Since “Responsive Web Design” is gaining popularity, here are 7 things that you should consider if you are looking for a responsive e-commerce website built using Magento:
- It may be more appropriate to get a third party theme for the layout of your project rather than having a custom layout. Even if you don’t want to use it eventually, it may help you see in the initial stage how a theme organises your pages.
- Going with third party themes will not only save you time but will guide you in terms of what you require in your custom templates. If you are using Magento Enterprise Edition then you need to check for any inconsistencies and third party themes will help you identify these.
- A more manageable and maintainable approach is to use a responsive CSS framework, but for that you will need a considerable amount of time at the start to apply it into your templates.
- In order to make a responsive Magento site, the focal point of the site shouldn’t be large blocks of text even if you have a CMS pages. Your focus should be on more specific pages and sections which highlight what you want your users to see first.
- You need to decide which sections or pages of the Magento site you can apply CSS for a responsive layout. The sections/pages can be classified by: Category Pages, Product Pages, Cart Page, Checkout Page, Login/Create an Account Pages, Customer Account Section, Search pages, etc.
- You need to decide whether the drop-down cart in your site is to be shown on mobiles too or just provide the link that redirects the user to the cart page. With this, we also need to consider whether we have the time and the budget to build a responsive Magento site. Do consider whether you will have enough users viewing the site on mobiles, although with the rise of mobile web, it is likely that you will need the site to be accessible on mobiles.
- If you decide that mobile access is important, the most important thing to consider is how your website can be optimised for use on mobiles. In order to make your site responsive, we need to improve the usability and the visual appearance of the products in the store for mobile views. We need to think in terms of “Responsive Design”, which means that mobile users have the ability to easily navigate throughout the site, and can add and checkout product items with ease, in the same way they could do on traditional desktop. Most importantly, the information regarding the store products must be presented clearly to your site visitors.