Breakpoints for Responsive Web Design in 2024

Users today are driven by experiences. Therefore your web design must be responsive across all devices. With the increasing number of mobile users, one cannot emphasize the importance of responsive design in customer experience. Today, websites are not just a source to communicate the value proposition but also serve as criteria based on which your prospects evaluate you.

Now that you understand what a responsive design is, let us dive deeper to understand the concept of breakpoints and the popular breakpoints in a responsive design.

What is a Breakpoint?

CSS Breakpoint is a “defined width” that is used in the webpage style to make the content and design responsive. It helps enhance user experience by delivering consistent experience on different devices. Breakpoint solves the device fragmentation issue as it helps render the webpage uniformly across different screen sizes.

What is a Breakpoint in Responsive Design?

A breakpoint in responsive design refers to specific screen widths or device dimensions at which the layout of a website or web application changes to provide an optimal viewing experience. 

These breakpoints are defined using CSS media queries, which apply different styles depending on the screen size or device type (e.g., mobile, tablet, desktop). In essence, breakpoints ensure that a website is flexible and adaptable, providing a seamless user experience across a wide range of devices and screen sizes.

Essentially, breakpoints are pixel values that a developer/designer can define in CSS. When a responsive website reaches those pixel values, a transformation (such as the one detailed above) occurs so that the website offers an optimal user experience.

• For developers, a common breaking point is a media query.
• For designers, a common breaking point is the juncture at which a change is made to how the website content or design appears to the viewer.

Example of Breakpoints in Responsive Design

For instance, on the Amazon website, the layout changes significantly when switching from a desktop to a mobile view.

On a desktop, Amazon’s navigation menu is displayed as a horizontal bar across the top of the screen, allowing easy access to various categories and features. The content, including product listings, is organized into multiple columns, allowing users to view more items simultaneously.

However, when viewed on a mobile device, the layout shifts to a more streamlined, mobile-friendly version. The horizontal navigation bar transforms into a collapsible “hamburger” menu, which users can tap to reveal the categories and options. 

Additionally, the content columns stack vertically, ensuring that each product is displayed clearly and accessible within the narrower screen width. This responsive design approach ensures that users have a seamless and intuitive shopping experience, regardless of the device they are using.

Media Query in Responsive Design

Choosing an approach to add a breakpoint can be quite tricky. There is no one rule or syntax that applies to all frameworks. However, you can use a media query to ensure responsiveness. A media query is a rule included in the CSS property and executed if a said condition is true. The common syntax for a CSS media query is

@media media type and (condition: breakpoint) {
// CSS rules
}

Let us see how to use this syntax in action. The below code would convert the background to light blue if the screen size is smaller than 500 pixels.

@media only screen and (max-width: 500px) {
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}
}

Different Types of Breakpoint

The common types of breakpoint:

• Desktop Large Screens
• Small Screen Laptops
• Tablets
• Mobile Screens
• Extra Large Screens

Common Breakpoints For Responsive Design

With the growing number of mobile devices, creating mobile breakpoints for every device is impossible. Although this was the case earlier, the situation has changed quite a bit.

With the increasing variety of mobile devices, it’s become impractical to create specific breakpoints for every single device. While this approach was more common in the past, the landscape has evolved considerably.

However, you can still establish standard responsive breakpoints for the most commonly used screen sizes among your target audience. Below are the screen sizes that were most frequently used in 2024.

1. Mobile Devices

• Extra Small Mobile (Portrait): 320px – 480px

Used for the smallest smartphones, where content is stacked vertically, and navigation is typically collapsed into a hamburger menu.

• Small Mobile (Landscape): 481px – 600px

For slightly larger mobile screens in landscape mode, where the layout may adjust to fit more content side by side.

2. Tablets

• Small Tablets (Portrait): 601px – 768px

Typically used for tablets like the iPad Mini in portrait mode, where a two-column layout might be introduced, and navigation elements become more accessible.

• Large Tablets (Landscape): 769px – 1024px

Suitable for larger tablets like the iPad in landscape mode. This breakpoint might introduce a three-column layout, with more content displayed horizontally.

3. Laptops and Small Desktops

• Small Desktops and Laptops: 1025px – 1280px

For smaller laptops or desktops, a standard multi-column layout is often employed. Navigation menus are fully expanded, and content is displayed side by side in multiple columns.

4. Large Desktops

• Large Desktops and High-Resolution Screens: 1281px – 1440px

Designed for large desktop monitors and high-resolution screens, this breakpoint maximizes the use of screen real estate with spacious layouts, potentially using more advanced features like sidebars or large navigation panels.

5. Extra-Large Screens

• Extra-Large Desktops: 1441px and up

For ultra-wide or high-definition monitors, allowing for complex, multi-column layouts, more expansive content displays, and possibly interactive elements that make use of the extra space.

That said, you can always go ahead and create standard responsive breakpoints for screen sizes that are extensively used among your audiences. Listed below are the screen sizes that have been most used in 2023.

