resources to get you started.

An in-depth explanation of fluid grids

How to create a simple responsive design template

Get some help with these 15 detailed responsive design tutorials

Sketch out your design with these sketch sheets, layout patterns and wireframes

Get started on your design with the 320 and up boilerplate

Create your own fluid grid with Tiny Fluid Grid or use Flurid

Start the process with the Responsive Designer’s Workflow

Use this calculator when making fluid grids

Avoid the loading ‘jump’ created by media queries with CSS transitions

How to change a menu to a dropdown for a small screen

Tweaking media queries for different screen sizes

Tips for using fluid images in responsive design

Get around the tricky issue of using fluid images with techniques from Craig Russell, Harry Roberts, Keith Clark, John Faulds and Nicolas Gallagher

A quick tip for debugging CSS media queries

Test your site on different screen sizes with Resize My Browser, Responsinator or try this responsive design tester

Check the media queries on your site with this bookmarklet

Make your headings responsive with Slabtext or FitText

Get regular updates on responsive design news from Ethan Marcotte on Twitter

Find more resources, examples at tutorials at Zomigi, A List Apart and .net magazine

Sound off

This is a pretty divided issue due to the weight of both the up- and down-sides. I’d love to get your thoughts: are you on the bandwagon? Why or why not? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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Source from: http://www.attendly.com

MLM Website Design Tips : How To Effectively Market Your MLM Business Online

Network Marketing trends vary day by day, Online MLM Business is the current competitive environment for Network marketing people. In order to survive online MLM arena, you need to approach MLM Business in an effective manner with a good MLM Website Design strategy. Let us discuss the methods to effectively market MLM Business Online.



This is the most important thing a MLM Business person should need to do first for implementing a best MLM Website Design. A 100% user friendly website can guarantee your way to success. Design a site that can clear all the questions stuck up inside Visitor’s mind. 80% of the visitors may visit your site as a quest of learning information, do not let them; provide sufficient data. When they are satisfied with the information that you have in your website, they won’t go anywhere. They will directly approach/contact your company for further details. In such a way that a ‘visitor’ is transformed to a ‘customer’.

Regular Blogging:

This is the other important thing you need to do in a timed manner. Informative regular blogs can drive more traffic to your website. Despite of the quantity, ‘Quality’ matters in the case of blogs. High quality trendy blogs will attract the potential customers who are searching for the new trends in MLM Business. This indeed, will increase the visibility of your website in search engines.

Be Aware Of The Competition:

Everyone knows that MLM trends vary exponentially, and the competition too. Be aware of the latest trends and adapt your website to mingle with that changes. Learn which all websites are your competitors, and take necesaary steps to keep your head up. Check out and study the competitor’s website and their MLM Software Features. Also study how they are driving traffic towards their website.

Minimal Design:

Design your MLM Website in a minimal but fully featured way. A minimal design have more capcity to hook attention of visitor(s) eye than multi-colored complex designs. Try to describe each feature of your product in a most simple manner on the front page. Use brief contents only inside the sub-pages. But don’t forget to use sufficient keywords in your front page, because it is essential while considering SEO.

 

Source from:  http://blog.infinitemlmsoftware.com

POV: Interview with Jim Sutherland, Director at Hat-Trick

Jim Sutherland is the creative director and co-founder of the London-based Hat-Trick Design. Prior to founding Hat-Trick in 2001, he worked at The Partners and HGV. 

What led to the founding of Hat-Trick design? What were the first years of the agency like and how did you find success?

I’d always wanted to run my own studio. I met Gareth Howat while working at The Partners, and knew I wanted to work with him. In 2001, we founded a small shared studio. We had no work and no money, but it was a very exciting time. We gradually picked up a few clients and started to get noticed. We won a few key projects: Natural History Museum, Land Securities, Salvation Army, and that really got us going. We tried to make the most out of every small opportunity. Every project had the potential to be our best one.

What is the point of differentiation that brands can expect from Hat-Trick? How do you stand out against other creative agencies and branding firms in your market?

