Ensuring your shiny new school website looks just as impressive on the 5.4 inch display of an Iphone mini as it does on the large Mac it was presented to you on is one of the most important elements to keep in consideration when it comes to web design in 2022!
Below are some things to keep in mind:
1) A mobile first design
Up to 70% of all web traffic comes from mobile phones. It has never been more appropriate to choose a mobile first approach to school web design, should you have to choose between one or the other.
2) Adaptive versus Responsive
Adaptive design consists of several different builds designed for each speculated resolution, which can be as many or as few as the designer deems fit. One advantage of this approach is the ease of creation for a UX designer, of several different layouts for fixed widths. Another is the speed advantage adaptive sites have over responsive ones, since only the code needed for that specific width is delivered to the end user.
A responsively designed site serves the same build to each device, with the layout adjusted using css to accommodate a variety of sizes. The advantages of this approach include a quicker build time for developers, a wider range of screen sizes your site will fit nicely on, and a better ranking on search engines.
3) Test Responsiveness before release
A common mistake that is made when doing this, is checking the school website’s responsive capabilities only around specified media queries. A lot of things you would not want the end user to see, like an element cutting off or breaking out of its parent, can pass you by by occurring close to the middle of two breakpoints. A sure fire way to prevent this is observing your site during a slow resize from the highest breakpoint to the lowest.
A great tool to test your site’s compliance with Google’s mobile friendliness standards can be found here.
If you'd like to discuss how responsive your school website is, or if you think yours could be improved in then call us on 01933 303520 or send us a message - we'd love to hear from you.