Chapter 3: Responsive Design Strategy By Trent Walton in the recently released “The Mobile Book”, by Smashing Magazine. Reflection by Kyle Keeling
Responsive Design Strategy offers a fantastic overview of where responsive design (RWD) is today, what tools can be used and how we should incorporate RWD into project workflow. While most of the techniques are suggestions that have become common practice to anyone that has attempted to build a RWD site, it’s refreshing to hear how other web professionals are approaching the same topics.
I believe we have all come to the conclusion that pixel perfect control is a pipe dream, and we need to embrace this reality in order to create effective UI’s across multiple devices. How to achieve these effective UI’s will always be up for debate, but I am a strong supporter of the sketch and code approach that Trent Walton re-iterates.
For the last couple of years I have removed myself from creating pixel perfect websites in Photoshop and Illustrator. Instead, I have resorted to sketching rough wireframes in order to understand the hierarchy of content across different devices. Once these ideas have been hashed out it’s time to dive into the code and create simple design-less mock-ups in the browser. As Trent Walton offers, it’s about providing visuals to generate a discussion about how content should fit in the space at any given width and how to maintain the hierarchy. This rapid iteration approach makes sure that function doesn’t force form and form doesn’t restrict function, the two need to interdigitate in order to establish a effective UI balance.
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