

The Boston Globe is well-known for using responsive design. RWD doesn’t tie design to a particular device.
#Responsive web design best practices 2019 code
If a 5-inch device or 15-inch device takes off in the market, the code can support the new devices.

RWD is also relatively “future-proof” in that it can support new breakpoints needed at any time.

The use of a single codebase can make development faster, compared to developing 3 or 4 distinct sites, and makes maintenance easier over time, as one set of code and content needs to be updated rather than 3 or 4. RWD has potential advantages over developing separate sites for different device types. Decisions about hiding content and functionality or altering appearance for different device types should be based on knowledge about your users and their needs. While responsive design emerged as a way to provide equal access to information regardless of device, it is also possible to hide certain items - such as background images, as in the Transport for London example above, secondary content or supplementary navigation - on smaller screens. Responsive design relies on proportion-based grids to rearrange content and design elements. A three-column desktop design may reshuffle to two columns for a tablet and a single column for a smartphone. In responsive design, page elements reshuffle as the viewport grows or shrinks. Rather than creating a separate site and corresponding codebase for wide-screen monitors, desktops, laptops, tablets and phones of all sizes, a single codebase can support users with differently sized viewports. The same HTML is served to all devices, using CSS (which determines the layout of webpage) to change the appearance of the page. This brief video (0:37) shows the responsive Transport for London website changing as the browser window is narrowed and widened.
