When it comes to creating a website for multiple devices and browser, a lot need to be considered right from the scratch. User Interface design is one such prime point of concern that must be paid attention to, during the responsive website development process. Thanks to the continuous efforts of the global web development community, we have an easy access to unlimited solutions, tools and best practices that can allow us in coding a responsive design with complete ease. Today, through this post, I intend to introduce you to some of the simple tips that would allow you to design the UI of your responsive website in utmost professional and user-oriented format. So, let’s dig deeper into these handy tips that will help you in delivering a responsive website that contains a brilliant User Interface(UI).

Firstly, let’s take a look at designing UI for a responsive website that needs to target desktop users

Paying due heed to the extra space on-screen, you need to be careful while designing the User Interface for a desktop website. As a UI designer, you can take a good advantage of horizontal navigation, mega-dropdowns, extensive grid-like layouts etc. that come by default with the desktop design. Do remember, the more are the pages, the more interactive experience is guaranteed for a desktop user. While designing the User Interface for a desktop website, don’t forget to follow the below mentioned tips:

• Incorporate clickable areas. Doing this will guide your users about all the call to action elements, advertisements, side content etc. that exist within your website.
• Incorporate fat footers, asides etc. to add a lot more brilliance to your responsive web design’s user interface.
• Opt for usage of grid-like layouts as the same would allow visitors to scan your website’s content in a convenient way
• Incorporate breadcrumbs in your web pages which will assist the user in navigating from one section to another while accessing your website via a desktop computer.

Secondly, let’s talk about the UI design guidelines you need to follow for a responsive website with the target audience coming from smartphones

When designing a responsive website for the smartphone population, I recommend paying special attention to the concept of saving space. Unlike a desktop user, a smartphone user just wants to browse through important content included within a website. This content would prompt him/her to perform some very simple actions quickly. Here’s a look at some of the stunning tips that will help you in designing a fabulous user interface for responsive websites that need to cater to mobile/smartphone consumers:

• If your website needs to include a lot of content, make sure to sort and filter the same to retain just the most essential details. For instance, you can always include a search form, categories or a handy search filter within your web pages.
• Opt for a minimal design that works as the right means of promoting your brand instead of hiding the site’s core usability.
• To save space on your web pages, I advise you to add text summaries for all the bigger pieces of content.
• Bigger fonts work as a better match for websites that need to contain a lot of content. It is always recommended never to force your users to zoom in for reading a particular piece of text.
• Ensure that common add-on elements like notifications, popups, advertisements etc, are user-friendly on the mobile devices. Moreover, you can even eliminate them if they aren’t required at all.
• Ensure to have mimimal number of pages in your mobile website. You can easily use JavaScriot for swapping out tabs so as to avoid time-consuming page loads.

Finally, let’s get on with discussing about the UI design guidelines that must be followed while designing a responsive website with target audience coming in from tablets

As the prices of tablets meet a considerable downfall, more and more internet users are switching to these fabulous gadgets for accessing multiple websites on the go. Now, have a look at the key UI guidelines you need to abide by, for being able to deliver a remarkable responsive website targeting tablet users:

• Go ahead with incorporating buttons or button-like designs, allowing users to take quick, simple actions
• Include larger touch areas so as to add impressive navigation in your responsive design.
• Don’t forget to optimize your responsive design for the retina displays
• Incorporate tabs and accordions so as to ease the users’ navigation from one website section to another
• Ensure to avoid the layout designing approach that you choose for creating a responsive website for the desktop audience.

In Conclusion

Building a responsive website for a tech savvy or non-tech savvy audience is something that expects you to consider and adhere to certain guidelines. Especially, designing the user interface is a challenging job which becomes a complete breeze by following specific UI design tips and tricks. Here’s hoping the details covered above would aid you in designing an intuitive user interface for your next responsive website.

About the Author

Amanda Cline is currently working for Xicom Technologies Ltd- a renowned Android application development company. She has been an avid IT personnal with special interest in writing posts that serve as handy guide for individuals looking out to build a strong career in IT services and solutions sector.