Responsive Web Design

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is a modern approach to web design that focuses on designing and building websites to account for and adapt to adapt a growing numbers of devices and viewing environments. This means that a website’s layout will change depending on the size of the screen someone is using to view the website.

A website that is designed and built responsively adapts to the user’s viewing environment, organizing and resizing content for the best possible viewing experience on any screen size or device.

For example, a website being viewed on a large desktop monitor may show multiple columns of image-heavy content. However, that same site may appear as a single column with just icons and text when viewed on a smartphone’s smaller display.

Over the last several years, as users’ mobile web browsing habits have increased exponentially, having a responsive website has become vital for any organization.

Having a responsive website is advantageous for a few reasons:

1. RWD eliminates the need for the cumbersome, separate “mobile versions” of the past. Instead, responsive sites are built with a single code base with pre-established content “breakpoints” to serve virtually any device.
2. With Google now penalizing sites without responsive multi-device support, RWD is increasingly important to maintaining your organic search engine rankings.
3. RWD provides you with the best ability to support any new devices or screens will be invented in the future. Because responsive sites have fluid layouts, anyone coming to your site will have a great experience regardless of what they use to access the site.

No matter your organization’s goals or user base, responsive web design is a modern necessity that ensures your website’s visibility and scalability, no matter what the future may throw at it.