Creating Liquid And Elastic Layouts With CSS

Elements of Responsive Website Design

Discuss About The Creating Liquid And Elastic Layouts With CSS.

In the current technological era there is various use of computing devices which are used by different people to access the websites.

However the websites designed require to be accessible and fitting in any of the devices which range from the computers to mobile devices, more over these devices uses various types of browsers and therefore a website is said to be responsive website if it is accessible by the devices through any of the browsers.

The responsive websites are developed through the use of responsive web designs to ensure all website features are responsive irrespective of the device or web browser that is used.

Therefore responsive website design is the website development approach that enables the designers to create the website with dynamic change features that enable the website to keep on changing depending on the various screen sizes, platform used and the orientation that is used in viewing of the website designed.

Therefore the responsive website will be used to solve the problems associated to accessibility and use of the website by various devices used by the website users which include the smart phones, tablets, laptop computers and also the desktop devices.

1. The fluid grids concepts call: This is used to resizing of the web pages elements in relative values like percentages instead of using the pixel and points.
2. Use of Flexible images: This is where the web page images are resized using relative units in order to prevent them being displayed outside the containers elements.

• Use of media query: This is used to allow the use of various CSS style rules by setting the browser’s width.

1. Break-points: The break-points are the elements that are used in determination of the site layouts appearance where one design is used above the break-points and the others designs below the break points where they are used depending with the browser’s widths.
2. HTML and CSS languages: These two languages are used in the determination of the webpage’s layouts where the css is used in changing of the web pages appearances and this enable the developer to develop only one code base that will eventually support all users having different sizes viewport devices which can be either computer, wide screens monitor, desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile phone devices of any size.

For every responsive website the elements in the web page keep on reshuffling as the view port of the used device either grow or shrink where the website can have three columns in the desktops ,two columns on the tablets and one column in a Smartphone and also uses the proportion grids in management of the contents and webpage elements..

Below are the purpose and objective of this report.

In this report there will be an evaluation of the https://www.nationalgeoraphicic.com.au/ website to test its responsiveness which will entail the following.

1. Analyzing the website interactive aspects.

In this the website will be tested using the chrome devices simulator to test the interaction of the various website elements using a variety of devices which includes desktop computer, tablets and the mobile devices (Gasston,2011).

1. Analyzing the website design aspects.

In this case the website will be critically analyzed the various design features and their limitations, and the respective improvement method of the website design will be highlighted (Freeman,2015).

The main objective of this website of this report will be to identify the various uses of the responsive design which includes the following:

1. To make the website development fast through the use of single code base for all devices.
2. To make the website maintenance easy and fast where only one code base is updated instead of many for all devices.

• To make responsive website future proof since through the support of additional break-point in future.

1. To enable the website to support any new devices that can be introduced in the market in the future.
2. To Control a certain website designs to only fit on certain devices and instead support all devices.

Therefore the responsive website design is applied to make the web page to render successfully in various devices, platforms, and screen size to ensure the contents, designs and performance across all the devices is sufficient and thus improves the website usability and user satisfactions (Gillenwater,2012).

Purpose

The https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/ is a website that is designed to display and show the various geographical features and it is to be reviewed using the chrome device simulator to view the various interactive and design aspects in it (Zoe, 2010),the website review will be done using five views which includes  the large display devices using the desktop computer, medium displays in both landscape and portrait view using mobile devices ,the tiny displays in both landscape and portrait view using mobile devices as below.

• Large Display desktop 1280×768 pixels

• Medium Display 480×640 to 700×960 pixels

Landscape orientation

Portrait orientation

• Tiny display  200×320 to 400×640 pixels

Landscape orientation

Portrait orientation

This report is about the evaluation of the website responsiveness the identified website is called https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/ website as in the figure below that is used in providing the various geographical information to the users.

The above nominated is a website is a geographical website that is developed to provide various geographical information in the Australia country and it mainly covers the animals ,engineering features , the history  ,the nature ,people, science, and the space features (Grannell, 2013).

The nominated website is Australian based and it is designed to for various uses which include the following:

1. To provide the information about the Australia country including the latest news and the trending news as well.
2. To provide the information about the various animals in the Australia country and their pictures and information (Griffiths, 2015).

• The website also meant to provide the engineering information, which includes the ship, cars and airplanes.

1. The website also is used to provide the information about the historical information like the killing of Hitler.
2. There is also provision of the nature information which includes the history about Africa among others.
3. The website is also used to give the information about the people where it gives their descriptions and the places that they leave.

