Responsive layouts why we need to design this way

What is it

Responsive web design layouts allows our modern sites to adapt to different devices and resolutions. This allows our designs to remain the same while allowing small changes to fit in.

Responsive design uses fluid grids, fluid images/media & media queries to adjust the design to suit its parent media.

"Rather than tailoring disconnected designs to each of an ever-increasing number of web devices, we can treat them as facets of the same experience. We can design for an optimal viewing experience, but embed standards-based technologies into our designs to make them not only more flexible, but more adaptive to the media that renders them." - Ethan Marcotte

Why we need it

There is an increasing large number of people browsing the internet via their mobile phones. 

"Mobile phone handset internet subscribers went from (6.78 million in June 2010 to 9.68 million in June 2011. That's a massive increase of 43% in just 12 months, which means we need to cater for this medium and the best way to do this is via responsive layouts that allow us to design sites once and feed them into different mediums without any major fuss. 

Here are couple of nice responsive designed sites.