What is Responsive Web Design? Why Do I Care?

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What is Responsive Web Design and Why Should I Care?

As a certified webmaster and SEO consultant, I'm often approached about requests for a responsive web design. Believe it or not, about 50% of these peeps have no idea what this is, so I thought I would provide an explanation and clarification on the term "Responsive".

What Is Responsive Web Design

re·spon·sive rəˈspänsiv/ adjective

"a flexible service that is responsive to changing social and economic patterns"

synonyms:quick to react to, reactive to, receptive to, open to suggestions about,amenable to, flexible to, sensitive to, sympathetic to; aware of

"several consumers said the company hadn't been responsive totheir needs"

According to Wikipedia:

"Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to web design aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing and interaction experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones)"

Basically, this is an "adaptive" web design that allows your website to look pretty on all hardware platforms: Desktop, SmartPhone, Tablets and so on:

A little history.....

I began building websites back when we had to handcode EVERYTHING!

Slowly, website builders like Hotdog and MS FrontPage became available and made things sooooo much easier. Wow, an Interface for creating a website. No more handcoding every little thing.

But, still there were no such things as smartphones or tablets yet. So, all websites and themes were developed as "Fixed Width" or a few standard width options for multiple type desktop monitors.

Many websites are still built fixed-width - as are many themes.

Why do I Want a Responsive Website or Theme?

By the year 2008 there were about 400 Million portable device (phones) users accessing the Internet. In the next few years this grew to beyone 1400 Million and by the year 2015, mobile (phone and tablet) users accessing the Internet jumped above and EXCEEDED desktop users by 200 Million and it's still climbing.


Thereby, if you're not using a Responsive theme or website design, you're giving up a bunch of traffic. The presentation of a fixed-width website on a mobile phone is horrible!


Now, don't let this freak you out. :-)

It's just something to seriously consider when building your websites and choosing a new theme down the road. I have switched themes a lot and am always looking for two main aspects of a theme, responsive and page load speed. (Also, consider built in social icons so that you don't need to load an extra plugin - this reduces server requests and can make a huge difference on speed).

Update: How to Find and Select a Responsive Theme in WordPress

When you go to your WordPress dashboard and go to search new themes add a filter for "Responsive".

It's one of the check box options:

I have noticed though that some themes are starting to say "mobile friendly" and not "responsive". You can't filter these ones unfortunately. You'll have to check the descriptions.

I hope this wee blog was helpful!

Cheers,

pj


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Recent Comments

98

Great info. Especially about how important a responsive theme will be going forward due to the increase of mobile access.

Much appreciated Daniel!

Awesome info, I use responsive web design in some of my courses, more for actual HTML coding etc, but this is a huge topic and it will change as devices change shape and structure. Awesome work thanks again!

Cool! Thanks a bunch Kody!

PJ, thank you for sharing a helpful blog.

Thanks again Alma!

Certified by whom?

http://www.ciwcertified.com/

:-)

thank you for the reminder I made sure the themes I chose were responsive, have a great weekend PJ

Thanks very much. You do the same Katie!

HI PJ as always so interesting - I am still trying to build my first simple site and get it right let alone the next generation site!!!!

:-) You're doing great Paul! Stay motivated!

Useful information !

Thanks Simon!

Interesting blog. Do you have a list of WP themes that are particularly "responsive"?

When you go to your WordPress dashboard and go to search new themes add a filter for "responsive". It's one of the check box options. I have noticed though that some themes are starting to say mobile friendly and not "responsive". You can't filter these ones unfortunately

Awesome, Thanks Tanja!!!

Thanks Tanja!

You're welcome!

Great post, PjGermain :)

I had the exact same experience.

I've been a software developer for 17 years. I still remember when everything was done "by hand", so to speak.

Over the years, the emergence of new devices demanded a new approach to coding/designing to fit those devices )))

It amuses me when I sometimes come across job vacancies online, where it states : "wanted.......web designer.........skilled in responsive design.........browser compatibility...........fluid design concepts.....etc, etc :)

LOL! Exactly Stephen!!! Thanks bro!

Lol

Apparently whoever writes the job description has NO clue...

Great info, Thanks for Sharing.

Thanks very much Jean!

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