Responsive web design#Challenges, and other approaches
{{redirect|Responsive design|the computer-aided design approach|Responsive computer-aided design}}
{{Distinguish|Responsiveness}}
{{short description|Approach to web design for making web pages render well on a variety of devices}}
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Responsive web design (RWD) or responsive design is an approach to web design that aims to make web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes from minimum to maximum display size to ensure usability and satisfaction.{{cite web |last=Marcotte |first=Ethan|title=Responsive Web design|date=May 25, 2010|work = A List Apart |url=http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/}}{{cite web | last=Schade | first=Amy | title=Responsive Web Design (RWD) and User Experience | website=Nielsen Norman Group | date=2014-05-04 | url=https://www.nngroup.com/articles/responsive-web-design-definition/ | access-date=2017-10-19}}
A responsive design adapts the web-page layout to the viewing environment by using techniques such as fluid proportion-based grids,{{cite web|title=Core concepts of Responsive Web design|date=September 8, 2014|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh653584.aspx}}{{cite web|last=Marcotte|first=Ethan|title=Fluid Grids|date=March 3, 2009|publisher = A List Apart|url=http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fluidgrids/}} flexible images,{{cite web|last=Marcotte|first=Ethan|title=Fluid images|date=June 7, 2011|publisher = A List Apart|url=http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fluid-images/}}{{cite web|last=Hannemann|first=Anselm|title=The road to responsive images|date=September 7, 2012|publisher = net Magazine|url=http://www.creativebloq.com/html5/road-responsive-images-9126108}} and CSS3 media queries,{{cite book|last=Gillenwater|first=Zoe Mickley|title=Examples of flexible layouts with CSS3 media queries|series=Stunning CSS3|date=December 15, 2010|url=http://zomigi.com/blog/examples-of-flexible-layouts-with-css3-media-queries/|pages=320|isbn=978-0-321-722133}}{{cite web|last=Gillenwater|first=Zoe Mickley|title=Crafting quality media queries|date=October 21, 2011|url=http://zomigi.com/blog/essential-considerations-for-crafting-quality-media-queries/}}{{cite web|title=Responsive design—harnessing the power of media queries|date=April 30, 2012| publisher = Google Webmaster Central |url=http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.jp/2012/04/responsive-design-harnessing-power-of.html}} an extension of the @media rule,{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html#at-media-rule |title=@media rule |website=w3.org |publisher=W3C}} in the following ways:
- The fluid grid concept calls for page element sizing to be in relative units like percentages, rather than absolute units like pixels or points.
- Flexible images are also sized in relative units, so as to prevent them from displaying outside their containing element.
- Media queries allow the page to use different CSS style rules based on characteristics of the device the site is being displayed on, e.g. width of the rendering surface (browser window width or physical display size).
- Responsive layouts automatically adjust and adapt to any device screen size, whether it is a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone.
Responsive web design became more important as users of mobile devices came to account for the majority of website visitors.{{cite web|url=http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white_paper_c11-520862.html|title=Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update 2014–2019 White Paper|date=January 30, 2015|work=Cisco|access-date=August 4, 2015}}{{cite news|title=Mobile share of U.S. organic search engine visits 2021|url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/297137/mobile-share-of-us-organic-search-engine-visits/|access-date=29 October 2021|agency=Statista}} In 2015, for instance, Google announced Mobilegeddon and started to boost the page ranking of mobile-friendly sites when searching from a mobile device.{{cite web|url=http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2015/04/rolling-out-mobile-friendly-update.html|title=Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Rolling out the mobile-friendly update|work=Official Google Webmaster Central Blog|access-date=August 4, 2015}}
Responsive web design is an example of user interface plasticity.{{cite conference| first1 = D. | last1 = Thevenin | first2 = J. | last2 = Coutaz | title = Plasticity of User Interfaces: Framework and Research Agenda | book-title = Proc. Interact'99, A. Sasse & C. Johnson Eds, IFIP IOS Press | place = Edinburgh | pages = 110–117 | year = 2002 }}
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Challenges, and other approaches
