UX for Beginners

Chapter 68. Adaptive and Responsive Design

UX is not one-size-fits-all, so you will eventually find yourself trying to fit your giant web design onto any number of other, smaller devices. Don’t panic. Adapt.

Adaptive Design Is Really Just a Couple of Different Designs

A lot of beginner designers are confused between adaptive and responsive design terminology, but it’s actually pretty simple.

Adaptive design is a few different designs; one for each of the device types you think are important. For example, if you have a webshop and you have customers visiting on mobile and desktop web, then you might design a small phone-sized version, and a bigger desktop version. If someone visits on a phone, they see the small one, and if they visit on a bigger screen, they see the big one.

That’s it.

Adaptive design takes less time and it’s easier because it is a lot more static than responsive design. Lots of designers will post a version of their design for mobile and a version for web and call it “responsive,” but in reality they often haven’t designed the “in between” states of the design.

Responsive Design Is One Design That Fits All Screens

Responsive design “stretches” and “adjusts” as you change the size of the window, so no matter what device you’re using or what resolution your screen has, it works perfectly.

How does this magical responsiveness occur, you say? Well, it’s all about “break points.”

One layout can’t stretch forever and still look good, so you have to decide when to show or hide ...