Responsive web design is a design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal experience across a wide range of devices, including Desktop Computers, Tablets and Smartphones. These devices vary widely in key areas such as screen size resolution. Some elements that should be considered in a website that implements responsive design techniques include:
- The text is easy to read.
- Images and other rich media are visible.
- Navigation menus, buttons and other interface elements are sufficiently sized and designed for intuitive interaction.
- Interactions leverage native technologies such as touch (tap, pinch, swipe, etc.) wherever possible.
Ensuring these elements work as expected is a time-consuming and exacting process. This imposes around 30% extra time, effort and expense to implement. However, it ensures that you can serve a significant and increasingly large percentage of your users who are on mobile devices.
Responsive websites are typically superior to alternatives such as custom mobile sites. Primarily because you usually need to manage only one set of content (instead of managing content for each instance of a device type you want to support).