I have been playing with responsive design for a while now. It's a radically different way of approaching of designing web sites.

When I decided to rebuild my site (this one) I decided that it was time that I built it using responsive design techniques.

The easiest way to understand how responsive design works is to view this site on a desktop. Once you have the site loaded try resizing the browser window.

At first you may notice that images scale down in size (whilst maintaining their proportions), then "pop" a block of content that made up half of the page suddenly is the full width of the browser window and the content it was next to has dropped down below it.

What is the purpose of all this trickery? The answer is simple. As the Wikipedia quote above suggests, sites will display in a readable form regardless of device the are viewed on.

So a site which has displays two columns in a row on a desktop, will render those same two columns one above the other on a device with a smaller screen such as an iPhone. This means that there is simply no need to build mobile-specific sites any more.

So where's the drawback? Well frankly, it's to do with development time. To all intents and purposes when you are building a responsive site you are building three site layouts simultaneously - one for desktops, one for tablets & iPads and one for mobile phones.

It seems to me that this time and effort is all worth it - afterall it's me who is sitting in front of my screens resizing windows and making it all work.

If you want to find out more about getting a responsive site call me on or 07971 505 767 or drop me an email.