The way you’ve gone about this, along with how you explain it is beautiful. This will work very well for small to medium-sized websites, but for sites with exceedingly large amounts of content that are not completely controlled through a small handful of dynamic scripts, implementing, controlling and maintaining this method may prove to be more t=work that separating out completely different templates for different media devices.
I do agree that your method is intelligent, but implementing this on a large scale may prove to be more work that most companies are willing to invest.
As the owner and creator of an online website builder I always look at new layouts and ways of presenting data at a much higher level than the average web designer/developer. I create the tools that so many other people use to create their websites.
Is it really feasible in any way or form to consider such layouts for a CMS or website builder used by novice designers? I say this from experience as I know that millions of website are created using tools like ours. Custom web designers might rejoice at the thought of such layouts being to complicated for CMS or website builders, but I can assure you there will not be huge spike in demand for such designs because of $$$. Not unless custom designers are willing to create custom designs for $10 a month (which they are not).
That said, I wonder what your thoughts are about implementing such technologies into CMS systems and website builders. Is it even a possibility? Knowing that so many of our users don’t even know the difference between their email address and their domain address, I don’t think it will ever be possible at that level. Your thoughts?
Hi! I am thinking about one problem. Why is convenance screen width resolution only 950px (plus minus)?
Because I understand, that a few years ago, it was because screen resolution (1). I know that you can’t use long rows because when you want design website with progressive enhancement you have to do a rules for better legibility and use only a some specific count of word and letter for one row (2).
But I understand that there is a lot of people with 1024px (about 22% – and it will be a less and less) and 800px is only about 2%, I think.
But isn’t better for design maybe use media queries like less-fw with one more parameter for .. maybe 950px – 1200px? It will solve problem with little resolution and we can help many peoples with a better resolution. You can paste every informations for one page (it have to be readable of course). It could be better for maybe aplication on web.
I know, that a lot of peoples with a better screen resolution (like me on my mac) have open two windows in one time, but when you will use media queries its not problem. When you will design text only in some rules for better legibility you can maybe use empty space for something else like some aside.
Of course i am talking about design with px width, no with % width.
Copy & paste the code below to embed this comment.
mikaels
Thanks for a great article (and great book)!
I have a question for you about the best design strategy for responsive design in the following case. the website in which i’m involved with is a big government site where we have control over the mark-up and css for most of the different pages and layouts (that we can make responsive) BUT some pages include web-applications developed by other consultancy firms and here we don’t have 100% control.
What do you do in a situation like this, where maybe 95% of all pages would benefit from a responsive design and width set to device-width:
<meta name=“viewport” content=“initial-scale=1.0, width=device-width” />
But the remaining 5% would probably be best viewed in the shrinked default view…
Seems like switching between them would create an inconsistent experience.
Copy & paste the code below to embed this comment.
egiova
It is not “Web Responsive Design” we are discussing. In my (humble) opinion, you rather call the beast something like “web Templating Architecture With Design In It”.
As it seems the worry here is not the way it looks, but the way it renders across devices. Technical worry vs Aesthetic worry.
Copy & paste the code below to embed this comment.
Yuvalik
The biggest problem I have with responsive sites is that it does not provide a choice to the user.
I guess most people like to see the same site presented differently to them on different devices, but I do not. I like it that I can click that “classic” link at the bottom on Google’s page on my phone.
In fact this whole discussion about responsive design takes me back a few years when it was advocated to procide diffent stylesheets for different display types like tv-screens, pages (printing) and screenreaders. Of which only printing has taken a foothold it seems.
As a user I want to keep at least be given control over this. If I like the whole website to just load on my phone instead of a fluid, smaller version than that should be possible.
As has been mentioned by others, why isn’t bandwidth on the forefront of responsive web design? It defines whether I add extra animations, images, and flares, or strip away the extra, and stick primarily to CSS styling alone.
I’m getting the impression it’s because there isn’t a good way to test bandwidth, is that right? How hard would it be to develop a good way?
User downloads CSS file, with images, time measurement taken, ajax request sent while other info continues to download. Granted, you’d only have a clear bandwidth picture after half the page is loaded, but that’s when the javascript is loaded anyway. Not to mention a lot of media is loaded “below the fold,” in which bandwidth would determine amount/quality.
