Responsive and flat designs are novel web design techniques that have come up as a necessary response to a new direction in web access. The increase in use of mobile devices to access the internet has made website developers come up with these new ways of web design to make internet access on those devices optimal.
What is this responsive design?
Responsive web design uses a technology that allows a website to respond to various mobile devices in terms of screen resolutions and orientation. If a visitor has been using a desktop computer to perform all his or her web browsing, there will be no need for such people to change how they view the web pages just because they now have a tablet. Responsive design on those websites will automatically make the pages fit and accommodate the new size and resolution of the tablet.
Similarly, if a user is holding that tablet in a portrait orientation and turns it sideways to a landscape orientation, the website will also seamlessly switch to that orientation, ensuring the user has continued optimal viewing. This technology is important because it avoids a situation where countless and regular custom-made solutions would be put in place for all categories of users.
What about flat design?
Flat web design is a minimalistic technology that seeks to give visitors improved usability of a website. This approach has brought tremendous difference in the way that current websites look, by featuring clean crisp edges, open space, and bright colors. Any flashy apps that appear on a particular webpage are identified by using simple and icon-like images.
When it comes to flat design, ornamental elements on a website are considered unnecessary distractions that do not add value to a users’ viewing experience. Flat design is minimalistic in nature and is aimed at getting rid of all these clutter and bringing out a site that works well for mobile devices.
The simple images used in flat design make a website easier and faster to load. This makes it possible for the viewer to capture everything that is on that site without having to zoom and pan about the page. A website that has a flat design also makes it very easy for a visitor to navigate through it since it has no gradients or drop shadows.
Flat user interface colors.
Designing a user interface with colors is one fundamental principle in the flat design technique. Many website developers use a variety of bright colors in developing their flat design sites, but there are still those who use a single tone palette.
The process of choosing what color palette to use should be made with the user in mind, so that those colors that will ease navigation are chosen. Specific colors should be used for the main controls of a website and should stand out from the background.
Any color palette that is used on a flat design should not be overused as this would then distract the user from the subject of the website. Identification of the flat buttons on the site by the user is made possible by the presence of color.
Here’s how responsive design and flat design work together.
Developing a website with either a responsive web design or a flat design is one way of making a website relevant in these current times where technology is getting more advanced every other day. Both flat design and responsive design are aimed at creating a website that has high performance with regards to a user.
By being clean of distractions, a user is able to use a website better by focusing on important information on that website as soon as they get to such a webpage. By being responsive, the preferences of what type of device a user has are taken care of.
Having both a flat and responsive design on a website provides the user with a great and fast viewing experience regardless of the kind of device being used.
Flat design is more and more popular, parallax scrolling is one of the flat design, there is an article is taking about 7 Reasons why Parallax Scrolling is good for your Website