When it comes to the ideal website, it can be difficult determining which type of design is best for your business’s needs, especially when it comes to responsive or adaptive design. In order to help you better understand, we are breaking down the differences between responsive web design and adaptive web design.

Responsive Design 

With a responsive web design, you can rest assured that your website is fully functional at any display size, no matter the device being used. This means that your website will be very user-friendly and will automatically adjust to the screen on the user’s device.

A responsive design is the most popular type of design that web designers use and is preferred by the majority of businesses. Responsive design requires less technical work than having an adaptive layout, while still allowing the website to be fully compatible with any resolution. This responsive design hot-switch is imperative now that a large portion of web-users are on their phones or tablets which are constantly being updated with larger screens and higher resolutions.

Adaptive Design

Simply put, adaptive design layouts are designed for specific resolutions. Every browsing window size is different and is dependent upon the size of the device being used. Despite the seemingly large issues presented with this, an adaptive design layout will check the resolution of your browsing screen and load the webpage the necessary way in order to be properly displayed for that specific resolution.

While a responsive layout generally performs better than adaptive, designers admit that in specific cases where there is some complex web applications and fields that need to be fine-tuned, adaptive design is better than responsive for that particular website. Whether you are using a mobile device or a desktop, with the ability to fine-tune and customize your site layout at any resolution, you can be sure that things like your embedded app or order form are displayed correctly.

Mobile-friendly websites are imperative in today’s world, so regardless of which design you choose, as long as you are allowing for a more positive user-friendly experience every time someone visits your website. For more information on which type of design is best for you and your specific needs, contact Windy City Web Designs.