More than a decade ago, before the advent of internet-ready mobile devices, people used immovable, bulky computers to view websites. Designing websites that looked good at a single resolution was standard and quite adequate for all purposes. With the advent of internet-enabled devices and their acceptance by more people, web owners had to create content designed to fit any size screen and device. This manner of designing content is called responsive web design.
Before the coming in of responsive web design, there was mobile design. Mobile design is the creation of entirely new websites or web apps to provide content for the mobile user. This meant the creation of one design for the kindle, netbook, iPad, iPhone and another for the BlackBerry. In other words, several websites for the same company targeting all the different screen resolutions imaginable. This is not the case with responsive web design.
What is responsive web design?
Responsive design means using the same syntax, same context, and the same domain that is manipulated by CSS3 Media Queries and/or JavaScript. Responsive design allows your website to respond to the different viewports – enhancing your user’s experience on any device. The different viewports available today include mobile devices, tablets, laptops, desktop monitors and their equivalent orientations.
Instead of implementing different sites for each device, responsive design acts as the underlying base of the website’s deployment. Responsive Web Design is possible through the adoption of three simple functions:
Although Responsive Web Design started as a trend, it has quickly morphed into an evolutionary step in the development and design of websites.
Advantages of responsive web design
In 2009, only 1.2% of internet traffic was from mobile devices – hardly enough to justify additional investment or attention. Fast forward to 2012, the exponential growth of smartphones and the increased network speeds saw the figures rise to 13% without even taking into account tablets. By 2015, out of 3.5 billion internet users, over half of them (1.9 billion) will be using mobile devices. So why have you not started creating a responsive website?
If the figures above are not enough to convince you, here are staggering benefits of implementing responsive web design:
Even Google encourages website owners to follow the best practice using responsive web design.