• The website provides the information about the various scientific facts like the way the universe works like the asteroid and the acidic life.
• In the website has the travel information that gives the explorative information about the societies and various places like the lost china pyramids and the ASIAN tsunami.

1. In this website there is also provision of the various videos to provide more information about the country.
2. The website also is used to provide the information about the various TV shows and the TV guides
3. Finally the website is used to provide the information about the upcoming events and the winners of the various competitions held.

The nominated website can be described in various aspects since there was a specific aim and purpose of it being developed and how it is run as follows:

1. The website was developed in Australia for the Geographical features advertisements.
2. This website was mainly developed targeting the residence of the Australia country and the tourists who would like to pay visit to the country.

• The website can be accessed using various devices which include the mobile devices, computer and the tablets without many issues.

1. The website however is designed to be accessible using various web browsers which includes the Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox, safari browser, opera browsers and the internet explorer.
2. However the website receives a lot of traffic from the various mobile and computer devices users since they are both supported.
3. The nominated website however has good qualities like the use of the very attractive color scheme combination.

• One of the poor features of the website is long loading time which is attributed to much use of images that takes long to be loaded to the devices being used.

The above nominated website has various features as they are identified below.

1. Integration of the social media.

The nominated website has good quality features where in the footer the social media links had been integrated which includes the Twitter,Facebook,Youtube,and Tumblr this is just to allow the visitors to comment or suggest some things on social media platform (Holzschlag, 2014). .

1. It is easy to read.

In this the text font used is easily read and no text is hidden by the images or the background colors ,however the color scheme used is colorful and very attractive to the eyes of the users (Clarke,2015).

• It has navigation menu.

The website information is well placed and the users require navigating from the web pages using the menus and they are easy to use where the menus are all grouped in one location for easy navigation by the visitors of the website (Lie,2015).

1. Comfortable to view.

The users are able to view website using the various websites where the web pages do not require to be scrolled left or right side.

1. Quite high loading speed.

The website while being accessed by the various users’ devices is they tend to be slow in the initial load time, this is due to much use of images and graphics.

1. Good browsers compatibility.

Objective

The web browser tend to be compatible to all the browsers that are used by the users regardless of the device that they are using ,among the browsers are the Mozilla Firefox, Opera-mini, internet explorer and the Google chrome (Bos,2015).

• Has the internal links.

Another feature in the website is the use of the links within the web pages and these links are used to link the other web pages or the images in the website which as a result make the navigation even better and efficient.

• It has the search bar.

The website has the search bar which enables the visitors to easily enter the content they want to search, this is done by entering the key words of the content or the information they want to search about.

1. It has the image slider.

The website has the images slides which are accompanied with some description of the images, this give the visitor quick gist of what the website is all about.

The nominated website has various aspects that relate to the interaction and the design where some of them are negative and others are positive aspects as discussed below.

1. Top navigation menu.

The website has the navigation menu that is that is placed on the top part o the website and this enables the users to navigate without much struggle from one web page to the other.

1. Clear and readable text content.

The website has another good aspect such that all the contents are clear and legible by the user, this is due to the use of the good text font, color and size and also use of good background images and color schemes.

• Compatibility to the web browsers.

The website has another good aspect since it is able to be load in any of the user’s browsers and this is through and thus has no limitation to the users while trying to access it.

1. Availability of the social media links.

The website is integrated with the social media links that are useful in enabling the users to share their views to the public in the social media.

1. Easy to view.

The website has another aspect such that using the various devices the users are able to view content without scrolling horizontally.

1. Easy to search content.

The website has the search option on the top of the page that the users can search the content they want to get from the entire website.

• Bread Crumb Navigations.

The website has the bread crumb navigation that is designed for the navigation purpose of the smaller devices like the tablets and the Smart-phones this is to enable the user to navigate even when using any device.

1. Lack of login form and hidden registration form.

Responsive Web Design (RWD) and Development Principles

The website has the option of the user registration; however there is no provision of the login and also the registration form is hard for the users to trace (Weyl, 2017).

1. Lacks contact form.

The website has no contact form that the users can enter any comment or as for any information from the website managers.

• Lacks the contact information.

The website completely lacks the provided contact information, this block the visitors from enquiring anything from the website controllers.

