Responsive Web Design

What is Responsive Web Design?

Web pages which are said to be ‘responsive’ are those which are able to adapt to the environment in which they are being viewed. These pages are designed using a grid format, which can then be scaled to perfectly fit the window in which it is being viewed. The images found on the page are also designed to be scalable so as to prevent the image from exceeding the size of the container in which it is held. The myriad tools of responsive web design allow web developers to cater for differing screen sizes, browsers and even window sizes; whilst also conferring a higher level of support for mobile devices.

The contrast between a web page based on older design principles, with content nested within tables of varying sizes, and the more modern responsively designed web page is obvious. When viewing the two pages in full-screen mode, there is little difference between the two. The important distinctions arise though, when the user attempts to arrange the windows in the way of their choosing, or when they attempt to view the site on a mobile device. The responsive web page flows effortlessly into the smaller window or onto the screen of the mobile device, scaling pictures and shuffling text to match the dimensions of the viewing window.

Benefits of Responsive Web Design

It’s obvious to computer users of any level that re-designing a website for each of the endless resolutions and screen configurations found on the staggering conglomeration of laptop and desktop computers is a painful and tedious task. Never mind the baffling array of tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices! Beyond this, such a system would require an extensive database to store all the data regarding each website type. A request would be required for the type of device being used before any website data is sent too, thus increasing the amount of time the user must spend inconveniently waiting for the website to load. With new flavours of each of these devices appearing in ever-diversifying resolutions and dimensions, the ‘one site fits all’ approach laid down by the reactive web design protocols is the only intelligent way left in which a website can be designed by a responsive web design agency.

The ability of the website to respond to the user’s particular screen settings and preferences, and therefore the enhanced experience of the user, is the most significant benefit of the implementation of responsive web design. When a website is designed with these protocols in mind, the user is free to rotate the mobile device and re-size the window at will, leading to a significantly enriched experience of the site. Images are worked with by the responsive web design engine, not using the absolute size of the image in pixels, but the relative size expressed as a percentage of the original, with full size being 100%. The engine is able to determine when the image container is at less than its full size, and to scale the image appropriately. This innovative idea can be implemented with a few staggeringly simple lines of code, but can dramatically change the way a website is able to respond to the content it holds.

What Responsive Web Design Means For The User

If the code designed to facilitate responsive web design works as it is intended, the user shouldn’t even notice its existence. They should be taken completely into the illusion that there are multiple web pages, one designed for each of their devices. They should see no perceptible adjustment when switching between portrait and landscape, for example, but should be able to view the content in a convenient and user-friendly way in either layout without having to perform manual adjustments. By automatically reading the response of the user, as well as the specifications of the user’s device, a site is able to work around the limitations of the user’s device and give a seamless browsing experience devoid of inconvenient scroll bars and pan views.

Although it is often a thankless addition to a web page, and will likely go unnoticed by the majority of users, the improvement to the browsing experience of those accessing a website designed with responsive elements cannot be overstated. While the transition from the table architecture of websites to responsive elements has escaped the notice of most computer users, so many sites now incorporate this important feature that it has become indispensable to any modern business online. Users will notice the lack of elements in a site designed to interpret and react to their modifications of web pages, even if they failed to notice their implementation. For this reason, it is of key importance that businesses make use of responsive web elements available in abundance today. But just how does responsive web design impact the world of business?

What Responsive Web Design Means For Business

Lots of websites already in operation have been designed primarily for laptop and desktop computer users. Would it not require a phenomenal investment for a business to begin providing responsive web pages for phones and for computers? Would this investment really be worth it? With the mobile market expanding every day, the portion of views dominated by desktop computers is beginning to dwindle. For this reason, business who were once able to concentrate on making home computers their priority are now having to accept the fact that mobile computing is here to stay.

Although it is tempting for businesses to stick to the tried-and-tested realm of home computing, many are now becoming wise to the fact that their sites must be accessible via mobile devices. Businesses online must be able to provide a comfortable viewing experience on screens of all resolutions and proportions. Making sure that your website is able to fit unobtrusively on any type of device of the user’s choosing will make sure that they come back to your website the next time they need something similar to what you offer. This will put you ahead of the competition who may have unwieldy websites, not designed with the principles of responsive web design in mind.

Why Bother With Mobile Devices?

Any serious web developer will attest that designing sites with mobile in mind is a huge hassle. Web design would be made dramatically less complex without having to build in support for mobile devices, so the question must be asked, why bother offering support for these devices at all? The answer is quite simple – most companies have thus far dramatically underestimated the actual proportion of time users spend on mobile devices. One recent report has calculated that around 37% of internet usage occurs from mobile devices, with this proportion increasing at a dizzying rate, and showing no sign of stopping. For this reason, support for mobile devices should no longer be an afterthought, but should take up at least an equal amount of time and resources as the design of the desktop site itself. No longer should the desktop site be thought of as the ‘main’ site and the mobile site simply an offshoot. Both should go hand-in-hand to offer the user an all-round experience of the site.

As an addition to this, some experts have speculated that mobile operating systems are becoming so powerful and so user-friendly that people may begin to opt for the likes of Android and iOS on for their PC as well. This revolution would increase the need for web developers and businesses to make use of responsive web design to facilitate access by mobile operating systems, thereby allowing them to keep up with the huge technological leaps forwards experienced every day in the world of digital.