10 Media Queries Best Practices

Media queries are a powerful tool that can help make your responsive web design more effective. By using media queries, you can change the CSS of your website based on the width of the user’s screen. This allows you to create different styles for different screen sizes, making your website more responsive.

However, media queries can be tricky to use. In this article, we’ll discuss 10 media queries best practices that will help you use media queries more effectively.

1. Use min-width over max-width

When using min-width media queries, the browser can still apply the styles from earlier breakpoints. This is because the content is still larger than the minimum width set in the query.

On the other hand, when using max-width media queries, the browser will never apply the styles from later breakpoints. This is because the content is smaller than the maximum width set in the query.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it can have a significant impact on how your website looks on different devices. For example, let’s say you have a three-column layout and you’re using max-width media queries to make it responsive.

On a large screen, all three columns will be displayed side by side. But on a smaller screen, only one column will be displayed at a time. This can make your content difficult to read and can cause users to lose interest in your site.

However, if you use min-width media queries, the three columns will still be displayed side by side on a small screen. They’ll just be narrower than they are on a large screen. This makes your content much easier to read and helps keep users engaged.

So, when creating responsive designs, always use min-width media queries over max-width media queries.

2. Mobile first, then desktop

When you start with mobile first, you’re forced to simplify your design. This is a good thing because it makes you focus on the most important content and functionality, which is what you want your users to see and use on mobile devices.

Once you have your mobile design down, then you can add in more content and functionality for desktop users. This way, you’re not starting with too much and then having to remove things for mobile. You’re starting with the essentials and then adding on.

3. Avoid device detection

Device detection is the process of identifying a visitor’s device type and capabilities, usually for the purpose of delivering a tailored experience. It’s often used to detect mobile devices so that a separate mobile version of a website can be served.

However, device detection has several drawbacks. First, it’s not always accurate. A website may incorrectly identify a desktop browser as a mobile device, or vice versa. Second, it’s slow. The process of detecting a device’s capabilities can add significant latency to page load times.

Finally, and most importantly, device detection is unnecessary. Modern browsers provide media query support, which allows you to deliver a tailored experience without needing to detect the visitor’s device.

If you’re using media queries, there’s no need to also use device detection. In fact, doing so can actually hurt your performance.

4. Don’t use @import

When you use @import, the browser has to do two things: first it has to fetch the CSS file, and then it has to parse it. This is an extra step that takes time, and it’s unnecessary because you can just include the CSS file in the HTML document using a element.

If you absolutely must use @import, make sure to put it at the very top of the CSS file so that the browser can start fetching and parsing as soon as possible.

5. Be careful with media types

Different devices have different capabilities when it comes to displaying content. For example, a screen will have different pixel density, color gamut, and so on than a print device. As a result, you need to be careful about which media type you use for your media queries.

If you’re not careful, you could end up with your styles being applied to devices that can’t display them properly. This can lead to your content being unreadable or, worse, looking like a complete mess.

To avoid this, always use the ‘all’ media type for your media queries. This will ensure that your styles are only applied to devices that can handle them.

6. Use the “fluid approach” for images and videos

The web is a fluid medium, and so are images and videos. They should be able to adapt to the size of their container, just like text does.

This means that you shouldn’t use fixed widths or heights for your images and videos. Instead, use percentages or the “max-width” property. This will ensure that your images and videos are always sized appropriately, regardless of the device they’re being viewed on.

7. Combine multiple queries into one

When you have multiple media queries in your CSS, the browser has to go through each one of those individually and check to see if that query matches the user’s device. If you have 10 different media queries, that’s 10 different times the browser has to do that check.

However, if you combine all of those media queries into one, then the browser only has to do that check once. This can help improve performance because the browser doesn’t have to work as hard.

To combine media queries, you just need to add them all into one query with a comma separating them. For example, if you had these three media queries:

@media (min-width: 500px) { … }
@media (min-width: 1000px) { … }
@media (min-width: 1500px) { … }
You could combine them into one like this:

@media (min-width: 500px), (min-width: 1000px), (min-width: 1500px) { … }
Doing this can help improve the performance of your website or application, so it’s definitely something to keep in mind when writing your CSS.

8. Keep your stylesheets clean

When a stylesheet is clean, it’s easy to scan and understand. This is especially important when working with media queries, because you’ll often need to jump back and forth between different breakpoints.

A clean stylesheet also makes it easier to spot errors. And if you ever need to hand off your code to someone else, they’ll thank you for writing clean, well-organized code.

So how do you keep your stylesheets clean? Here are a few tips:

– Use comments to delineate different sections of your code
– Group related styles together
– Use consistent naming conventions
– Avoid using !important

9. Test on real devices

When you test your responsive design on different browsers and screen sizes, you’re only getting part of the story. That’s because browsers all render websites differently, and they don’t always accurately reflect how a website will look on a real device.

For example, Safari on iOS has a different viewport than Chrome on Android, so your media queries might not work as expected when viewed on an iPhone. And even if your media queries are working correctly in the browser, there’s no guarantee that they’ll work on all devices.

The best way to test your responsive design is to use a tool like BrowserStack, which lets you test your website on over 1,000 real devices. This way, you can be sure that your media queries are working correctly on all devices.

10. Optimize for performance

When a user visits your website, their browser has to download and parse the CSS before it can render the page. If your CSS is not optimized, this process can take longer, which means your users have to wait longer for the page to load.

There are a few ways to optimize your CSS for performance. One is to use media queries to only load the CSS that is necessary for the current screen size. For example, if you have a responsive design with different styles for mobile, tablet, and desktop, you can use media queries to only load the CSS for the devices that your users are using.

another way to optimize your CSS is to minify it. Minifying your CSS means removing all unnecessary characters, such as whitespace, comments, and newlines. This can reduce the file size of your CSS, which means it will take less time to download and parse.

You can also combine multiple CSS files into one. This reduces the number of HTTP requests that have to be made, which can further improve performance.