To successfully plan and execute a responsive web design project, the business must effectively Plan, Design, Develop and thoroughly test its applications before releasing it to the business user or consumer.Plan – It is important to identify templates and variations in the system and layout, and you’ll need to identify controls for different views. Don’t think of a page as a ‘page’. Think of it in terms of the various controls, sliders, content, forms and other components. Consider the user experience and how they a user will navigate on different devices. For example, a slider should not be limited to mouse controls, but rather might require the consumer to use a finger to navigate a smaller screen. Before beginning the design, the app designers must also decide whether to go with Fluid or Adaptive responsive web design.
Design – Now, it’s time to create wireframes or prototypes with controls and components identified in ‘Plan’ phase. Wireframes must represent different screen sizes, and therefore layouts must be fluid, so they can go from three columns to two, and perhaps scale down to a single column for the smallest displays on mobile smart phones. Study the user experience using the wireframe, make modifications, as necessary, and then move forward.
Build and Develop – Now, let’s start building HTML, based on the ‘Plan’ and ‘Design’ phases. The controls and components must be planned and prototyped during this phase, and thoroughly tested along the way. The code must be optimized to ensure that the controls and components satisfy the smallest possible unit, and can be easily inserted and removed from layouts that were not originally planned or conceived. This will ensure flexibility and enable the business to modify the design to satisfy future requirements. Ensure a suitable user experience through constant collaboration between the developer and designer during this phase, to avoid future issues and achieve user adoption.
Testing and QA – In the responsive process, you must test at every step! Test on all browsers and screen sizes to uncover issues with specific browsers and devices and ensure that the application or site will render pages as expected.
Take the time to plan, design, build and test your application using responsive web design. The planning and design phase are critical to successful adaptive web design and, while these phases may take a bit longer to complete, the business will realize greater benefits, with careful planning and execution and will retain customers, achieve business user adoption and successfully address the competition, and market and customer expectations.
