What does this mean for web designers?

A demonstration of various mobile screen sizes.

Web designers and developers can’t ignore the fact, mobile based traffic now counts for an ever growing percentage of web page hits across the internet today. Successful web design must now consider, the multitude of small screen sizes and the impact this has on how content is consumed. When developing websites for our clients we consider responsive web design as standard best practice, to achieve an optimum user experience.

What is responsive web design?

Responsive web design is a technical term used to describe the way content is dynamically delivered by web servers, presenting it in an optimised order suitable for a wide variety of mobile and tablet screen sizes. The website checks the size of the screen, then prioritises content in order of importance to fit the display. The responsive web design must then be able to respond dynamically, when the display is turned from portrait to landscape and be able to re-calculate and reorganise the content in the clearest possible way, while still making best use of the screen real estate.

When you consider the vast number of mobile and tablet screen sizes in use today (iPhone 5 and 6, Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4, HTC, Motorola, Windows Mobile, iPad Mini, iPad, iPad, Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Note, Windows Tablet and the list goes on) it is crucial that an in depth technical understanding of both, responsive web design and the technology behind it, is thoroughly understood to create an optimum user experience.