What Are Responsive Websites?
By Joel Black on 07/7/2014
More and more, companies have begun to create responsive websites to meet their customers’ needs.
What Is A Responsive Website?
So what are responsive websites? A responsive website is one that responds to the needs of the end user, particularly as it relates to the digital platform the user is accessing a website through. This means that no matter what device someone is using be it a tablet, phone or computer, the website is accessible, attractive, and useful.
Responsive websites are vitally important in today’s business world precisely because of the wide array of web-enabled devices. There are numerous brands from Samsung to HTC to Apple and even more operating platforms. Different sizes of tablets be they Kindles or iPads have different screen resolutions and abilities for how much information they can handle.
Websites must take these factors into account so that a customer or client has the same experience accessing a website on their smart phone as they do on their laptop.
What Makes A Website Responsive?
Responsive websites operate on the concept of flexibility. They must be flexible in order to respond to the various digital environments customers will access their website with.
For example, having a fluid or flexible layout means a website will look different when it encounters a laptop computer versus a smart phone. Taken to the next level, responsive websites will flexibly respond to either a portrait or landscape environment. This is an especially important feature with smart phones that users will adjust vertically or horizontally depending on their need.
Responsive websites achieve flexibility in several ways including revealing or hiding portions of images, scaling images within various layouts, and customized layouts.
Beautiful Responsive Websites
As the field of responsive website design grows, more and more designers are turning out beautiful responsive websites that inspire and excite. Awwwards, the organization that awards and recognizes exceptional web design, has even created a category to honor responsive websites.
The companies that produce the websites range far and wide and include clothing designers, software firms, and musical groups from all over the world. One honorable mention, AYR Editions, a denim company based in New York, has a beautiful layout that looks as beautiful on a laptop screen as it does on a smart phone. When accessing the site from a smart phone, the website even includes a prompt telling the user to “rotate me” to landscape for a better resolution.
Another website, SKOptimum, a fitness, nutrition and competition prep company, scales the images and content to read fluidly on a smart phone without having to click through to several links, yet still mirrors the look and feel of the full web version accessible on a computer.
Responsive websites take web designing for mobile and other digital platforms to the next level creating a more seamless experience for customers no matter how they choose to access a website.