There are a lot of great studios out there. I think you simply try to do your best work all the time, treat every project as the most important, keep pushing yourself and treat every client as your favorite. We work very hard and have a huge variety of projects to keep us busy. We love doing this and hopefully that comes across in the work. We don’t take on any projects we don’t want to do.

What are some of your favorite projects you have worked on and why?

We have worked on more than 1,000 projects — choosing your favorite ones is always tricky.

I’ve picked out five that mean a lot to me.

Prostate Cancer UK

A recent project for a great cause and client. We wanted to stand out amongst a lot of charities for men. There are lots of symbols of men already out there. Rather than create a new one, we wanted to use all of them, from road signs to toilet signs. We wanted to appropriate them all. We created a ‘man of men’. We then used them in literature, around their offices and digitally.



Darwin Stamps

Managing to do jigsaw-shaped stamps for Darwin’s studies was amazing. You can literally connect an orangutan and Darwin, both with matching beards. We have done a number of stamp projects and they are wonderful to work on. It’s great doing projects that have some longevity.



Natural History Museum Learning

We did their branding early on and then moved onto specific projects. This was a project for schoolchildren visiting the museum. We created tear-off covers that became masks the children could play with.



Small Creature 

This was a great project for the British Heart Foundation. It is a resource to help children cope with the death of a loved one. It was written brilliantly by Katrice Horsley and illustrated beautifully by Rebecca Sutherland.

Garage book

This was a very personal project about my dad that I did with my daughter. Making spiders and robots from stuff in the garage was more fun than it should have been. I love the idea of making magic from the everyday. I’m currently making a film about it with my other daughter.

Hat-Trick created some amazing brand identities for organizations such as the Imperial War Museums, Wimbledon and Breakthrough Breast Cancer. What is your branding process like? What inspires your team during these types of projects?

Branding projects are what we do the most of. They are hard, but the most rewarding.

You are trying to reflect an organization — to get under their skin and really understand what they do.

We discuss and review ideas a lot. We have a large metal wall where we put up all our ideas to review and talk over. It’s the best way for ideas to come and develop.

What do you think makes a brand’s identity “good”? Do you have a certain criteria for creating a logo?

It needs to be simple, memorable, distinct, relevant, engaging and interesting.

Hat-Trick also works to create environmental designs. Describe some of the challenges and exciting aspects about these types of projects. What trends do you see in environmental design over the next couple of years?

Environmental projects are one of my favorite types of work. There’s a permanence and scale that I really enjoy. They are normally very collaborative; you get a chance to work with great architects and spaces.

How do you collaborate with external resources to create the best results for your clients? What types of relationships and artists do you look for?

We work with a number of amazing people, from architects and illustrators to writers and consultants. You want to work with people who are the best at what they do. People who are as obsessive, passionate and interested in design as we are.

Many designers have gone fully digital, but you seem to sketch out your work quite a bit in the beginning phases. What about the relationship with a pen and paper helps you to focus and hone your ideas as a designer?

We do still start with drawing ideas out. I am constantly scribbling and drawing, and I find it really helps to do that before sitting down at a computer.

You never know when an idea might come. There is something about the act of drawing an idea — it develops a life of its own. We are obviously working more and more in the digital space. The key for me is still to apply thinking and ideas and use the amazing things you can do in an amazing way.

What design trends are you tired of? What individuals and/or agencies do you think are doing incredible work in design and advertising?

I am tired of designers who talk a good job, but when you look at the work it’s not as good as it should be. The Internet has allowed a lot of people to voice an opinion. I want the work to speak for itself.

In terms of amazing work, there too many to mention really, but here are five that always inspire me: GBH, Stephen Doyle, Magpie Studio, Michael Bierut, Johnson Banks.

Favorite Branding or Artwork:  The Bruno Munari book about forks. Genius.

Mentor: Ray Gregory, my tutor at Norwich School of Art.

Must read book: My current favourites:

“The Art of Looking Sideways” by Alan Fletcher

Naoto Fukasawa’s book

Anything by Bruno Munari

All Bob Gill books

Anything else you’d like to add? Answering these questions is harder than designing things.

