Responsive Web Design?

{by Andy Suggs} - February 2, 2012

I was recently turned on to a evolving trend in web designs, Responsive Web Design, by one of our programmers Brian Jardine. In a nutshell, it attempts to take out the guesswork of what dimension or size to build your website by responding to the user’s computer screen resolution. So, whether you’re on a computer, iPad or iPhone, the site automatically reconfigures your page to best fit that medium. I think the right side of my brain just shivered.

Not only does the text and format of the page reconfigure for your device, but images are also replaced and resized to keep them sharp and ideal for your device. As a programmer and designer, you can also designate what areas are potentially removed as the viewing device becomes smaller and smaller, allowing for a more streamlined and enjoyable viewing experience.

What does this mean for us? Frankly, as with many advances in technology, it serves a great solution for SPECIFIC needs. Obviously, sites which are content driven and heavily trafficked on many forms of devices (online news sites, blogs, etc) are a perfect fit for this approach.

Personally, as you’ll see with the examples provided, they kind of feel a bit boxy and similar to each other. They’re not bad though, and I definitely see the benefits. Again, it would just have to be for the right project.

And, anytime you leave design up to algorithms and predetermined code, it scares the crap out of me. Like all things though, even WordPress sites, I’m sure you can customize the heck out of them if you have the time, need and skill. Like all technology, it’s not just what it does for you, but how well you use it for your needs. And again, like all technology, I’m sure it will evolve.

So, one more thing to take into consideration when we design our next site. We’ll be sure to let you all know if we complete a project in this fashion.

Let me grab my bottle of aspirin, first.