When elements move around the page, the user experience can be completely different from one view of the site to the next. For a responsive design to be successful, the design must also be usable at all screen resolutions and sizes. ![]() However, ensuring that elements fit within a page is not enough. Responsive design often turns into solving a puzzle - how to reorganize elements on larger pages to fit skinnier, longer pages or vice versa. Creating Usable Experiencesīecause responsive design relies on shuffling elements around the page, design and development need to work closely together to ensure a usable experience across devices. Complex data or interactions can be hard to fit into modular pieces that are easy to shuffle around a page, while preserving clarity and functionality. The 3-column desktop version (top) changes to a 2-column design on tablets (bottom left) and a single column for mobile (bottom right).īecause elements need to be able to resize and shuffle, it is often easier to implement a responsive design on a site that is focused on content, rather than functionality. The Boston Globe is well-known for using responsive design. RWD doesn’t tie design to a particular device. If a 5-inch device or 15-inch device takes off in the market, the code can support the new devices. RWD is also relatively “future-proof” in that it can support new breakpoints needed at any time. The use of a single codebase can make development faster, compared to developing 3 or 4 distinct sites, and makes maintenance easier over time, as one set of code and content needs to be updated rather than 3 or 4. RWD has potential advantages over developing separate sites for different device types. Decisions about hiding content and functionality or altering appearance for different device types should be based on knowledge about your users and their needs. While responsive design emerged as a way to provide equal access to information regardless of device, it is also possible to hide certain items - such as background images, as in the Transport for London example above, secondary content or supplementary navigation - on smaller screens. ![]() Responsive design relies on proportion-based grids to rearrange content and design elements. A three-column desktop design may reshuffle to two columns for a tablet and a single column for a smartphone. In responsive design, page elements reshuffle as the viewport grows or shrinks. ![]() Rather than creating a separate site and corresponding codebase for wide-screen monitors, desktops, laptops, tablets and phones of all sizes, a single codebase can support users with differently sized viewports. The same HTML is served to all devices, using CSS (which determines the layout of webpage) to change the appearance of the page. This brief video (0:37) shows the responsive Transport for London website changing as the browser window is narrowed and widened.
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