What is Responsive Web Design?

A Responsive Web Design means that the website will resize itself automatically depending on whether it is being viewed on a PC, an iPad or tablet or a smart phone.

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is the latest web design approach aimed at crafting sites for an optimal viewing experience with easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling across a wide range of devices (from desktop computers to mobile phones).

Up to fairly recently you may have been reading articles encouraging website owners to commission a separate mobile optimised site for the benefit of their increasing mobile audience. This approach was okay at the time but in practise it meant updating 2 separate sites which rarely happened.

With Responsive Web Design (RWD) a version of your site is offered to those using mobile devices depending on what size device they are using. The text is shown in an easily readable size so you don’t have to pinch and pan to read an article. Images are dynamically resized. The content may reorganise it’s layout on the screen depending on whether the mobile device is being held in a portrait or landscape position.

Responsive Design Example:

Try viewing our website design portfolio on an iPad or a tablet.
Turn the device from landscape to portrait. Now take a look at the same page on your smart phone.

Usually slightly less content is shown on a smartphone for example. This is done merely to ensure that the main message gets across without the website visitor having to scroll down through a very long page of text and images.

Note: It is still the same website that serves all these devices so any changes made to it are reflected everywhere.

If you are considering a new website ask your designer about a Responsive Design.

Take a look at some Responsive Websites in our portfolio.