21 Examples of Responsive Web Design Done Right

Widespread implementation of responsive web design (RWD) is relatively new in the design world, and though it’s gaining steam, the perfect method of implementation has yet to make itself known. Often designers are on their own in their efforts to figure out how to gracefully degrade the fancy features in their client’s websites, while still prominently featuring the most important content.

Nobody said it’d be easy, but the front-end UI development has never been more complex.

Still, it’s not at all impossible to create beautiful designs that translate attractively to smaller screens. In fact, there are at least 21 different exemplary instances of companies, publications, corporations, or individual designers doing just that.

You can tell where this is going right?

Below you’ll see excellent examples of website’s that look downright dazzling on a big screen, and yet retain their most important components as viewports decrease in size. You’ll even see a few that preserve animated effects, transitions, and the oh-so-rare: parallax effects on mobile.

But we’ll start simple with a few text heavy websites that rely on white space, typography, and minimalism to make their point, without as much in the way of distracting imagery.

Less is More

1. CloudFour

Cloudfour-full-website-design

From left to right, a shot of the web page in a smaller browser window, and on a mobile device. Note that you haven’t really lost any of the most relevant elements from the big view. The text has shrunk noticeably, but remains legible, and the menu button stays visible in place of the original header, to ensure easy navigation. Highly usable, and it still effectively communicates the desired message.

The rest of the examples in this section follow the same formula.

Cloudfour-mobile-website-design

2. Neilpatel.com

neilpatel-full-website-design

nielpatel-mobile-website-design

3. Kissmetrics

kissmatrics-full-website-design

kissmetrics-mobile-website-design

4. CopyBlogger

copyblogger-full-website-design

copyblogger-mobile-website-design

5. Videofruit

videofruit-full-website-design

videofruit-mobile-website-design

A Little More is Nice

Simplicity is all well and good, but if all we included in this list were run of the mill content sites, the whole thing would seem rather bland. With that in mind, let’s move on to some more colorful examples that sustain some sharpness as you scale down the screen resolution.

6. Adventure.com

adventure-full-website-design

adventure-mobile-website-design

7. Blue Dolphin Charters

blue-dolphin-charters-full-website-design

blue-dolphin-charters-mobile-website-design

8. ThinkandTravel.rs

thinkandtravel-full-website-design

thinkandtravel-mobile-website-design

9. WiseYeti

wiseyeti-full-website-design

wiseyeti-mobile-website-design

10. Harvey Water Softeners: History of Interior Design

harveywater-full-website-design

harveywater-mobile-website-design

11. Designed to Move

designedtomove-full-website-design

designedtomove-mobile-website-design

12. Ipsocreative.com

ipso-full-website-design

ipso-mobile-website-design

The Extra Mile

And now we arrive at the crème de la crème. The designers attached to the production of these websites truly owe themselves several sturdy pats on the back.

These sites not only exude aesthetic eloquence, but they also translate animated effects, transitions, or alternate/more appropriate views as the screen resolution decreases.

We’ll take some time to discuss what sets them apart as we go.

13. Stories of Change

storiesofchange-full-website-design

storiesofchange-mobile-website-design

Stories of change made the list because of the hero images which take center stage on mobile, rather than implementing the cycling ambient video that renders on desktop. As an added bonus: the images change every time you refresh the page on your smartphone.

14. Fliks.co.uk

fliks-full-website-design

fliks-mobile-website-design

Flicks made just barely made the cut because the mobile site prompts you to find nearby theaters before sending you directly to the site.

15. Vizio.com

vizio-full-website-design

vizio-mobile-website-design

I’m a sucker for ambient video and Vizio delivers, regardless of browser size. The mobile version skips all the flair and degrades to a usable navigation menu with a sexy image slider.

16. TheCreativeClassTV

creativeclass-full-website-design

creativeclass-mobile-website-design

Creative class loses points for automatically playing sound with its video, a pet peeve of mine, but it makes up for it with the sweet floating menu.

17. Etnies Marana-Bloodline landing page

etnies-full-website-design

etnies-mobile-website-design

The mobile version of the site switches backgrounds from black to white, in order to increase legibility, while still containing compressed variations of all the major elements of the desktop site.

1. Netwars Project

netwars-full-website-design

netwars-mobile-website-design

Netwars manages to keep a subtle animated effect on their background image even on the smartphone screen!

1. Maja and the Jacks

maja-full-website-design

maja-mobile-website-design

Gotta love these alternate views. The montage switches to slider in a smaller browser windows and you’ve got to scroll to get to the images, as the banner and CTA buttons are prioritized.

20. CinnamonToast

cinnamontoast-full-website-design

cinnamontoast-mobile-website-design

Cycling stop-motion animation across every view, and easy immediate navigation put CinnamonToast in a league of their own.

21. Honda CRV

crv-full-website-design

crv-mobile-website-design

Supremely subtle use of parallax scrolling and associated animations are preserved across all viewports, along with high definition background video. I want to buy a CRV now.

That’s all for our list. What are the most impressive responsive web designs you’ve seen implemented? Put your picks for the honorable mentions in the comment section.

2 Replies to “21 Examples of Responsive Web Design Done Right”

  1. Irina Johnson says:

    Thanks for sharing!

  2. Andrew John says:

    Responsive website collection was unique and awesome . All the templates are designed perfectly

Comments are closed.