Hello all,

 

I was just wondering what is the recommended size people design in with photoshop? I'm looking to create a responsive design which works well on mobiles.

 

Best regards,

In order to design for a responsive site you would need to plan three designs, one for desktop, one for tablet and another for mobile. In order to create these I usually wireframe the desktop first and then move things around to create a tablet, then mobile. Some think mobile first is better, I do it this way because its my preference, either way though, plan with wireframes first then design each.

 

This might help too http://www.zingdesign.com/responsive-website-design-cheatsheet1/

If you're confining the desktop design to a certain width (for example 960px) then you can create a document that's slightly larger (for example 1024px wide), giving you a 'buffer' around the outside edges. Responsive sites should look good on all screen widths though, so sometimes it's not feasible to design at fixed sizes since there's no guarantee the site will always be viewed at this size, so you have to design in a way that accounts for 'flexible content'.

 

Design content that works in both landscape and portrait orientations. A sidebar may feature a list of links that on a tablet/phone is shifted below the main content and stretches to the edge of the screen, where as on a desktop it may sit in a portrait orientation beside the main content. How will it look in different formats?

 

Personally I tend to design at 1280px wide. This way when I export a JPEG of the design, I'm able to open it in Chrome on my MacBook and the size fits the resolution of my screen perfectly. For tablets I design at 768px wide and mobile 480px, but I try to design in a way that isn't ridgid or tied to these resolutions. The best way to do that is to keep the design simple.

Thanks for the reply's guys I shall check those links out.

 

I have some basic knowledge of web design (Nothing major) but this is more of a little project which I can learn as I go, so any other tips you have to get me started will be much appreciated.