Ok, so I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but given that everything else IS possible, and bandwidth can be measured with other analytics and methods, I don’t see why someone isn’t tackling this issue.
Hm, now I can’t go back and editing my comment to show the fool of myself. However, I still think that there are applications that do need to be talked about. The below stack overflow discussion touches on it, and mentions, and I agree, it’s applicability to video sites. What about other features? Large javascript applications? I guess I feel like rather than a blank topic that gets a sprinkling of conversation inspired by new developers, it needs to be addressed definitively.
Ex. Here’s how it’s done, here’s why it’s rarely practical, here’s when it its practical, and this is when and how it’s best implemented. That kind of a thing.
You can find my thoughts about applying responsive web design on forms in an article I wrote: http://www.formable.net/thoughts-about-responsive-web-form-design
Navigation and ease of use are very important in designing a website. Thanks for effort you have put forth on the subject! – David = A Work Of Art, Inc. Fort Lauderdale, FL
I think responsive web design it’s great but what about performance ?
Usually responsive tends to hide elements instead of use only necessary things…and we know that mobile devices and connections are slower than Laptop or Pc ones.
Which is the best approach to solve this issue ?
I have read the article and your book Ethan, but I cannot figure it out how I can position fixed, relative or absolut a div with Responsive Web Design.
I’ve have been using this blog for excellent infomation for a time now and find that it’s a helpful resource for people trying to find the suitable information. Keep up the good work.
Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specially the last part :) I care for such information a lot. I was looking for this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.
This kind of technology is great for coping with the many different platforms that people access the internet from these days.
There is an argument of course that designing a separate mobile site is better than building an all encompassing responsive site.
Perhaps we just need to practice more but right now it feels that convincing a client to spend more to get a responsive site (i.e. it takes a lot more work to do) isn’t the right thing to do when a normal site and quick rework for a mobile site (assuming it’s CMS driven it’s quite easy) will fit the bill.
Excellent post! Thanks for sharing. I wrote a post introducing Responsive design to someone new to the topic: Responsive Design — an introduction: http://bit.ly/L05U9a
Look back fellows. Before we’ve got into html5 and css3 to standard things more-less, there was time when major players were trying to push their very own “way of life” to concur the market (my opinion). Now since everyone (aside of MS IEXXX) comes to final conclusion, hardware folks are still jiggling around with their very own “proprietery” ideas. How about to come-up with several standards for their screens? It will be much easier for W3C to came-up with a solution. And then we’ll only compete by human characteristics (which affects any visual expressions, including designing things). But no, freedom of enterprize and unbounded competition is “The Mantra”, right?
So where is the plain logic and functionality?
As an analogy – look at cars or airplanes.
Ethan I agree that one website can now be built to accommodate all platforms if done right. We have a lot of customers ask for a separate mobile website. We tell them that in most cases it is unnecessary and a waste of money. I was surprised by this stat: “Mobile browsing is expected to outpace desktop-based access within three to five years.” but I don’t think we as designers should be intimidated by this.
103 Reader Comments
Back to the Articlepatrickmcgovern
The way you’ve gone about this, along with how you explain it is beautiful. This will work very well for small to medium-sized websites, but for sites with exceedingly large amounts of content that are not completely controlled through a small handful of dynamic scripts, implementing, controlling and maintaining this method may prove to be more t=work that separating out completely different templates for different media devices.
I do agree that your method is intelligent, but implementing this on a large scale may prove to be more work that most companies are willing to invest.
Heathbits
As the owner and creator of an online website builder I always look at new layouts and ways of presenting data at a much higher level than the average web designer/developer. I create the tools that so many other people use to create their websites.
Is it really feasible in any way or form to consider such layouts for a CMS or website builder used by novice designers? I say this from experience as I know that millions of website are created using tools like ours. Custom web designers might rejoice at the thought of such layouts being to complicated for CMS or website builders, but I can assure you there will not be huge spike in demand for such designs because of $$$. Not unless custom designers are willing to create custom designs for $10 a month (which they are not).
That said, I wonder what your thoughts are about implementing such technologies into CMS systems and website builders. Is it even a possibility? Knowing that so many of our users don’t even know the difference between their email address and their domain address, I don’t think it will ever be possible at that level. Your thoughts?
