What is Responsive Web Design?
As web designers, it has become our responsibility to accommodate every web user out there and deliver them the best web experience possible. The concept and approach that responsive design suggests is that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and device based on the platform and screen size.
Of course, the number of web-accessible devices are impossible to keep up with, and its crazy to try to design and code for each and every device available.
To practice responsive website development efficiently, would be to automatically respond to every user’s preference whether it be a laptop or iPad. This can be done by using CSS media queries and a series of flexible components, fluid grids and layouts that the website would have the capability to switch to optimize for any resolution or windows.
This presents a whole new way of thinking about design. A few years ago, it was almost impossible to devise ways to be extremely flexible in design, like we need to now. Solutions have come up and workarounds have allowed us to design without ever breaking images or layouts. A number of techniques have surfaced that address the issue of creating fluid websites. Check out “Flexible Web Design: Creating Liquid and Elastic Layouts with CSS” by Zoe Mickley Gillenwater.
The bottom line is that we are headed into a new age of web design and development and there is no time to design for every device, so we must begin to practice responsive web design for all users, allowing for old laptops as well as the newest trendiest gadgets on the market to create a great experience for all.
