Responsive Vs Adaptive Web Design- Which One is Best

Web designing is a vast field. It plays an important role in your business image because it acts as a representation of your business. When it comes to website designing, there are two types:

1-Adaptive Web Design

2-Responsive Web Design

Due to variable mobile device sizes, the biggest challenges faced by the web and app designers are to make the web design adaptable to the variable sizes of the device. All the elements in website layout should be fitted well in the design. 

Due to advancements in technology, we are having giant monitors and smartwatches that are used to access the information. To bridge the gap between the devices, designers have only two options for their design such as a responsive or adaptive website. If you are in search to get one of this design for your website, then you can avail services related to web design Boston from professional web designers.

If we look at the Google search engine which is one of the best search engines. Google prefers responsive web design after the update rolled out in April 2015. According to this update, those websites will rank higher that are mobile friendly and responsive website design. There is no clear specification in the update that it should be responsive design but the point is that your website should be accessible on mobile, perform better, and has good UX.

With the rise of mobile, it has been one of the greatest debates either to choose adaptive or responsive web design? We will be looking at the pros and cons of adaptive vs responsive design in terms of performance and UX to make the final conclusion:

Difference Between Adaptive Vs Responsive Design

Responsive Design: What do you mean by adaptive design? In this, the design will adapt according to the size of screen irrespective of the device. This design uses CSS media queries to change the styles according to the target device. The elements included are the width, height, display types, etc. Only one of the elements is significant for the site to adapt according to different sizes.

Adaptive Design: What does responsive website mean? There static layouts on the breakpoints in the design that don’t respond when loaded initially.In adaptive design, as the name indicates, it will detect the screen size and will load appropriately according to the size of screen. You can design the adaptive website for the six common screen widths that includes 320, 380, 760, 960, 1200, and 1600.

So, this means we have to do more work in adaptive design because we will be creating a design layout for the six widths. On the other hand, responsive design can be complex because of the improper use of media queries can give rise to performance and display issues.

Reasons to Use Adaptive Design

It is useful for retrofitting the existing website to make it more mobile -friendly. This approach gives you the ability to take control of design and do the development for specific multiple viewports.  The number of viewports you will be using in the design depends on your own preference, your budget, and company. This approach gives you a certain amount of control that is not present when using responsive design.

As discussed previously, it is designed for six resolutions. But you can make a more informed decision by giving a look at your web analytics for most used devices and design according to those viewports. If you are planning to get an adaptive website, that’s fine. You can design the lowest resolution and then proceed further to the higher resolutions. Remember one thing, when you are designing for multiple resolutions, you will see a jump when resizing of a window is done.

Reasons to Use Responsive Design

You might have a question in your mind, how is responsive design different from adaptive design? Majority of the new websites use responsive design. The reason is, it is best for the new web designers. All thanks to the availability of themes via CMS system like Drupal, Joomla, and WordPress.

You will not get much control as you get in adaptive design but less work is needed to build it and maintain it. In responsive design, you will be designing keeping all layouts in mind and this makes the process complex. To resolve this problem, you need to come up with a viewport for mid-resolution and then you can utilize media queries to later adjust the low and higher resolution. Looking to build a responsive website? You can get in touch with experienced companies that are offering responsive web design services with satisfactory results.

Considerations to Keep in Mind for Final Verdict

What applies to Adaptive Web Design AWD and responsive web design RWD? Following are some of the considerations that should be kept in mind before making a final decision.

• Responsive web design load at low speed, if all the things are not implemented properly.
• More coding is required in case of responsive web design to ensure that design fits with every screen of device used to access the website.
• In adaptive design, you have to maintain the separate HTML and CSS code for every layout.
• When modifying adaptive web design, you need to ensure that everything including content, SEO, and links are working on a website when implementation is done.
• User experience is important. In responsive design, content shift to corners to fit on the device window. You need to pay attention to the visual appearance of design when it shows a shift.

There are no shortcuts to get both designs. You have to work in both cases. You should make your decision according to your audience. You need to figure out which devices are used by your audience and then decide the layout.

Now, you all know about both the designs. So, it will be easy for you to make the right audience according to your needs. If you are still confused and need guidance on the selection, then you can contact web design agency for the right directions. 

See also: UI design agency