Going Mobile-Friendly: How Responsive Web Design And HTML5 Are Related

It is believed that when search via mobile devices are considered, it must instantly deliver the most relevant results. Since, users are rapidly moving towards mobile devices and the majority of people prefer mobile over the desktop for accessing the Internet, Google has decided to further streamline its algorithm to deliver more mobile-friendly results. This algorithm will come into action by the 21^st April, thus, it is advisable to develop a mobile-friendly website or app at the earliest to become viewable on advanced mobile devices.

Having said that it would be worth to consider the ways to create a mobile-optimized web presence. No doubt, with the proliferation of mobile devices and a slew of browsers have made it a bit hard for developers to create apps and sites to efficiently reach different individuals. Luckily, we are aided by certain platforms that expedite the web designing and development process. For instance, the inception of responsive web design and HTML5 have amazingly facilitated professionals with valuable features and allowed them to seamlessly target multiple devices.

The responsive web design offers an absolute way to efficiently target multiple mobile devices, as it responds according to the peculiar behavior of a device (that is, by considering its orientation, platform, resolution, and size). This design approach empowers designers to allow users to seamlessly access the web pages on any device. And, the most interesting fact is that the CSS3 media queries and JavaScript, which enable responsive design basically fall under the umbrella of HTML5.

Let’s delve deep into the topic and determine the difference between HTML5 and responsive design.

Responsive Web Design Vs. HTML5

The HTML5 defines a peculiar web technology or a set of technologies. However, responsive web design refers to a set of guidelines that define how a website should appear on any screen.

The responsive web design primarily focuses over the three factors. These features include media query, flexible images and media, a flexible layout that implements relative sizing.

While considering both HTML5 and responsive design, it can be observed that HTML5 is a proficient tool, which is used for making websites responsive. Thus, it can be said that they both share a kinship. What’s similar for the two are as follows.

• They both are aimed to target browsers instead of some device or platform.

• None of them is platform dependent.

As, both HTML5 and responsive web design resides in the browsers, there is no effect of the targeted OS, your website will run smoothly unless you are running it on a device that has a compatible browser.

You can use HTML5 along with CSS3 and JavaScript for developing mobile applications, while a responsive website can also be developed by using the HTML4 and XHTML.

What makes HTML5 a viable choice for mobile development

There are several upsides of developing mobile solutions, including quick loading time and ultimate visual appeal. Here are a few of other valuable advantages.

• With HTML5, you can generate better forms.

HTML5 offers a great advantage to support forms on both desktop and mobile devices. On desktops, the screen is large and users can conveniently fill in their details. The HTML5 technology makes forms more intuitive and simple. For instance, for fetching a date, it can pop up a calendar and allow users to choose a requisite date.

As far as mobile devices are concerned, HTML5-powered forms offer a greater degree of convenience. Like, the mobile device keypad automatically transforms and includes keys that can help you fill the form. Let’s say, if you need to fill an email id, the keyboard on your screen will include keys for “@” and “.com” to allow you conveniently fill in the details.

• HTML5 supports multimedia content on websites.

Earlier, the smartphones were not able to support Flash player, which is used in most of the websites, like YouTube, to enable video files on the web. Fortunately, with the advent of HTML5 you can embed audio, video or any other media file in your website straight into the code without implementing additional software or plugins.

• HTML5 offers a robust and flexible overall structure to responsive web design.

The HTML5 is not only focused over the desktop, but also concentrates over the latest mobile technologies and devices. Unlike the previous versions of HTML, HTML5 makes the code much lighter. Therefore, it can be concluded that HTML5 is essential and need to be included if one wants to quickly create a responsive web design.

Final Thought

Although, HTML5 and responsive web design are not interchangeable, they support a few similar features. You can create a responsive web design without implementing the HTML5 at all, but that would be a bit risky. Because without HTML5, you may loose the quicker loading time and several other utile features of HTML5. This is why, it is advisable to develop a mobile web presence by considering both responsive web designs and HTML5 to ensure a surefire and sustainable mobile solution.