Responsive Web Design is the new version of mobile website design. Ideally it takes into account the variation of sizes on which a site can be viewed as well as the difference in processing capability to view it. The goal of responsive web design is to have the website transition gracefully between different sized devices as seamlessly as possible. This can be a challenge. Here is how it usually works-
- code on the site determines on what size device the site is being viewed
- depending on the size, it will call on a different style sheet and possibly a different site to display. At the least there will be sections of the style sheet for changes at different sizes.
- content and design may change to meet the needs of the end-user when viewing the website on different devices. (For example, just because the screen gets smaller doesn’t mean your finger does to touch it, so the buttons and space around them may need to stay the same or get larger when going from mouse to touch.)
- Design and layout of the site(s) needs to be flexible to cover the range of sizes for each device (cell phone vs tablet vs laptop vs desktop).
- Style sheets and website code for each size device need to adapt to a range of sizes by keeping measurements (for images, widths and lengths of content areas) in relative, rather than absolute, terms, where possible while keeping other things in absolute size (like buttons and font size. If they get too small, you cant see them or interact with them).
Where We Were
When I started in web design, we were designing for desktop monitors, which was enough of a challenge because every browser, and every version, displayed differently. New browsers (like Chrome) also needed to be considered. None of that is anything compared to today’s challenge of creating websites for sites as small as a cell phone screen or as large as a big monitor. Many of the rules of physical size and site size in terms of load (number of bytes) are totally different depending on the size of the monitor and the device.
It was challenging enough to understand Mobile Web Design which, which often meant a different web site for the mobile device (cell phone) than for the desktop- often with different style and, content and menu. The rapid development of 15 inch, then 13, then 11 inch and smaller monitors on laptops, then tablets, then mini tablets and simultaneously bigger screen sizes on cell phones and bigger desktop monitors made the 2 design method no longer feasible (and many web designers left the business or started to drink!) Enter responsive web design which responds to many different sizes of monitor.
Where We Are- Responsive is No Longer Optional
The truth is, having a responsive website is really no longer optional. Google now penalizes sites in search engine rankings if they are not responsive.
If that’s not enough reason to change to a responsive website, consider this: 50% or more of users are viewing sites on mobile devices of some sort. People are not OK with being forced to pinch/expand content. They now expect sites to be responsive and easily readable on whatever device they are using.
Richterworks Web creates responsive custom business websites which show your clients why YOU are the best solution to their need. Contact us today at 847-577-0491 or use our contact form) to get started with better marketing.