Luke Wroblewski has summarized some of the RWD and mobile design challenges and created a catalog of multi-device layout patterns.{{cite web|last=Wroblewski|first=Luke|title=Mobilism: jQuery Mobile|date=May 17, 2011|url=http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1330}}{{cite web |last=Wroblewski |first=Luke |title=Rolling Up Our Responsive Sleeves|date=February 6, 2012|url=http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1494}}{{cite web|last=Wroblewski|first=Luke|title=Multi-Device Layout Patterns|date=March 14, 2012 |url=http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1514}} He suggested that, compared with a {{What does this stand for?|reason=What does HWD stand for and what is it?|date=January 2025|text=simple HWD approach}}, device experience or RESS (responsive web design with server-side components) approaches can provide a user experience that is better optimized for mobile devices.{{cite web |last=Wroblewski |first=Luke |title=Responsive Design ... or RESS|date=February 29, 2012|url=http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1509}}{{cite web|last=Wroblewski|first=Luke|title=RESS: Responsive Design + Server Side Components |date=September 12, 2011 |url=http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1392}}{{cite web |last=Andersen |first=Anders M |date=May 8, 2012 |title=Getting Started with RESS |url=http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/getting-started-ress |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120512020218/http://www.netmagazine.com/tutorials/getting-started-ress |archive-date=2012-05-12 |website=Creative Bloq}} Server-side CSS generator implementation of stylesheet languages like Sass can be part of such an approach. Google has recommended responsive design for smartphone websites over other approaches.{{cite web|url=https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/ |title=Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites }}
Although many publishers have implemented responsive designs, one challenge for RWD adoption was that some banner advertisements and videos were not fluid.{{cite web|last1=Snyder|first1=Matthew|last2=Koren|first2=Etai|title=The state of responsive advertising: the publishers' perspective|date=April 30, 2012|publisher=.net Magazine|url=http://www.creativebloq.com/netmag/state-responsive-advertising-publishers-perspective-4126330}} However, search advertising and (banner) display advertising came to support specific device platform targeting and different advertisement size formats for desktop, smartphone, and basic mobile devices. Different landing page URLs have been used for different platforms,{{cite web|url=https://support.google.com/adwords/certification/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=23292|title=Google Partners Help|work=google.com|access-date=May 21, 2015}} or Ajax has been used to display different advertisement variants on a page.{{cite web|publisher = Smashing magazine |title=Server-Side Device Detection: History, Benefits And How-To|date=September 24, 2012 |url=http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/09/24/server-side-device-detection-history-benefits-how-to/}}[https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/javascript JavaScript and Responsive Web Design] Google Developers CSS tables permitted hybrid fixed and fluid layouts.{{cite web|url=http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-role-of-table-layouts-in-responsive-web-design--webdesign-10294|title=The Role of Table Layouts in Responsive Web Design|work=Web Design Tuts+|date=January 23, 2013 |access-date=May 21, 2015}}
There have been many ways of validating and testing RWD designs,{{cite web|last=Young|first=James|title=Top responsive web design problems... testing|date=August 13, 2012|publisher=.net Magazine |url=http://www.netmagazine.com/features/top-responsive-web-design-problems-and-how-avoid-them#8}} ranging from mobile site validators and mobile emulators to simultaneous testing tools like Adobe Edge Inspect.{{cite web|last=Rinaldi|first=Brian|title=Browser testing... with Adobe Edge Inspect |date=September 26, 2012 |url=http://www.adobe.com/devnet/edge-inspect/articles/browser-testing-across-devices-with-adobe-edge-inspect.html}} The Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers and developer tools have offered responsive design viewport resizing tools, as do third parties.{{cite web|url=https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Responsive_Design_View|title=Responsive Design View|work=Mozilla Developer Network|access-date=May 21, 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://lab.maltewassermann.com/viewport-resizer/|title=Responsive design testing tool – Viewport Resizer – Emulate various screen resolutions - Best developer device testing toolbar|author=Malte Wassermann|work=maltewassermann.com|access-date=May 21, 2015}}
History
{{Further|History of the World Wide Web|Web 2.0}}
The W3C specification of HTML+ stated that websites have to be rendered according to the user preferences.{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/HTMLPlus/htmlplus_7.html |title=An Overview of HTML+ |website=w3.org |publisher=W3C}} The customization of web page layout was lacking however. Many web developers resorted to ordinary HTML tables as a way to customize the layout and bring some basic responsiveness to their websites at the same time.