- See more at: http://www.agencypost.com/pov-interview-with-jim-sutherland-director-at-hat-trick/#sthash.LdNCqTYQ.dpuf

Source from: http://www.agencypost.com

Hat-Trick uses public art in London signage scheme

Hat-Trick Design is creating wayfinding and signage for a housing estate in south London. Graffiti artist Boyd and graphic design group Telegramme are among seven public art collaborators on the scheme.

Housing estate developer Network Housing Group appointed Hat-Trick in February 2009, following a three-way credentials pitch. The estate - Stockwell Park and Robsart Village - covers roughly a 194ha area, according to Hat-Trick. ’

The estate is fairly historic, containing a famous skate park, and the area is quite gritty and urban,’ says Hat-Trick creative director Gareth Howat.

The wayfinding contract is part of the first major refurbishment of the estate since it was built in the 1970s. Network Housing has a public art budget for the project, with which Hat-Trick has commissioned six artists and designers to create graphics to accompany the signage scheme. The 35 resulting patterns are inspired by local history, people and architecture, and are being printed on to decorative tiles (Telegramme’s work pictured).

’We decided against using the graphics to delineate areas, as the public art element should be separate from wayfinding,’ says Howat. Instead, the tiles will be mixed and found across the estates, providing ’a visual identity for the area’.

Hat-Trick has also contributed to the public art element, inspired by the contents of local Stockwell institution The Type Museum.

The consultancy is working closely with masterplanner BPTW Architects and landscape architect Mesh Partnership, and hopes to embed the tile patterns into metal screens, concrete and public seating. ’We have tried to come up with a really individual system,’ says Howat.

Currently in production, the scheme will roll out from next month and over the next three years.

 

Source from:  http://www.designweek.co.uk

Using Photoshop - Online Graphic Design

Photoshop can help create images and documents to be expressed on a web page. Do you use Photoshop to help with your designs? If not, which formatting tool do you find the most helpful with designs?

 Re: Using Photoshop - Online Graphic Design

So do you think the people at Google go around doing what this guy in the picture above is doing to all of the neighborhoods that they have archived street and satelite footage of on Google Maps?  Doesn't that seem like it would be a little cost prohibitive for such a profitable company known for its intelligence and integrity?

 

Any how, I like the notion that they are wasting their time covering up what seems to be a proper dirt road with a shabby looking dirt road canvas with division lines on it.  Wow!  Massive stupidity.  I've seen what people can do with Photoshop and it is Amazing, but other than in the Fashion, Entertainment Publishing, and Pornography industries I don't think it is being used to purposefully decieve people into thinking something is something else or better than what it actually is.

 

I bought a couple of lots of land in Southern Colorado, where I have been to or through several times, and have seen the Google Satelite Maps and they are exactly the same as the real thing.  I also just recently took a stroll through my old neighborhood in Manhattan, where I grew Up as a Child, via the Google Satelite Steet View Maps and it is my old neighborhood that I was walking through.  So I am not sure what people are using Photoshop Editing for, but it is not to Hype Satelite Images displayed on Google of Entire Neighborhoods.  A house, a yard, a Street, a Building?  Certainly.  An entire Neighborhood downloaded directly from Satelite Images on a Google Server?  NOT!

 

I saw Scarlett Johansen get Photoshopped Nude from a fully clothed Picture on You Tube, just recently.  Amazing!  It is one of the reasons that back in 1997 when I first put an image of my niece online I used Paintshop Pro to blur out her face.

 

P.S. - If you buy a piece of land online based on the pictures, remember to get the official images and land information from the County Government that the Land is in.  When I buy land online, and I do, I immediately go or call the county government and get the surveying and legal information and check out the environmental, demographic, and geographical, and geological information on the land so I am in the know as to what it is that I am buing and I don't just trust a Google Maps Image, but it is important to note that no Google Map Image I have from any of these lots contradicts the County Government Accessor's Information and their Surveying Records or Images.

 

 

Source from:  http://community.ashworthcollege.edu