Keeping up with technology, code and design news is a daunting task all by itself. But with the help of a good feed reader, it’s one of the most enjoyable parts of my day. Inherent in the process of drinking from this fire hose of information, however, is the need to selectively monitor and limit what new ideas out there are worth implementing and will bring tangible value to my customers.
One innovation I’ve had my eye on for a while now is the move to Responsive Design for website implementation. This is a fairly new concept, that has so far been only implemented in a limited way by most designers. But it’s gaining steam and I feel soon it will be an option for my clients as well.
The basic idea is this: let the website’s components automatically shift and resize when being viewed in different ways. This means a website viewed on a desktop monitor will have one layout, but the same site viewed on mobile device, phone or tablet would automatically move the placement of things like navigation, sidebars, images, etc and scale so as to remain readable and accessible on the smaller platform.
With strategic changes in how the side is designed and coded, and a willingness to give up a bit of control over the layout, you’d only need one site to be accessible everywhere. The alternative to remain relevant in a mobile world is to build a different site for each device size and orientation – for most people, this is just not practical!
Open Sky is looking forward to offering responsive design to our clients in the upcoming months so stay tuned! Want to know more of the nitty gritty for this innovative design methodology? Read Responsive Design
