It’s easy to think about a website only in terms of how it appears when you look at it, but there’s much more to it than that. If you’re someone who uses multiple devices to access the internet, as many of us do, have you ever thought about how the web pages you view must be formatted differently depending on the device you are using? Most of us take this for granted unless, of course, you’ve tried to access a website on your mobile device only to notice that the sizing or some other element of the display doesn’t seem to be formatted correctly. Maybe you have to pinch and zoom, or scroll both horizontally and vertically. Something is not as it should be.

How can we fix this issue? There are simply too many different screen sizes that exist today to make it practical to redesign web pages differently in order to accommodate any device that might be used to get on a certain page. That’s where adaptive and responsive web design come in.  In a nutshell, adaptive web pages figure out the screen size (specifically the width) of the device they are being loaded on and use that information to determine which layout to load. Responsive design, on the other hand, is built with percentages and adjusts the displayed page according to the specific dimensions of the screen being used. Responsive pages are adaptable, but adaptive pages are not responsive. Got it?

Benefits of a Responsive Website

• Creates a more custom experience unique to each user and the device they are using
• Easier to construct and maintain (especially with ever-changing technology)
• Great for new projects
• Overall greater flexibility, as opposed to adaptive or static web design

Why you don’t want an Adaptive Website

• Difficult to make new websites mobile-friendly
• Requires separate (but similar) designs for an average of 6 or more screen widths
• Web page layout may shift when resolution changes

Why is Design important?

While there are benefits and drawbacks to using either responsive or adaptive design, the number of websites that use responsive design increases each day. As you know, new and updated models of devices that can be used to access the internet are released all the time. Many of these models have different screen sizes as well as different color displays, shapes, and processing capabilities. In addition, you may be familiar with the ability that many devices have to change between portrait and landscape views. In order to maintain a positive user experience, web pages must be able to be viewed in both orientations while also being readable and presentable across devices. This all starts with how each page is designed.

Here at United WebWorks, we are dedicated to creating content that is pleasing to users, no matter how they choose to view it. We are proud that all of the websites we design and create are 100% responsive in order to optimize every user’s individual experience.

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