Responsive Design

Responsive design automatically adjusts layout, text, and images to screen size and device (desktop, tablet, smartphone). Flexible grids, CSS/media queries improve mobile usability—important for "mobile first" and SEO.

Most internet users are on the move. In recent years, mobile internet usage has steadily increased, culminating in 2022 when, according to Statista, 84% of internet users in Germany were mobile users. This clearly shows that websites nowadays should primarily be designed for mobile use, which is also evident in the guiding principle "mobile first." Therefore, websites should be equipped with a responsive design.

What is Responsive Design?

Responsive design comes from web design and means something like "responsive design." The layout of a page is adapted to the respective output medium, i.e., designed responsively. In this case, relative instead of fixed pixels are used in the design.

If the design is responsive, then it doesn't matter which device you use to access a page on the web. Whether on devices like desktop, tablet, or smartphone, whether in portrait or landscape mode—the page will adjust to the respective conditions. This eliminates the need to create a separate mobile page, as from now on, all output devices are covered with a single web page. Not only the text is adjusted to the respective screen size, but also, for example, an accompanying image.

The necessity of responsive design for a website becomes clear with devices that vary greatly in size, such as PCs, tablets, and smartphones, but it is also useful within these device groups. After all, computers, laptops, notebooks, and others differ in their screen sizes. The great advantage of responsive design: The user does not have to manually adjust the website or its content to be larger or smaller—such as on a smartphone with thumb and forefinger—but can consume the content by scrolling, which makes mobile web usage significantly more pleasant for people.

How does Responsive Design work?

First of all, the layout of a website is created. For this, layout designers use so-called grids, in which all elements of a site are arranged. The grid consists of columns and rows. With the help of HTML, CSS, media queries, and breakpoints, the individual elements in this grid are edited.

HTML gives the website structure. CSS is used to edit the web design and layout of elements like text or images. Media Queries are integrated into the code to allow the screen size and resolution of the end device to be influenced.

Breakpoints, on the other hand, refer to pixel values and the threshold at which a new layout view applies.

With the gadgets emerging in the 2010s, such as smartphones and tablets, designs with flexible, or responsive grids were eventually invented. These work with relative values, so that graphics can be displayed according to the screen size. This also works, for example, when you reduce the size of the browser window. Try it with this page – you will see that the display of this page will reduce accordingly when you reduce the browser window.

Responsive design and the importance for search engine optimization

It is not without reason that people say "mobile first", because responsive web design is of great importance for search engine optimization.

Responsive design should allow users to view, use, and engage with content and offerings regardless of the output medium. This significantly improves the user-friendliness of the website compared to a classic browser display in mobile searches. User-friendliness, in turn, is related to search engine ranking, as search engines record how long visitors stay on websites, which subpages they visit, or how often they click.

As the search engine Google continually strives to make the results as user-friendly as possible, it didn't take long for them to urge webmasters to create a mobile website. At the beginning of 2015, it was announced that starting in April, Google would consider mobile websites as a factor for ranking. This gave mobile search its own framework. Previously, it was merely a reflection of the desktop search. Now, it can happen that websites are placed in different positions in regular and mobile searches. Specifically, pages that are considered "mobile friendly" are preferred.

Let's also imagine calling up a website on our smartphone. If it now looks like a desktop page squeezed onto a small screen, then the pleasure of surfing quickly disappears. Therefore, a mobile-friendly site also contributes to a good user experience. The visitor stays longer and finds information quickly and clearly.

With the use of responsive design, one can spare the creation of a mobile website because the content is automatically adjusted. The big advantage: users find the same website, regardless of the device, just in a different presentation. A mobile website as an alternative would usually mean a reduced scope. This means that the mobile version usually only informs about a few subtopics and does not represent the entire website.