What is the screen size for a responsive layout?

In 2020, there were 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide. This represents 45% of the world’s population. In 2019, people gained access to the internet with over 9,000 different devices. All users expect every website they visit to look great on their mobile device. This means that website developers have to design websites that will be displayed on a variety of screen sizes across the world.

But as any designer knows, executing a responsive design should start with knowing what screen sizes to design for. This article explores this question and examines the best cry formats for responsive design.If you want to hire a good app development company, make sure they meet all the points mentioned in the article.

What is Responsive Design?

Responsive web design refers to a design strategy that creates websites that work well for mobile devices, tablets and desktops. Unresponsive design sites run the risk of alienating a significant number of users — 80% of users say they reject sites that are not performing well on their device.

Additionally, Google considers “mobile device compatibility” to be a ranking parameter. To quote from Google’s central webmaster blog:

“As of April 21, 2015, we are expanding our use of mobile device support as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages ​​of the world and will have a significant impact on our search results. As a result, users will find it easier to get relevant and high-quality search results optimized for their devices. “

How do you find the ideal screen size for Responsive Design?

Note the change in users to smaller screen sizes (360 * 640), with a significant decrease from January 2020 to January 2021. Although there has been a decrease, it is a very mobile screen size. critical to serve the majority of the public. he lingers there. Do you want to see what your website looks like in this resolution?

Mobile Screen Resolution Stats Worldwide: Jan 2020 — Jan 2021

According to global screen resolution statistics (January 2020 — January 2021), the most used resolutions on mobile devices, desktops and tablets are:

1,920 x 1,080 (8.89%)

1366 x 768 (8.44%)

360 x 640 (7.28%)

414 x 896 (4.58%)

1536 x 864 (3.88%)

375 x 667 (3.75%)

Free response test on commonly used resolutions

Test the responsiveness of your website on real devices.

Of course, the emphasis on compatibility with mobile devices doesn’t mean leaving desktop devices. As the graph below shows, desktop devices still represent a significant portion of internet use.

Global Desktop vs. Mobile vs. Tablet Market Share: January 2020 — January 2021

According to Microsoft documentation,

With a wide range of device goals and screen sizes in the Windows 10 ecosystem, instead of optimizing your UI for each device, we recommend that you design for a few key width categories (also known as ` `` breakpoints ‘’):

Small (less than 640px)

Medium (641px to 1007px)

Large (1008 px and more)

Despite this information, keep in mind that there is no standard web design size. Depending on the nature of the website, users may use certain devices that do not offer screen sizes and resolutions. Insert analytics to determine the correct screen size for web design. Find out what your target audience will use. If these devices do not meet the above resolution, include it in the mix.

Best practices for implementing responsive design

It is much easier to design a website for different screen sizes with the following guidelines:

Know Your Breakpoints — In responsive design, a breakpoint is the ‘point’ at which a website’s content and layout is changed in some way to deliver the best user experience possible. For a website to be responsive, designers should add a breakpoint when content seems misaligned. Depending on the number of devices the site is aligned with, multiple breakpoints should be set to ensure responsiveness. Check out this article on reactive breakpoints to learn more about them and how effective they are.

Create Fluid Layouts — Fluid Layout refers to a layout layout that can change (expand and contract) to fit the window of the device it is running on . A fixed layout will warp undesirably in any viewport it is not aligned with. Work on layouts using percentage units and maximum widths to ensure the layout fits in windows on mobile devices without getting too wide on windows on desktop devices.

Reduce Friction — This basically means the design should be easy to use across multiple devices. Responsive design encompasses not only how a website looks but also how it performs in terms of accessibility and usability. Pay particular attention to the friction of the small screen, because as the screen size decreases, web parts have less room to render and are more likely to blend and warp.

Design mobile devices first: Since friction is more likely on small screens, approach the mobile device first when designing. It’s harder to reduce a desktop layout to a movable window, while the reverse is easier. When designing mobile devices, the designer first takes into account what is absolutely necessary to provide an optimal user experience.

Here are some ways to approach the design of mobile devices to allow for more screen sizes:

Prioritize important menu options

Eliminate all visual distractions

Optimize the design for the cover — make everything easy to touch

Eliminate unnecessary forms and information fields

Highlight the most important CTA

Prominently provides search and filter functions

More features, less typing — Obviously, typing is more difficult on mobile devices than on desktop devices. Replace typing with conscious use of device features such as GPS, QR code reading, biometric identification, etc. Help users share, email, or call relevant numbers by posting links that launch necessary functions. Keep in mind that the best responsive design means annoying mobile interactions are simplified and eliminated.

Test, Test, Test — Once a developer or designer knows the best screen sizes for responsive design, they get the job done and build a responsive website. However, in order for the website to actually display the way it is intended for the devices it was designed for, it needs to be tested accurately. An easy way to do this is to use a responsive layout control. Rather than running the website through individual devices with different views, just enter the URL into the checker and see how it looks on several of the latest devices with a different and commonly used device resolution. The authenticator linked above provides responsive authentication on the latest mobile devices like iPhone X, Galaxy Note 10, iPhone 8 Plus and more. Plus, use the BrowserStack cloud to monitor a website’s appearance on thousands of desktops and mobile devices. Just sign up for free, select the desired device, go to the website and see what it looks like under real-world conditions.

While responsive design may seem difficult to implement, the information in this article is intended to simplify this process for developers and designers. By doing what has been described above, it is much easier to create websites that will appeal to your audience no matter what device they are using to access that website.