First major site to feature a layout that adapts in a non-trivial manner to browser viewport width was Audi.com launched in late 2001,Kalbach, Jim (July 22, 2012). [https://experiencinginformation.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/the-first-responsive-design-website-audi-circa-2002/ "The First Responsive Design Website: Audi (circa 2002)."] {{sps|date = October 2015}} created by a team at razorfish consisting of Jürgen Spangl and Jim Kalbach (information architecture), Ken Olling (design), and Jan Hoffmann (interface development). Limited browser capabilities meant that for Internet Explorer, the layout could adapt dynamically in the browser whereas, for Netscape, the page had to be reloaded from the server when resized.
Cameron Adams created a demonstration in 2004.{{cite web |last1=Adams|first1=Cameron|title=Resolution dependent layout: Varying layout according to browser width|url=http://www.themaninblue.com/writing/perspective/2004/09/21/|website=The Man in Blue|date=September 21, 2004}} By 2008, a number of related terms such as "flexible", "liquid",{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G146.html|title=G146: Using liquid layout|work=w3.org|access-date=May 21, 2015}} "fluid", and "elastic" were being used to describe layouts. CSS3 media queries were almost ready for prime time in late 2008/early 2009.{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/CR-css3-mediaqueries-20090423/|title=Media Queries|work=w3.org|access-date=May 21, 2015}} Ethan Marcotte coined the term responsive web design{{cite web|url=http://outseller.net/2015s-professional-responsive-web-design-offer-businesses/|title=OutSeller Group - Organize, Optimize, Maximize|work=outseller.net|access-date=May 21, 2015}}—and defined it to mean fluid grid / flexible images / media queries—in a May 2010 article in A List Apart. He described the theory and practice of responsive web design in his brief 2011 book titled Responsive Web Design. Responsive design was listed as #2 in Top Web Design Trends for 2012 by .net magazine after progressive enhancement at #1.{{cite web|last=Grannell|first=Craig|title=15 top web design and development trends for 2012|date=January 9, 2012|publisher=.net Magazine |url=https://www.netmagazine.com/features/15-top-web-design-and-development-trends-2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130911092457/https://www.netmagazine.com/features/15-top-web-design-and-development-trends-2012|archive-date=September 11, 2013|access-date=October 29, 2021}}
Mashable called 2013 the Year of Responsive Web Design.{{cite web|last=Cashmore|first=Pete|title=Why 2013 Is the Year of Responsive Web Design|website=Mashable |date=December 11, 2012|url=http://mashable.com/2012/12/11/responsive-web-design/}}
Related concepts
{{See also|Unobtrusive JavaScript|Progressive enhancement}}
Mobile-first design and progressive enhancement are related concepts that predate RWD.{{cite web|title=What is Responsive Web Design |date=July 23, 2012|url=http://www.webhostdesignpost.com/webdesign/whatisresponsivewebdesign.html}} Browsers of basic mobile phones do not understand JavaScript or media queries, so a recommended practice was to create a basic web site and enhance it for smartphones and personal computers, rather than rely on graceful degradation to make a complex, image-heavy site work on mobile phones.{{cite web|last=Wroblewski|first=Luke|title=Mobile First|date=November 3, 2009 |url=http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933}}{{cite book|last=Firtman|first=Maximiliano|pages=[https://archive.org/details/programmingmobil0000firt/page/512 512]|url=https://archive.org/details/programmingmobil0000firt/page/512|title=Programming the Mobile Web|date=July 30, 2011|publisher=O'Reilly Media |isbn=978-0-596-80778-8}}{{cite web|title=Graceful degradation versus progressive enhancement|date=February 3, 2009|url=http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/tutorials/graceful_degradation_versus_progressive_enhancement|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113064723/https://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/tutorials/graceful_degradation_versus_progressive_enhancement|archive-date=November 13, 2014|df=mdy-all}}{{cite book |date=February 2010 |pages=456 |url= http://filamentgroup.com/dwpe/ |title= Designing with Progressive Enhancement |access-date= March 1, 2010 |isbn= 978-0-321-65888-3|last1=Parker |first1=Todd |last2=Wachs |first2=Maggie Costello |last3=Jehl |first3=Scott |publisher=New Riders }}
See also
{{Portal|Internet}}
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- Adaptive web design
- Bootstrap (front-end framework)
- CSS framework
- {{section link|Em (typography)|CSS}}
- Foundation (framework)
- Tableless web design
- T Layout
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References
{{Reflist|refs=Schade, Amy. "Responsive Web Design (RWD) and User Experience." Responsive Web Design (RWD) and User Experience. Nielson Norman Group, 04 May 2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2017.}}
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