Responsive Design
Responsive design makes a website automatically adapt to any screen size so content stays readable and usable on desktop, tablet, and mobile. It uses layout breakpoints, prevents issues like overlap or cutoff, and should be tested across devices.
Another term that’s frequently mentioned and less frequently discusses, it’s easy to get confused on where the differences between mobile-first design and responsive design lie.
While mobile-first design is more of the philosophy and mental shift to prioritizing the mobile version a website, responsive design is the actual process of defining how your website changes across differently sized screens, or transitions when a user resizes a web browser.
Understanding the how and why of responsive design can feel complicated and technical, but the fundamentals are actually straight-forward. Taking the time to better understand responsive design will help you gain a better understanding of what your site needs, and help you make smarter decisions about your website as a whole.
What is a responsive website?
In short, to be “responsive” means that the layout of a website should automatically adjust based on the size of the screen displaying it. This does not mean simply shrinking or enlarging the contents of your website at scale — like you would if you zoomed a picture in or out.