If you are in the market for a new website, then chances are your web design agency will ask you if you would like to consider having it made using Responsive Web Design.
Responsive Web Design or RWD is the practice of designing websites that are fluid enough to flow on the screen size of any device you have, from a smart-phone to a tablet to a desktop PC.
When building websites the web designer always has to make sure the website displays properly and consistently on all possible browser and operating system combinations, now with RWD they also need to make sure that the website reacts differently regardless of screen size, if you understand this, and then you’ll understand just how complex it is.
This complexity has however arisen out of necessity, before RWD websites had to be built with multiple versions to suit different devices, that’s why if you wanted a website to display and function well on a smartphone you had to purchase a mobile version as well as a standard website. Then with the increase in popularity of the tablet, neither of the above would suffice – the smartphone versions were often so streamlined they appeared minimal and a step backwards on larger devices and the standard version still had to be pinched and scrolled which can be frustrating.
This needs for multiple versions meant that something had to be done and so RWD has risen to the fore, enabling a single website to be designed and built that would work on any screen size, flowing to suit and to reducing the need to pinch and scroll and containing all of the content of the standard website.
Responsive Web Design is the style of development where the content acts responsively to the device that is being used ie the code allows the website to know what device is being used and renders the graphics accordingly, taking into account he size and resolution of the display screen.
RWD is more expensive than standard website design but I less expensive than having a site built for desktops and another built for mobile and so is rising in popularity with the increase in the use of the smartphone.
Over the next few years expect to see RWD gaining in popularity as businesses renew their websites and require a good presence across all available devices, RWD may be more expensive and more complex but it ticks a lot of boxes and definitely adds to the user experience, whatever the device they are using.
Ascensor provide Web Design Leeds and London