Francisc
Your article was very insightful and mind-opening.
Thank you.
Al Dente
Excellent article, which I am revisiting to ask when your Responsive Web Design book is going to move to the physical world? ;-)
Yours, patiently
Dan
Karlosb
Many thanks for this article Ethan.
I recently had this discussion with a fellow web designer about “Responsive Web Design” so I did some research and found your article here.
Plenty to think about for future projects (or indeed modifying existing client sites).
Many thanks once again!
Regards
Karl
ondrek
Hi! I am thinking about one problem. Why is convenance screen width resolution only 950px (plus minus)?
Because I understand, that a few years ago, it was because screen resolution (1). I know that you can’t use long rows because when you want design website with progressive enhancement you have to do a rules for better legibility and use only a some specific count of word and letter for one row (2).
But I understand that there is a lot of people with 1024px (about 22% – and it will be a less and less) and 800px is only about 2%, I think.
But isn’t better for design maybe use media queries like less-fw with one more parameter for .. maybe 950px – 1200px? It will solve problem with little resolution and we can help many peoples with a better resolution. You can paste every informations for one page (it have to be readable of course). It could be better for maybe aplication on web.
I know, that a lot of peoples with a better screen resolution (like me on my mac) have open two windows in one time, but when you will use media queries its not problem. When you will design text only in some rules for better legibility you can maybe use empty space for something else like some aside.
Of course i am talking about design with px width, no with % width.
ojete
I couldn’t resist to check the CSS of an article talking about flexible web designs. Then I found the irony in base.css at line 203:
#main {
voice-family: inherit;
width: 750px;
}
Electrofix
thank you 4 the good article!
one minus – IE (6,7) not correctly handle this… :(
mikaels
Thanks for a great article (and great book)!
I have a question for you about the best design strategy for responsive design in the following case. the website in which i’m involved with is a big government site where we have control over the mark-up and css for most of the different pages and layouts (that we can make responsive) BUT some pages include web-applications developed by other consultancy firms and here we don’t have 100% control.
What do you do in a situation like this, where maybe 95% of all pages would benefit from a responsive design and width set to device-width:
<meta name=“viewport” content=“initial-scale=1.0, width=device-width” />
But the remaining 5% would probably be best viewed in the shrinked default view…
Seems like switching between them would create an inconsistent experience.
What do you reckon is the best strategy here?
cheers
egiova
It is not “Web Responsive Design” we are discussing. In my (humble) opinion, you rather call the beast something like “web Templating Architecture With Design In It”.
As it seems the worry here is not the way it looks, but the way it renders across devices. Technical worry vs Aesthetic worry.
Yuvalik
The biggest problem I have with responsive sites is that it does not provide a choice to the user.
I guess most people like to see the same site presented differently to them on different devices, but I do not. I like it that I can click that “classic” link at the bottom on Google’s page on my phone.
In fact this whole discussion about responsive design takes me back a few years when it was advocated to procide diffent stylesheets for different display types like tv-screens, pages (printing) and screenreaders. Of which only printing has taken a foothold it seems.
As a user I want to keep at least be given control over this. If I like the whole website to just load on my phone instead of a fluid, smaller version than that should be possible.
thinkaroundcorners
I believe that due to the simple implementation as a CSS layer this is the most promising mobile technology that I have ever seen.
The simple implementation is the key.
son0fhobs
As has been mentioned by others, why isn’t bandwidth on the forefront of responsive web design? It defines whether I add extra animations, images, and flares, or strip away the extra, and stick primarily to CSS styling alone.
I’m getting the impression it’s because there isn’t a good way to test bandwidth, is that right? How hard would it be to develop a good way?
User downloads CSS file, with images, time measurement taken, ajax request sent while other info continues to download. Granted, you’d only have a clear bandwidth picture after half the page is loaded, but that’s when the javascript is loaded anyway. Not to mention a lot of media is loaded “below the fold,” in which bandwidth would determine amount/quality.
Ok, so I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but given that everything else IS possible, and bandwidth can be measured with other analytics and methods, I don’t see why someone isn’t tackling this issue.
