When building a website, everyone wants to take care to make sure that they are receiving the best web presence for their endeavor. But depending on your goals, "the best" can be a subjective term. When trying to determine what will work well for any web project, complex terminology gets thrown around, causing business owners to request particular design types without fully understanding them.
This confusion can cause frustration when navigating the web design process. One frequently heard term in website design is "responsive." Let's examine the key aspects of responsive web design.
What Does Responsive Mean?
Developed by designer Ethan Marcotte, who coined the term, responsive design is a specific web programming method where created websites "respond" to their environment. This design type reacts quickly and positively to changes in web viewing platform type or size.
When tasked with creating responsive projects, web designers take special programming care to ensure the built web presence displays suitably on computer screens, tablets, mini tablets, smartphones, and other electronic consumption devices popular today. While traditionally built websites may appear cut off on cell phone screens, responsively designed websites adjust and thrive.
How Does It Work?
Responsively designed websites utilize programming tools that create fluid grids. On these grids, page elements are sized by proportion rather than pixels.
For example, if a webpage contains two columns of information, fluid grid programming tells the website not to compute specific column widths, but rather how wide each column should be relative to others. Instead of programming a column to occupy forty pixels, it might be formatted to occupy forty percent of available page width. This configuration retains intended design directives while reflecting proportionally across any screen size.
Is It Important?
In today's fast-paced world where half of all Americans own smartphones and a third own tablets, matching content and web delivery methods to popular trends is crucial. Many individuals use applications enabling split-screen capability, making viewing trends widely varied and unpredictable.
Ensuring a readable and easily understandable design for any possible browsing experience matters significantly. If you lack a responsive website, there's no need to panic. Speak with your web design professional about converting your current website into a responsive design.
Many professionals can suggest new responsive formats that better fit your needs. Responsive design encourages understanding how people consume websites, finding true power in your web display process.