One of the most appealing aspects of responsive web design is that a responsive website can provide a great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes. In fact responsive web design has become one of the hottest trends. This is due to the growth of Smartphone and other mobile devices.
A site that works well will provide a better and more consistent user-experience than a separate mobile site that is designed for a specific device and screen size.
If a site uses responsive design, the tablet version might automatically adjust to display just two columns. That way, the content is readable and easy to navigate
To create a successful responsive website design, you need certain tools that can make the task a lot easier. Thanks to the rapid involvement in technology, a lot of tools for responsive web design that are being introduced in order to simplify things.
We shall now have a look at the top 10 best tools for responsive web design.
Gridset
Gridset allows web designers and developers design, prototype and build custom, responsive grid-based layouts for their projects. It can create any type of grid you require, from regular columnar grids like those in CSS frameworks such us Bootstrap.
It works with different content management systems, including Joomla, Drupal and WordPress, as well as working in popular graphics applications like Photoshop and Fireworks.
Wirefy
Wirefy is greatly using tool for responsive web designs. With some knowledge of CSS and HTML, it is easy to begin generating creative wireframes without the anxiety of working via countless calculations.
In fact, Wirefy is a collection of responsive HTML snippets and templates that scale as the browser is resized working across multiple devices. If you are a developer or creative designer that is connected with the content first at the base upon your responsive designs then this is the best tool for what you are looking for.
Adobe Edge Inspect
When you are sorting out how your web page would look through different devices and different screen sizes, Adobe Edge Inspect would be a helpful tool to do that.
With Adobe Edge Inspect, you are able to preview the presentation of your responsive site as it would be viewed on an iPad, Droid X, iPhone, Galaxy Nexus and other devices on one mobile device alone. You don’t have to have several devices on your table just to view the site on these different platforms.
Gumby 2:
Built with the powerful CSS preprocessor Sass, Gumby2 is a responsive web-design framework that is easy to download and customize according to your needs.
From responsive images to intrinsic ratio video embeds, Gumby2 has a robust collection of tools for grids, forms, buttons, toggles and switches, dropdowns, tabs, drawers and templates.
Adobe Edge Reflow
Edge Reflow is one in a lot of tools that have come out that make it possible to visually design a responsive website. Reflow convert the Photoshop (PSD) files content into HTML and CSS and then visually adjust the design using breakpoints in Reflow.
Reflow is being positioned as a visual design tool, which means you can drag and drop content and make formatting edits using panels, but it does require some knowing of HTML and CSS (at least the basics).
Bootstrap
Bootstrap is a great front end website development platform providing a lot of components (easy configurable CSS front-end framework) that are essential for developing effective and efficient Websites.
Built at Twitter by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton and it was made to look and behave great in the latest desktop, tablet and Smartphone browsers.
Invision
Invision App has been really useful for communicating the design transitions and journeys between screens to other team members. It allows you to upload working designs and create interactions between users.
One of its standout features is the ability to send clickable designs to your phone via SMS, underlining the importance of being able to test your designs yourself in context. Support for Android phones has also just been announced.
Export Kit
There has been a big discussion about using Photoshop to design websites. I heard many voices that Photoshop is going to be replaced soon and it won’t be a choice of most designers.
This tool can create a design in Photoshop and immediately see it become a full-fledged website or application. In fact, Export Kit’s bridge the gap between your project assets and your code by immediately converting your Photoshop file into HTML, CSS, JS, WordPress, Android and more.
UXpin
UxPin is a design app and a collaborative online design tool, that allows you to create wireframe and prototypes that are interactive. This is a supremely powerful tool which outputs very polished wireframes that provides users with a tool kit that contains common design elements and offers a huge library of custom UI elements.
UXpin will appeal to advanced users who want to spend more time creating beautiful full colored wireframes.
Marvel
Marvel is an excellent online tool, which allows designers to create prototypes of mobile applications and web projects. It’s a web-based app that takes the need for coding. According to Marvel, their app is the easiest way to turn your sketches, images and mockups into realistic mobile and web prototypes.
This tool allows you to share and pitch your ideas in a more interactive way than the conventional PowerPoint presentation or the clunky email attachment.
Conclusion:
Responsive web design is recommended by Google, it allows one website to provide a great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes.
As the tech industry continues to develop new devices, with new capabilities and limitations, the challenges we face as web designers will inevitably change.
The Web is inextricably linked to our lives. Sooner or later it’s probably already happened behind closed doors and companies will accept to dominate the wearable market they have to deliver the full Web in all its jQuery glory.
Author Bio:
Chawki Trabelsi is a Web Developer and Designer writes for webhostingplanguide.com which provides updated information about web hosting companies in the USA. He loves writing about graphic design, web design, tutorials, jQuery, technologies and everything about latest innovations. Follow him on Twitter.
Juliana
13 Oct 2017What’s up mates, nice post and nice arguments commented here, Iam really enjoying by these.
Naveen Kumar
27 Jul 2018A very good post which specifies the importance of responsive web design and the tools that can be used to make your website as a responsive one. I have been using boostrap and it is one of the best tool.
Richard
5 Oct 2018Thanks for this information, I actually have a “responsive checker” I created on my site as well 🙂
Also, I agree with Naveen, bootstrap is one of the best tools out there.
Jacob Graves
5 Apr 2019Yes, I agree with Naveen, Bootstrap is the best tool for this. pretty well written article.
Dienel Kathil
26 Nov 2019Thanks for sharing such a great article. It has a lot of useful information about best for responsive tools.