So what am I missing?
son0fhobs
Hm, now I can’t go back and editing my comment to show the fool of myself. However, I still think that there are applications that do need to be talked about. The below stack overflow discussion touches on it, and mentions, and I agree, it’s applicability to video sites. What about other features? Large javascript applications? I guess I feel like rather than a blank topic that gets a sprinkling of conversation inspired by new developers, it needs to be addressed definitively.
Ex. Here’s how it’s done, here’s why it’s rarely practical, here’s when it its practical, and this is when and how it’s best implemented. That kind of a thing.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3943016/php-speed-test-for-user-connection-speed-without-echo-in-current-page
26buckets
this has been a perfect solution for my app websites both view-able on tablets and mobile devices! Thank you very much for you in-debt article.
glardon
You can find my thoughts about applying responsive web design on forms in an article I wrote: http://www.formable.net/thoughts-about-responsive-web-form-design
WE Design Fort Lauderdale
Navigation and ease of use are very important in designing a website. Thanks for effort you have put forth on the subject! – David = A Work Of Art, Inc. Fort Lauderdale, FL
andreapernici
I think responsive web design it’s great but what about performance ?
Usually responsive tends to hide elements instead of use only necessary things…and we know that mobile devices and connections are slower than Laptop or Pc ones.
Which is the best approach to solve this issue ?
lavak00731
Hi,
I have read the article and your book Ethan, but I cannot figure it out how I can position fixed, relative or absolut a div with Responsive Web Design.
sminfosoft10
I’ve have been using this blog for excellent infomation for a time now and find that it’s a helpful resource for people trying to find the suitable information. Keep up the good work.
“Web Design Company”:http://www.sminfosoft.com/
sminfosoft10
Great post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specially the last part :) I care for such information a lot. I was looking for this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.
“Technology News”:http://update-technologynews.blogspot.in/
randyosbourneman
If you wanted to be a responsible web designer, you should be more dedicated to yourself as a web designer.
interactivered
This kind of technology is great for coping with the many different platforms that people access the internet from these days.
There is an argument of course that designing a separate mobile site is better than building an all encompassing responsive site.
Perhaps we just need to practice more but right now it feels that convincing a client to spend more to get a responsive site (i.e. it takes a lot more work to do) isn’t the right thing to do when a normal site and quick rework for a mobile site (assuming it’s CMS driven it’s quite easy) will fit the bill.
jerryboston
I be taught one thing tougher on different blogs every day.
Writing Tips
jerryboston
Really appreciate this wonderful post that you have provided for us.
ernestlv
I just got into RWD and everyone was pointing to this place. Nice! writing! I enjoyed reading it!
edward-jackson
I’m glad I finally got here, found some great sources in this blog.
ZZMike
“… margin-right: 3.317535545023696682%;”
What are all those digits doing there? That last “682” is enough to pin the item down to either the left or right side of a silicon atom!
“3.33%” would be fine, and take fewer bytes
sanjeevsharma
Excellent post! Thanks for sharing. I wrote a post introducing Responsive design to someone new to the topic: Responsive Design — an introduction: http://bit.ly/L05U9a
moonzuk
Look back fellows. Before we’ve got into html5 and css3 to standard things more-less, there was time when major players were trying to push their very own “way of life” to concur the market (my opinion). Now since everyone (aside of MS IEXXX) comes to final conclusion, hardware folks are still jiggling around with their very own “proprietery” ideas. How about to come-up with several standards for their screens? It will be much easier for W3C to came-up with a solution. And then we’ll only compete by human characteristics (which affects any visual expressions, including designing things). But no, freedom of enterprize and unbounded competition is “The Mantra”, right?
So where is the plain logic and functionality?
As an analogy – look at cars or airplanes.
UnknownInkDesign
Just want to say a big thanks, Ethan, for what I think is a much better way to design web sites!
Cheers,
D Morris
Professional Web Design Company
Ethan I agree that one website can now be built to accommodate all platforms if done right. We have a lot of customers ask for a separate mobile website. We tell them that in most cases it is unnecessary and a waste of money. I was surprised by this stat: “Mobile browsing is expected to outpace desktop-based access within three to five years.” but I don’t think we as designers should be intimidated by this.
TexasDavid
We would love to find people who can do this and hire someone. Where do you find these people? :)