Setting The Viewport
The viewport is the user's visible area of a web page.
The viewport varies with the device (will be a lot smaller on a mobile phone than on a computer screen).
You should include the following <meta> element in the <head> section of all your web pages:
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">This gives the browser instructions on how to control the page's dimensions and scaling.
The width=device-width part sets the width of the page to follow the screen-width of the device (which will vary depending on the device).
The initial-scale=1.0 part sets the initial zoom level when the page is first loaded by the browser.
Here is an example of a web page without the viewport meta tag, and the same web page with the viewport meta tag:
Tip
If you are browsing this page with a phone or a tablet, you can click on the two links above to see the difference.
Size Content to The Viewport
Users are used to scroll websites vertically on both desktop and mobile devices - but not horizontally!
So, if the user is forced to scroll horizontally, or zoom out, to see the whole web page it results in a poor user experience.
Some additional rules to follow
- Do NOT use large fixed-width elements - For example, if an image has a width wider than the viewport, it causes the viewport to scroll horizontally. Remember to adjust this content to fit within the width of the viewport.
- Do NOT let the content rely on a particular width to render well - Since screen dimensions vary widely between devices, content should not rely on a particular viewport width to render well.
- Use CSS media queries to apply different styling for small and large screens - Setting large absolute CSS widths for page elements will cause the elements to be too wide for smaller devices. Instead, consider using relative width values, such as width: 100%. Also, be careful of using large absolute positioning values. It may cause the element to fall outside the viewport on small devices.