• 1920×1080
• 360×800 
• 1366×768
• 1536×864
• 390×844
• 414×896
• 412×915
• 393×873
• 1280×720
• 360×780
• 360×640
• 1440×900
• 375×812
• 1600×900
• 2560×1440
• 810×1080

Source

Common Layout Changes in Responsive Design

In responsive design, layout changes are essential to ensure a seamless and user-friendly experience across different devices. Here are some common layout changes that occur in responsive design:

1. Navigation Menu Adjustments

• Desktop: Navigation menus are typically displayed as horizontal bars with multiple items visible at once.
• Mobile: Menus often transform into a collapsible “hamburger” menu or a slide-out drawer to conserve screen space and simplify navigation.

2. Column Reorganization

• Desktop: Content is often arranged in multiple columns, allowing for a rich and detailed layout.
• Mobile: Columns stack vertically to fit the narrower screen width, providing a single-column layout that is easier to scroll through.

3. Font and Text Size Adjustments

• Desktop: Larger font sizes and more spacing are used to enhance readability on bigger screens.
• Mobile: Text sizes are reduced, and spacing is adjusted to fit the smaller screen while maintaining readability.

4. Image and Media Resizing

• Desktop: Images and media are displayed at larger sizes and can be arranged in a grid or gallery format.
• Mobile: Images are resized to fit the screen width, and media elements might be displayed in a stacked format or with a focus on optimizing load times.

5. Content Prioritization

• Desktop: Full content is often visible, with sidebars and additional sections providing extra information.
• Mobile: Key content is prioritized, with less critical information hidden or moved to secondary screens. This helps users focus on the most important information.

6. Grid and Flexbox Adjustments

• Desktop: Complex grid layouts with multiple rows and columns are used to maximize screen space.
• Mobile: Grid and flexbox layouts are simplified to ensure that content remains accessible and easy to interact with on smaller screens.

7. Button and Link Sizing

• Desktop: Buttons and links are often smaller and more closely spaced.
• Mobile: Buttons and links are enlarged and spaced out to accommodate touch interactions and reduce the likelihood of accidental clicks.

8. Forms and Input Fields

• Desktop: Forms may be displayed with multiple input fields visible at once, often in a side-by-side format.
• Mobile: Forms are redesigned to fit a single-column layout, with larger input fields and buttons to enhance usability on touch screens.

What is a Mobile Breakpoint?

A mobile breakpoint refers to the screen width at which a website or application should adapt its layout and design to ensure optimal user experience. Since mobile screens come in various sizes and resolutions, breakpoints define the points at which the content and layout should adjust to accommodate smaller screens.

Ultimately, the choice of a good mobile breakpoint depends on the target audience, the specific design goals, and the devices commonly used to access the website or application. It’s recommended to test and validate the layout across different devices and screen sizes to ensure a seamless user experience.

When should a Standard Responsive Breakpoint be Added?

A good rule is adding standard responsive breakpoints when the content looks misaligned.

Visualize a paragraph of text. As the screen gets smaller, it starts to become distorted, thus hindering readability. Adding a mobile breakpoint here would prevent this from happening. The point of adding any breakpoint is to make content easy to read. This applies to both increasing and decreasing screen width. Adding a standard responsive breakpoint is recommended whenever the content becomes harder to read because of changing screen size.

Best Practices for Adding Standard Responsive Breakpoints

Here are some of the best practices to follow while adding standard responsive breakpoints:

Develop for Mobile Audience

Benefits of Mobile-First Design:

• Simplify First: Designing for mobile helps you focus on essential features, making it easier to scale up to larger screens later.
• Efficient Development: Start with mobile design to save time and improve page load speeds by using minimal CSS and smaller assets.
• Functional Considerations: Mobile-first design encourages thinking about different input methods (like touch vs. keyboard), making your site more user-friendly.
• Less Coding: Mobile-first layouts automatically adjust to fit the screen, reducing coding complexity.

Reduce Friction

Optimize User Experience:

• Focus on Essentials: Keep important menu options and remove distractions.
• Simplify Forms: Cut down on unnecessary form fields.
• Highlight Key Actions: Make main buttons stand out.
• Improve Search: Ensure search and filter functions are easy to use.

Responsive Design Tips:

• Use Common Breakpoints: Start with standard screen sizes (480px, 768px, 1024px, 1280px) and adjust based on your site’s analytics.
• Tailor Breakpoints: If mobile devices are most common among your users, set breakpoints for those sizes first.

Hide or Display Elements at Breakpoints

• Switch Features: Change content or navigation based on screen size (e.g., use a hamburger menu on mobile and a full menu on desktop).
• Content-Driven Breakpoints: Add breakpoints as needed to fit the content and design, rather than focusing solely on device sizes.

Talk to an Expert

How to run Responsive Tests on Real Browsers and Devices?

• Once the research is complete and the responsive website has been built, it must be tested. If a website has to be validated as responsive, it must be tested on multiple real browsers and devices. That is the only way to check the success of responsive design in real user conditions.
• To do this, use a responsive design checker. Instead of purchasing multiple devices, enter the URL into the checker and monitor what it looks like on different real devices, all online.

On the other hand, you could sign up for free on BrowserStack’s real device cloud. Get instant, on-demand access to 3000+ real browsers and devices. Check how your site’s responsive design renders on the latest devices and browsers so that you leave nothing to chance. Minimize the chances of a visually distorted site by increasing device coverage with ease and efficiency.

Start Testing on Real Devices