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What is responsive frontend design?
Key elements: Navigation and responsiveness
When creating a new website, it is important that it looks good of course. But what is meant by looking good? In the world of web, some of the key elements, for both ease of use as well as search engine optimisation (SEO - how well your site ranks in the search engines), are ease of navigation and responsiveness. Ease of navigation is, as the name suggests, how well your site is laid out in terms of navigability - how easy is it for a user to effortlessly find their way around your website? The other key element is how well your site displays on a variety of devices, the three main types being: Desktop, tablet and mobile. This is where responsive frameworks come into their own - they make developing responsive websites a breeze by using pre-existing CSS and Javascript.
What do responsive frameworks do?
Responsive frontend frameworks such as Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation are each designed around a grid system - content on your website is laid out in blocks (or cells) consisting of rows and columns. Depending on the screen size of the device the user is viewing your website on, the rows and columns automatically rearrange to fit on the screen, like magic!
Each framework comes with it’s own set of base CSS and Javascript, which you (or your developer) can use in HTML to make pages look beautiful and behave in a responsive way. You are not limited to using only Bootstrap or Foundation’s CSS however, and should add your own CSS to give your website it’s own look and feel, an identity if you will.
The main difference between Bootstrap and Zurb Foundation is that Bootstrap uses absolute sizes (pixels) to define its element sizes, whereas Foundation uses percentages. They have different plugins (modules) too so it is worth checking which framework better suits your needs. Foundation also has responsive email templates.
A whole bunch of UX goodies included
Bootstrap and Foundation each come with a whole set of modules or plugins which can readily be used to make the user experience (UX) of your website fantastic. Things such as tabbed navigation, modal popups and slide-shows, advanced nested menus, user input validation and so forth are all standard in many frontend frameworks now. This means you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for commonly used UX elements and can save a tonne of time and money.
Difference between responsive websites and mobile apps
A responsive website is still a website - it can be viewed on any browser, including mobile phone browsers. A mobile app on the other hand, is designed exclusively for mobile or tablet devices and involves considerably more work and expertise (and therefore cost). Mobile apps also need to be built for a specific operating system: Either Android or iOS (Apple). Therefore mobile apps require a different (but related) skillset. A good place to start your web app is to first create a responsive website - which users can use on their mobile phones too - and then later if the need arises create a mobile app as your user base (and requirements) grow.
How to find the right Bootstrap or Foundation developer
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Responsive design is now very standard among web developers, but there is still a vast difference between developers that understand and are proficient at doing frontend responsive design and those that are not (but claim to be!). Finding the right frontend Bootstrap or Foundation developer is crucial in ensuring that your website has the best navigation and responsive design, and will be important in ensuring that your website ranks well in the search engines (who penalize sites that are not responsive).
Top Bootstrap & Foundation Tips
Get your website looking slick and perform well in search engine results pages by selecting a Bootstrap or Foundation developer to make your site stand out from the rest. Your users will benefit from a greatly increased navigation and viewing experience, which in turns drives engagement - the key to online success!
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