What's the difference between responsive, adaptive, or mobile-optimized website designs?

While everyone is using mobile sites nowadays, few understand the difference between responsive, adaptive, and mobile-optimized designs. Responsive site design and adaptive site design are similar, and both are synonymous with a mobile-optimized design... Right? Not really. And now you will find out what their differences are.

Optimization vs. Responsiveness

Mobile-optimized sites are not always built specifically for a mobile device. Most often, these are versions of a desktop site that will work on various devices. A common option is also just to redirect users to a special subdomain (m.example.com). So, the main difference is: optimization is fitting a desktop site to different formats, responsiveness is the creation of a mobile site initially.

Yes, the mobile version is still a lightweight, convenient and fast site, and if it is not important for your users to have all the functionality of the main site, it would seem that it can be limited to it. But it is not that simple. Such a website cannot be an ideal solution for any site and any device, and this is one of the reasons why developers prefer responsive design. The mobile version has two main drawbacks: multiple addresses and limited functionality.

A responsive site changes depending on which device it is viewed from. For example, a desktop site might have a multi-column layout, and mobile users see the entire website. But responsive design involves using a single column layout that is more visible on a small site.

Responsive sites have the same characteristics as mobile-optimized sites, for example, a navigation space. But there are also significant differences. Responsive sites are initially designed for mobile operating systems, where dynamic content is located, which changes depending on the device from which the site is viewed.

In other words, every responsive site is mobile-optimized. But not every mobile site is responsive. If you want to test the responsiveness of a site without browsing it from different devices, resize your browser to see how your site changes as you do so.

Responsiveness vs. adaptability

AWD (adaptive web design) and RWD (responsive web design) denote a specific approach to creating your website and is used to describe the process of creating a website that is easy to view from various mobile devices. In other words, AWD and RWD solve the same problem, but in different ways.

When creating a Responsive website, a flexible page structure is used as a "fluid grid" - the proportions and sizes of elements of which are set in percent. The grid will provide design flexibility and scalability. Parts of the design will have consistent spacing, aspect ratio, and can be adjusted to a specific screen width based on percentages. In addition to the fluid-structure, fluid images and fluid text boxes are used. When the width of such a page decreases, all content will smoothly shrink, structural elements will shrink relative to each other. So, for example, if your website had a 3-column structure, then on a narrower screen it will have one or two columns of content.

For the creation of a responsive version of the website, you will need to use media queries. This is the code that provides layout flexibility. Media queries indicate that CSS is applied appropriately. It allows you to apply certain styles to display different content blocks in different order and proportions depending on the width of the screen and the capabilities of the device on which the site is viewed. Media queries allow multiple design layouts that use the same HTML-encoded web page.

When your user switches from the laptop to tablet, the website should automatically change to ensure the resolution and image size. In other words, the website should have the technology of autoresponder to user preferences. This would eliminate the need to develop a different design for every new gadget on the market. Simply put, your site will look great and work well on a laptop, tablet, and mobile browser.

Adaptive websites may look responsive, but the main difference between them is what may be invisible to the eye of the common user. For an adaptive website, a set of different layouts is created in advance for devices with different screen widths, and the determined functionality of versions and certain types of devices.

For example, when creating a website, the design of pages of several typical widths is designed: 320 PX for smartphones, 760 PX, 1024 PX for tablets, and 1680 PX for desktop browsers. When a user visits an adaptive site, the server determines which device is being viewed and shows the user the desired content and template.

Which approach should you take?

The rise in mobile device use is just the beginning of a shift towards a more convenient Internet experience. As portable electronic devices such as smartwatches become more and more popular, you need to make sure that your site can be viewed anywhere and on any device.

An adaptive website is more simple and cheaper to make. Since the images just are stored in a smaller format, these sites load faster.

But if your site has a complex structure, you need to think about responsive design. It is especially true for websites of online stores and the business scope as such because using responsive web design reduces the time and cost of managing the site's content.

This does not mean that it makes no sense to create separate versions of the site for different devices. For example, when a user visits the mobile version of a website, and it is limited in resolution compared to the desktop version, then providing different content for these different versions may be a better solution.

Eleken recommends that you carefully consider your choice, and we, for our part, are ready to offer you our services and any support: from recommendations and advice to developing responsive applications and websites. Don't wait until tomorrow, and contact Eleken!