By: Seth Scott – Bayshore Solutions Developer
Responsive Web Design is a standard practice of web development that allows a website to respond to different mediums. Users can view the same website via handheld device or a large desktop screen and experience the same design, content, and interactivity. While other methods for optimizing user experience across multiple devices do exist, responsive design remains the most efficient and reliable solution in the web development industry today.
The term Responsive Web Design (RWD) was coined by a leading web developer and designer, Ethan Marcotte, in a 2010 A List Apart article. Marcotte uses examples and illustrations to explore the analogy of interactive and technology architecture with traditional construction and building theory. Furthermore, Marcotte establishes direction in that rather than quarantining content into device-specific experiences, we can use new development techniques to progressively enhance websites within different viewing contexts.
“The English architect Christopher Wren once quipped that his chosen field “aims for Eternity,” and there’s something appealing about that formula: Unlike the web, which often feels like aiming for next week, architecture is a discipline very much defined by its permanence.”
Bringing historical architectural theory into technology isn’t a new idea. What has changed to allow the practice of RWD to be implemented? The rise of mobile devices and the varying screen sizes from 70” television monitors to retinal displayed smart tablets have created the need. And new browser standards and CSS techniques have opened the door to what was once an impossible idea.
RWD wasn’t an option for web developers only a few short years ago. Advancing HTML/CSS practices and continual progression from internet browsers are revolutionizing how users explore content on the web. Such approaches include CSS media queries, flexible images, and fluid width layouts make responsive design possible.
CSS3 media queries are simple code statements that allow web developers to target specific devices by their window size. For instance, a developer can detect how big your screen size is then serve the appropriate design code. Viewing the same responsive website on your iPhone and your iPad gives you the same colors, effects, and content with a slightly different framework to optimize your experience.
Flexible content and fluid layouts facilitate the responsive process. Images and video can be used in a responsive manner that will resize to your device without spilling off the page. Fluid layouts assign percentages rather than absolute pixel values. Both of these styles make a responsive design pixel perfect.
RWD has a simple objective; to create easy reading and navigation with minimal resizing, panning, and scrolling, across a wide range of devices from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors. A responsive website adapts the layout to the viewing environment by using fluid, proportion-based grids, flexible images, and CSS3 media queries.
When planning a new website, businesses must ask direct questions about user experience, display expectations, and mobile usability. A responsive website will most likely be the best option. Bayshore Solutions offers top-tier design and development services that specialize in the latest responsive techniques. In addition, Bayshore Solutions can take existing websites and content and convert them into fresh responsive applications.
Contact Bayshore Solutions’ web experts to help get your business universally visible with a responsive web design.
Seth Scott is a Developer at Bayshore Solutions—a Web Design, Web Development, and Digital Marketing Company.