1. Over use unnecessary images.

There is much use of the images, however these images has negative impact to the website in the loading speed and thus could discourage the visitors from accessing it (Lloyd, 2014).

1. Lack important information about the website.

There is no provision of the information about the website which includes the location, addresses and the map of the website managers.

1. The about page is not strategically located.

The about us page is located in the footer section ,therefore the users are not able to easily trace it and learn what the website is all about and who are the owners and their locations.

• Poor log design.

The website logo is poor, tiny and lacks the meaning since it is supposed to provide more information about the website.

• Lack of taglines.

The website lacks the tag line on the top of the home page or the other home pages, which should be used to introduce the users about the purpose of the website (Marcotte, 2011).

After my reviews about the website I invited two other people to review the website using the identical devices as below.

Participant 1: Friend.

The first participant to review the website was my friend that we participate in various events together and below are his details.

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Profession: Computer science

However in his reviews he used the identical devices to the one I used but his views were quite different from mine, this is because he claimed that website communication information was sufficient since there was inclusion of the social media links while on my side I recommended the inclusion of the contact information to be included to make the communication efficient.

Participant 2: Classmate.

The first participant to review the website was my classmate that we learn together in our course and units and below are his details

Age: 22 years

Gender: Female

Profession: Information technology.

This was the second participant to review the website using the identical devices that is used ,however this reviewed had same views as mine for instance she recommended the inclusion of the tagline and the about us page to be positioned on the top of the web pages ,however in my review I recommended use of tagline to give the visitor more information about the web page and what is supposed to do.

Website Review using Google Chrome’s Device Simulator

The chrome device simulator was used to simulate the various devices that were used, below are the advantages and disadvantages associated to it

Advantages

1. It is easy to use.
2. It can simulate unlimited devices with various screens sizes.

• It is quick to display the results.

 Disadvantages

1. It cannot give the exact features of the real device.

Similar tools available

There are other various simulators that are used to simulate the device website responsiveness and they include the following:

1. Mozilla Firefox device simulator.

This is a simulator that is integrated in the Mozilla browsers for simulation purposes.

1. Responsive-web-design simulator.

This is a simulator that is integrated in the chrome browsers as plug-in for simulation purposes.

• Mobile-browser-emulator s.

This is a different type of a simulator that is integrated in the chrome browsers as plug-in for simulation purposes.

1. Responsive-viewer simulator.

This is another type of simulator that is integrated in the chrome browsers as plug-in for simulation purposes

After the critical analysis of the website the website has various important features that make it user friendly, however there are some recommendations to ensure the website is further improved to be more and better to use by the various website visitor.

Below are some of the recommendations.

1. Relocation of the about menu from the footer to the top navigation menu.

The about menu is supposed to be located on the top navigation menu this is to enable the visitors to easily trace it and learn the use of the website.

1. Addition of tagline on every page.

The tagline is supposed to be added to the web pages this is to enable the users to know in which web page they are located.

• Inclusion of the contact form.

The contact form is very essential that enable the visitors to send a message to the website managers and they can communicate easily.

1. Inclusion of the contact information.

The contact information is very important to the users of the website, where they include the telephone number and the email address which can be used by the visitors to send messages or to make a call to enquire on some issues.

1. Inclusion of the website information like the location.

The website information like the location and the map should be included in the website to ensure that the user is bale to know the location and function of the website.

1. Better logo designing.

The website log is very important since it is used to communicate more about the website, the owner the target audience and the use of the website.

• Addition of the users’ testimonials and reviews pages.

The testimonials and reviews will be used as the video or text comments that usually tell more about the websites and the feedback from the website visitor.

• Increase the loading speed.

The website loading speed is quite slow because of much inclusion of the unnecessary images on the website that make the website heavy and thus taking more time while loading.

1. Inclusion of the FAQs page.

The FAQ page is the page that is used by the developer and this will be used to add the most frequently asked questions by the users and the respective answers of the asked questions.

1. Adding an online chat option.

The online chat option is the feature that will be used by the visitors to initiate any conversations with the website managers and ask any query or raise the concern.

Conclusion

The website is one of highly used tool by the organizations to convey their information these websites are accessed using various devices which has various screen sizes and resolutions.

However the devices that access the websites use various types of browsers and thus it is required to compatible to all.

Therefore to make the website accessible by all devices and compatible to all web browsers the website developed is required to be responsively designed and also there should be inclusion of various important features to enable easy navigation, communication and understanding of the web content.

Reference

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