Is there some "best approach" for responsive design?

Question

I need to do a respponsive website project and Im with some doubts.

Im studying media queries but there are a lot of media queries, there are something like "default media queries" or "common media queries" that we can follow?

After some research Im thinking something about this:

@media only screen and (min-width: 480px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 600px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 768px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 992px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 1382px) { ... }

Do you think that are a good approach using this media queries?

And do for responsiv design do you think its better use percentages in css or its better using pixels? Im asking this, because the media queries use pixels, so maybe its better dont use percentages?

And for last, I have a computer with full hd resolution and other with 1024 resolution. I have a image that have 300 pixels, in my full hd monitor the image is more smaller than my 1024 computer. I dont understand this, because 300pixels should be 300 pixels always no?

Sorry if I ask many things, but Im with some doubts and its not easy find good and reliable information about this!

Answer 1

I thnk using the media query settings you note will complicate your life because they will make it difficult to target different viewports or window widths.

@media only screen and (min-width: 480px) { ... } will target all widths 480px and above,
@media only screen and (min-width: 600px) { ... } will target all widths 600px and above.

So they will both be fighting for control whenever the viewport is 600px or higher. You could consider something like the following:

/* your default, site-wide settings followed by */
@media only screen and (max-width: 480px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 600px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 601px) and (max-width: 768px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 769px) and (max-width: 992px) { ... }
@media only screen and (min-width: 993px) { ... }  

I'm not saying that these are perfect break points, that's often specific to your design. The important bit is the technique you use to target the different viewports.

There are different schools of thought for pixels vs percentages, and both have advantages. If you are getting up-to-speed with responsive design, personally I think it's worth spending time with some of the well established frameworks like Bootstrap or Foundation or Skeleton or one of the many others.

They are all fantastic, they will save you heaps of learning time, give you good cross-browser results, and the more you know, the easier it will be to break away from them when needed.

Good luck!

Answer 2

What's pixel density and how it can help me to understand why the same image can be smaller on my mobile phone than it is on my computer monitor (and vice-versa)?

Let's say that I have a monitor with a 500 x 500 pixels resolution, the screen size of this monitor is 15" diagonally and I have a mobile phone that has the same resolution but it's screen size is 4" diagonally (just an example).

How is it possible to fit the same number of pixels in different screen sizes?

The answer is simple: The pixel is smaller on my phone than it is on my monitor (that's the big difference between Apple's retina display and other displays).

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Media Queries...

Take a look in a very simple blog that I've developed last year. Try resizing your browser width to see what happens to the content, images and slideshow.

When the browser/screen width is smaller than 800 pixels, the entire site changes to adapt itself better to smaller screens. This is how I think you should use media queries, instead of creating rules for each device screen size (but not necessarily using 800px nor limiting the content max-width when it's on a big screen).

_{Note that this is just an example on how you should think about media queries.}

Answer 3

here is some reference for you:

• about media queries you can read http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/7-habits-of-highly-effective-media-queries/ - i love this quote

Start with the small screen first, then expand until it looks like shit. Time for a breakpoint! -Stephen Hay

basically you should use a fluid layout (you can choose from a variety of css fluid grids you find online) and test your design enlarging and shrinking your browser: when your design "cracks", it's time to add a mediaquery. you don't have readapt the whole website at a certain breakpoint: everything may work ok and you need only to resize the text at that certain width. do so.

• about pixel density and resolutionyou can read this useful article: http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2010/04/a_pixel_is_not.html

hope this helps

Answer 4

You should probably stop thinking about the web in pixels and screen sizes.

I can see why it's tempting to use actual device widths as breakpoints for a design, but do keep in mind that those breakpoints will be invalid the very second a new device is released. Or when the user interacts with the site in an unexpected way, such as resizing the text size to their preference.

1. Use the em unit for your breakpoints. This way, your media queries will trigger correctly even when a user resizes the text size.

2. Adjust your breakpoints to when your content/layout needs it, not for for specific screen sizes (that said, you should probably not include compact (mobile) navigation above 980-ish pixels, since people with old monitors probably won't understand how to navigate through it).

3. Write mobile first CSS, as in use min-width for your media queries. This helps you keep your CSS DRY. However that does not mean that you never should use max-width for media queries - there are always scenarios when you want to add styles to smaller screens only. Always avoid repetition.

4. For your own sanity, use a CSS preprocessor such as SASS, LESS or Stylus. I recently wrote an answer on how to use SASS to get a really comfortable workflow with media queries, click here here to read it.

5. Pixel density is a complicated topic, but rendered pixels (such as an image, or anything with CSS) aren't the same as actual pixels on a screen - they're normalized to a standard. For that reason, you shouldn't use pixel density to increase the quality of images, you should just increase the width of the image since those additional pixels then will be crammed into place on higher resolution screens.

Answer 5

Pleas Try Following media queries:-

/* Large desktop */
@media (min-width: 1200px) { ... }

/* Portrait tablet to landscape and desktop */
@media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 979px) { ... }

/* Landscape phone to portrait tablet */
@media (max-width: 767px) { ... }

/* Landscape phones and down */
@media (max-width: 480px) { ... }