Creating an Adaptive Website: Relevance and Effectiveness

Today, the pace of life is several times faster than a couple of decades ago, making time one of the most valuable resources. The existence of mobile gadgets allows us to make the most of our time. According to statistical research from multiple independent sources, the share of traffic from mobile devices today exceeds 75%, and this figure is expected to grow in the coming years. This implies that if your website is not yet adapted for mobile devices, you will consistently lose users.

There are several ways to achieve the correct display of the site page on different mobile devices. Responsive design and the mobile version of the website are no longer relevant, so we will not dwell on them in detail. This article will talk about responsive site layout.

Adaptive website layout

Adaptive website design is a dynamic structure that adjusts to the type of device on which the user accesses the site. During the layout process, multiple designs can be developed for optimal display on various devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.

A site aligned in this way automatically determines the type of device on which it is currently displayed and responds to the width of the screen. All elements of the page change the size and position in such a way as to ensure maximum convenience for the user without the need to scroll or zoom in on individual fragments. Secondary blocks will be hidden, key blocks will be brought to the fore, and buttons will be enlarged to facilitate site navigation.

Benefits of adaptive website layouts

Today, this type of layout is the optimal solution for businesses aiming to enhance their reputation and user experience. Adaptive website layout offers several significant advantages compared to a fluid layout or a mobile version:

1. Improved search engine ranking: Adaptive layouts contribute to higher rankings in search engine results. For instance, Google favors websites with adaptive layouts as they are easier to index by search engine robots.
2. Reducing user bounce rates is crucial. For instance, if a website is user-friendly on desktop but not on mobile, users may opt out of visiting it altogether.
3. Increased organic traffic: A website designed for user interest and ease of use encourages users to share it, effectively creating free publicity and boosting conversion rates.

Moreover, unlike mobile versions, adaptive website layouts allow you to maintain a single web address rather than two. This approach also concentrates the link equity on one resource.

Key requirements and nuances of adaptive design

How to do an adaptive layout? When creating layouts for mobile devices, certain subtleties ensure correct display:

1. Relative units of measurement for fonts and spacing between elements. In the layout process, non-fixed sizes (pixel count) are used, but rather a percentage ratio of the area occupied by an element on the screen to the total screen area.
2. The use of CSS media queries in layout. They allow the definition of different styles for different screen sizes and ensure image loading is proportionate to the screen size.
3. Image formats. WebP or JPEG XR provide good quality with smaller file sizes, reducing page load times.
4. The use of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). SVG icons can change size without loss of quality and clarity.
5. Burger menu. This is an icon in the form of horizontal lines, clicking on which opens a dropdown menu providing access to the main sections of the site.

Due to the rapid increase in the number of website visitors from mobile devices, the concept of Mobile-First design has emerged. In this case, development begins with a focus on mobile devices and then scales up for larger screens.

To optimize loading speed during the layout process, the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) technology from Google is applied. Its main goal is to accelerate the loading of website content on mobile devices. This is achieved by using specialized HTML, CSS, and JavaScript libraries optimized for maximum efficiency. AMP standard layout is often applied to news, blogging, and similar sites whose content can easily be adapted to this standard. Layout using this technology ultimately contributes to improving the site's position in search results, as Google takes into account loading speed, enhancing the overall user experience.

The skillful combination of modern tools and practices in the layout process allows for the creation of a product that fully meets the demands of the contemporary user.

Conducting quality adaptability diagnostics

To assess the effectiveness of layouts on various devices after their implementation, one can utilize specialized services. One such tool is Lighthouse, which is a part of Google's toolkit.

Capabilities and functions of Lighthouse include:

• Auditing web pages based on various criteria, such as loading performance, resource utilization, page accessibility, HTML semantics, and more;
• Generating performance reports for the website, providing recommendations for optimizing images, minimizing and combining CSS and JavaScript files;
• Verifying page compliance with search engine optimization recommendations;
• Checking the security of the website or application according to the service's criteria;
• Allowing command-line usage for automating the website analysis process.

Lighthouse enables the analysis of a website's performance on mobile devices, which is particularly crucial in the context of adaptive design.

The advantages of collaborating with Asabix

We are focused on results and employ the most modern practices and tools to achieve them. Our website layouts are developed with consideration for all existing types of mobile devices, as well as cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility. This means that the websites we create will look and function equally aesthetically on various browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and even Internet Explorer, as well as on Android and iOS platforms.

To ensure cross-browser compatibility during layout, we employ several methods:

• Testing in various browsers to ensure that all functions work correctly and the appearance of the resource is maintained;
• Utilizing W3C standards in layout, adhering to recommendations for CSS styles, HTML layouts, and proper usage of JavaScript during development;
• For testing the final product, our QA specialists employ various services such as browserstack.com, and Lighthouse, as well as real mobile devices including iPhone, Samsung, MacBook, tablets, and others.

By ordering layout services from us, you receive a flawlessly functioning website, adapted for mobile devices, which will serve as a powerful tool for promoting your business online.