The more popular mobile devices become, the more discomfort is felt when scrolling most sites. That is why, starting in 2012, webmasters began to use a solution that makes viewing resources on screens with low resolution more comfortable - adaptive layout.
Modern trend
Today, about five billion people on Earth use mobile phones, with a third of them having smartphones. Therefore, mobile traffic is becoming increasingly important for site owners. Probably such a source of visitors will only grow over time.
Search engines quickly responded to this trend. Large corporations Yandex and Google have made significant changes to their website ranking algorithms in search results, taking into account the presence of adaptive layout and design. Simply put, web resources optimized for mobile phones, smartphones and tablets will have some advantage over their competitors.
Adaptive Layout Definition
Adaptive layout - a method of creating a web page frame that automatically changes the arrangement of blocks in accordance with the screen resolution of the device on which it is viewed. That is, with this approach, separate styles are created for a variety of resolutions. This effect is achieved by special writing CSS-files.
Previously, the problem was solved in a slightly different way. Developers had to make much more “gestures”, creating layout and design of the main version of the site and doing the same for mobile. Depending on the screen of the device on which the Internet project was viewed with the existing mobile platform, a suitable version of the site was launched.
This approach did not justify itself in many respects, and most webmasters never set about creating a mobile version. Nowadays this order has been replaced by adaptive layout. Creating a web site framework using this technology, the webmaster concentrates all his efforts on creating one version of the project, and visitors can view it with the same level of comfort both on a large computer screen and on a mobile phone, smartphone or tablet.
Advantages of adaptive layout
What are the advantages of adaptive website layout? It was previously noted that the plus is the correct display of all page blocks on any device. Also a positive aspect of this approach in creating a template can be called the speed of implementation of changes. What does it mean?
If the site had two platforms, the changes made in the layout had to be implemented first in the working version, and then in the mobile version. If the changes in the code were quite significant, then the process of making such changes could be very delayed. With adaptive layout, work on the site is carried out in one file. Changes made to the layout of the web page will be displayed equally soon both in the working version and in the mobile one.
The downside of this approach, some webmasters call the complexity of its implementation. But with the advent of CSS 3, creating an adaptive layout template has become quite simple. Even not the most experienced webmasters can make their site convenient for viewing on mobile devices.
The principles and features of adaptive layout
What principles underlie the adaptive layout method in web design?
- The use of the "rubber" type of layout.
- "Rubber" images.
- Use of media queries (media-queries).
- The need to think about mobile devices from the very beginning of the layout.
From these fundamental principles of this method of creating a template, the following features of adaptive layout follow:
1. Designing and creating a website design, taking into account work on the entire spectrum of permissions: from mobile to widescreen displays.
2. Layout using cascading style sheets using media query technology introduced in CSS 3.
3. Programming on the side of both the client and the server for transferring images of smaller volume and resolution to mobile devices.
An important aspect, taking into account which adaptive layout is being created, is the resolution of the matrix of popular electronic devices. This approach to design development will make browsing the web on any screen very comfortable. But how do you know which ones should be included in the styles?
Where to start layout adaptive layout?
Most sites are made so that on the screens of smartphones and tablets scrollbars appear that are not so convenient for surfing, and the design and layout of many Internet projects simply “float”. The sites created for teaching web design have collected a variety of screen resolutions of various devices, under which it is worth layout pages of your site.
Adaptive layout, examples of which can be found quite often, has a lot of advantages. What should be remembered with this approach to creating page layout?
When you start working on a template, it is important to periodically test how well the content and layout blocks are displayed on different screens. To do this, sometimes just changing the width of the browser window. The stylesheet receives a media request and changes the location of the blocks, making significant changes. A good tool for testing the adaptive layout template can be sites that mimic the screens of mobile devices of different models. Such services will allow you to carefully consider and evaluate how the design looks on the displays of a wide variety of mobile devices.
Although the technology of such an adaptive layout is not so simple, its development will bear fruit very soon.