Design: Responsive Design

One of the best ways to make your mobile app or Web site pretty—but also inconsistent and unusable—is to begin by drawing the user interface (UI).

However, starting with problems, user needs, and audience definitions, then defining the data structure and information architecture is a pretty well-defined approach that many UX designers and product teams believe in and try to follow. Still, too many go from there straight to user-interface designs. That’s still too big a jump and leaves too much to chance, gut instinct, default framework behaviors, and nitpicking reviews.

Instead, to understand and define an app or Web site’s information design, we first need to create a box diagram, or box model. Read More

This is a sample chapter from Luke Wroblewski’s book Mobile First. 2011, A Book Apart.

Chapter 7: Layout

Appropriate adaptations of how we think about organization, actions, and input on the desktop take what we know about Web design and make it usable on mobile. But how do we ensure it’s also usable across the wide range of mobile devices available now and in the coming months—not to mention years?

• Come to terms with the fact that mobile is going to change at a breakneck pace for the foreseeable future.
• Let mobile browsers know you are creating designs that fit them.
• Be flexible, fluid, and responsive in your layouts.
• Know where to sketch the lines between device experiences.
• Reduce to the minimum amount necessary. Read More

In this edition of Ask UXmatters, our panel of UX experts discusses whether responsive Web design is really necessary for ecommerce sites and some of the key elements of responsive designs.

Imagine that your company has chosen you to be part of a team that is going to design and build or update an ecommerce Web site. The budget and deadline are tight, and the boss wants to know what is the minimum that you can do to create a strong, profit-building machine. What would you tell him? Would you stay focused only on your existing desktop Web site—or if you’re creating a new site, build for the desktop first—and let your mobile customers deal with it as best they can? Would you build a Web site that is somewhat different on and adapts to each type and size of device? Would you insist on developing a mobile app? And how would you plan to maintain the solution? Read More