Research Guides Standards and Best Practices

Websites with a responsive design make it easy to read content across a variety of devices.

It allows for interaction without needing to resize or scroll because the content is placed in a flexible grid that changes based on screen size.

Responsive design also removes the need to design separately for mobile devices since every device is served from a unified design.

• Place your most important content in the left column or top box since this is guaranteed to always be at the top of the guide.
• Break up content so there is a natural flow when the columns are rearranged.
• Group similar or themed content closer together in a column so they don't get separated.
• View your guide on multiple screens (or resize your browser window to activate the responsive design scripts) before publishing.
• Don't use empty columns to take up space.

Pages should normally be in a one- or two-column layout. Avoid three or more columns.

• One-column layout for pages with a few boxes of content that flow better as full page content.
• Two-column for all others. Consider a 50-50% layout for balance and good responsive design.
• Three and more should be avoided as the content will move around a lot with responsive design.

Profile boxes should only be used on the home page. Don't use a profile box to take up space!

Responsive design helps you make beautiful web sites! Yet, attention should be paid to where content is placed in your guides because it will get rearranged to suit the screen size of the user.

This means your guide will appear differently across various devices. A beautifully designed multi-column layout created on a desktop computer will appear as a one-column page on a student's phone.

Take, for instance, this three-column page layout where the highlight of the page is centered in the top-center of the page. 

Now consider this same layout on a phone.

Notice how the main content is not on top anymore. This important content might get overlooked since it is buried below the left column.

There is a predictable pattern for how columns get rearranged. 

• The top box will always be first.
• The left column will be second.
• Additional columns will wrap around below the top box and left column in order from left-to-right.
• The footer box will always be last.