According to an American software and design expert Jared Spool: “Intuitive design is how we give the user new superpowers.”
Nowadays, developing a website isn’t enough but creating an intuitive design with the help of experienced responsive web design companies is more important for today’s entrepreneurs. A website fully optimized to function smoothly on multiple devices is a must-have for e-commerce merchants.
But the process of building an ideal responsive web design is not that easy. So rather than just keep making useless attempts, let’s explore the top eight responsive web design mistakes that you must avoid at all costs. Otherwise, your website will never be able to do what it’s expected to.
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Lack Of User Research
In order to start the designing process properly, first of all, you need to do extensive user research and analyze their behavior patterns. This analysis is crucial from the perspective of getting answers to questions such as what devices are used by the end customers to access the web, conversion rate from different devices, etc.
This will help you to get useful insights into your target users’ profile and understand their pain points. This research should be done on a regular basis as it helps you to keep optimizing and refining the website for your customers.
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Beginning With A Desktop Version
It has been found that most of the entrepreneurs start building the desktop version of their website first. But in reality, it is better, to begin with, a smaller mobile screen and then scale it upwards for other devices.
One of the main advantages of starting designing for smaller screens first is that you get an opportunity to develop the best experience for mobile users. Also, this approach makes it easier to design the site for both the desktop and mobile.
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Lack Of Proper Testing
Testing is essential before launching responsive websites in the market. But it is observed that these sites are released with a minimal amount of testing. It is mostly due to limited resources available with business owners. They just want to build a responsive website and launch it as soon as possible.
It is a good idea to test the site’s main user flows for primary browsers such as Explorer, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Also, you should check it on major operating systems such as Windows and Mac OS. For doing it efficiently there are various automated testing tools available in the market such as Viewport Resizer and BrowserStack.
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Web Pages Taking Forever To Load
You have to place all the design elements such as buttons, text, and images in such as manner so that it does not affect the loading time of the website. Mobile users want quick results so it is not a good idea to test their patience level with a site that takes forever to load.
In case your page requires to add more content then divide it into separate tabs. For example, on the product page, you can place only the image of the item, its price, and an option to buy. Other elements such as product-related videos and customer reviews can be placed on a separate tab. It will make the main product page light in weight and it will load quickly.
There are different tools available in the market that can be used to compress the size of resource files in order to decrease the download time. Two of such popular tools are JSCompress and Uglify.
You can also take the help of different website builders available in the market that can guide you in building responsive websites. Weebly, Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, etc. are some of the most popular ones.
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Small Call-to-action Buttons
You can’t fit everything on a small mobile screen, but entrepreneurs often commit this mistake of making call-to-action buttons too small. These buttons are so small that the users have to zoom in to click a button, but mostly they end up clicking wrong buttons.
In such a scenario, users will get annoyed and abandon your website. Nowadays, even laptops have touch screens. So, you should design the interface and place gestures accordingly. Also, give a proper size to call-to-action buttons so that the users can click on them easily.
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Hiding Content For Mobile Users
In order to make the page size smaller, many sites hide content for mobile users. But it is not a good practice as users access multiple devices for browsing websites and by hiding content, you will limit their experience. The solution to this problem is developing a new and clean layout which is not having any unnecessary piece of information. By doing this you can make a mobile site loads faster.
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Lack Of Responsive Images
A responsive website adjusts the resolution of the images in accordance with the device of the users. The principle of one size fits all is not at all appropriate in this case. There are several tools available in the market that has the potential to automatically reduce the size of the images so that to fit a user’s device.
For instance, Fluid images is a CSS technique that renders images properly by sizing them in relative units and not in pixel dimensions. There are different WordPress plugins that cater to the responsive images. Also, “picture” is one of the fastest growing HTML5 elements that has the capacity to serve appropriate images in accordance with the device.
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Unresponsive Emails
It has been observed that sites are responsive to desktops and smartphones. But associated emails are not responsive enough. This makes it difficult for the users to review their order details or browse through the list of recommended products in an email prior to finalizing the products that were actually bought.
Emails should be one of the most significant parts of the responsive design and testing process. You should keep them light and incorporate only the relevant information and avoid unnecessary details.
Building responsive websites is a big challenge for entrepreneurs and designers. It requires a meticulous thought process and a flexible approach. If built well, responsive websites serve as a boon for enhancing the reach of a business and connecting with a global customer base.