Responsive Website: Definition and Types.
We all know what websites are, right? A set of related World Wide Web sites usually made by an individual and sometimes by an organization and are found under one domain name. However, have you heard of the term “responsive websites” and its different types? Well, if not, you are about to.
First, let’s explain what a responsive website is. Websites are accessed through many devices. You might use your laptop to open them while others use their phones, tablets, and even TVs! There even might be times that you could fall into the habit of using all your devices to open the same website (for example, YouTube). Now imagine, opening your favorite, most-used website on one of your devices, only for it not to adapt to it. Frustrating, right? Well, you do not have to worry thanks to responsive web designs. According to the responsive web design, all websites should respond to the device and its different features such as the device screen size and the screen resolution.
I mean, if you really think about it, nowadays people switch devices more frequently than they used to. This means websites that are not responsive to different types of devices should immediately get on the trend.
How can a website become flexible enough to fit in different types of screens, you ask? Well, by using a responsive design you can get access to the use of flexible grid layouts, which use relative units instead of fixed ones, adaptive images, and CSS media queries which take into consideration and analyze what the device screen is in order to display the website in the best possible way.
Now that we know what a responsive website is, let’s talk about its 3 layout types.
1. Adaptive Layout
An adaptive layout is, just as the name states, adaptive to the device you open the website on. This means when you open a website on your mobile phone, it will be different from opening on your laptop. This is due to it being bult from static blocks using absolute unit. An advantage of an adaptive layout is that it loads much faster since it disregards loading unnecessary things.
2. The Fluid Layout
The fluid layout uses the relative units in order to fill the entire width of the device screen. Although they are much more time consuming not only for the website developer but also for the website designer, fluid layouts are much more flexible. By that, we mean that a fluid layout, which is also called a liquid layout, resizes the website depending on the size of the screen.
If you are thinking how that is possible, the fluid layout uses percentages to define the page areas instead of using fixed pixel widths.
3. The Responsive Fluid Layout.
For our last type of website layouts, we will see a mixture of the above two different layout designs. You can already see that from the naming of this layout type, right? But either way, we’ll explain it further.
A responsive fluid layout uses both fixed pixel widths and fluid relative units, depending on the requirements of the website owner. They provide a custom experience for the visitors since they have the ability to shrink and stretch according to the device screen size. They are, out of the three, the most user-friendly layout.
It is important to mention that Google always recommends responsive websites especially after coming up with the new updates that ranks the mobile friendly sites much higher. If you want to learn more, Dynamic Hosting is the place for you.
Want more? Visit us on Dynamic Hosting and enjoy!