What is Responsive Web Design? #FAQuesday

We’ll never be able to emphasize enough how important it is for small businesses to have mobile-friendly websites. Mobile traffic has drastically risen over the last several years, and Google announced in May that mobile searches have officially surpassed desktop searches. If that’s not enough to convince you, the search engine giant also confirmed that it is officially boosting mobile search results for mobile-friendly webpages.

If your business already has a website but it isn’t mobile-friendly, have no fear. While there are several different methods to achieve this mobile goal, The Web Guys develops mobile-friendly sites with responsive web design.

What on earth does responsive web design mean?? We’re glad you asked!

Q: What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsive web design is just one of several ways to optimize a website to be seen properly on devices with different screen sizes: desktop computers, smart phones, tablets, and even phablets. Sites built with responsive design are coded so that as the design gets smaller (or bigger), the elements of the page adapt (or respond) to fit the new screen size.

How Does Responsive Web Design Work?

The short-and-sweet answer is: grids. To make designs actually respond, they are coded with a proportion-based grid system. Whereas traditional web design uses steadfast heights and widths for elements, responsive grids use percentages instead of hard numbers.

For example, if you have a photo that is 800 pixels wide, it’s always going to be 800 pixels wide, even when viewed on smartphones. But smartphone screens are generally only about 480 pixels wide, so users won’t get the proper experience. To solve this dilemma, we would assign the picture a width of 100 percent because every screen has 100 percent. They don’t all have 800 pixels.

How Can I Tell If A Site Is Responsive?

It’s actually pretty easy. You can check to see if any site is responsive using any browser. Simply adjust the width of your browser window and see what happens!

Does everything fit in the new window size? Did certain objects rearrange themselves? Is the site still easy to use? The Web Guys’ website is entirely responsive, so go ahead and give it a try! The design flows seamlessly from desktop, to tablet, to phablet, to mobile phone.