Smartphones have become an inseparable part of our daily life. And there is no denial in the fact that these are one of the biggest problem solvers too. Thanks to the mobile-friendliness of the websites and the emergence of various apps, people do not need to hassle with the big machines and their connection wires to use the web. Everything is now handy.
On the other hand, since smartphones have become the biggest source of traffic, most of the website owners are opting for a mobile-friendly design for their websites, so that the users will get the similar experience over their smartphone or other devices as of the desktop. But, while taking the first step towards mobile-friendliness, one question pops in every website owner’s mind, “which is better? Responsive or Adaptive web design?”
Responsive and adaptive web design, both are different terms for mobile-friendliness of a website and diversifies from each other with a little variation. Both have been developed just to provide the users with the best user experience on different devices, and in both cases, the Google’s search ranking algorithm website is made to adjust itself according to the width of the device.
The Definition: Both, RWD and AWD, are the same in a way that these are made to adapt to the size of the device screen. But both are designed differently and has the definitions of their own.
Responsive Web Design (RWD): It has not been even a decade since the term Responsive was formed. The word responsive was first introduced in 2010, by Ethan Marcotte, a web designer and developer, in his book, Responsive Web Design and implies to the adjustment that a website does to fit in a device screen with the help of creative use of CSS.
In simple terms, a responsive web design, ‘responds’ to the different browsers on the different screen sizes by adjusting its layout with the environment, at any given point. Responsive design is based on the following technical elements:
- Fluid Grids
- Flexible Images
- Media Queries
Adaptive Web Design (AWD): Adaptive web design though is similar to the responsive design and is also created to enhance the user experience it differs from the other with a slight difference.
The adaptive design as the name suggests adapts to the screen size, but of a pre-defined width. This type of web design has a limitation of adaption to the fixed screen width, according to which it adjusts its layout in order to optimize the website design for the users.
The six most common screen width which it readjusts with includes:
- 320 pixels
- 480 pixels
- 760 pixels
- 960 pixels
- 1200 pixels
- 1600 pixels
The website is made to adjust itself through the media queries for the mentioned screen widths. Though you can also add other screen sizes, depending upon the devices you want to run the website on.
How the Two Differ from Each Other?
- The major difference between RWD and AWD is that the former is smoother than the latter. The responsive design smoothly changes with every screen size, whereas AWD’s working is limited to the specific six types (can be extended) of screen sizes. When changing the device width, the adaptive website design seems to snap from a specific device width to the other.
- RWD is more sorted and fluid. It is flexible and adapts to the browser environment independent of the screen size, whereas the AWD changes its size to specific browser widths only. For AWD, you need to create different CSS for the website design for separate screen sizes.
- RWD needs more efforts in terms of CSS coding and creating a whole framework. But in the case you go for readymade frameworks, like Bootstrap, it will be a time-saving choice for your website. On the other hand, since AWD is always created manually, the whole control is in the hand of the designer, and since the coding has to be only for six or more screen sizes, it does not take many efforts.
Advantages of AWD over RWD: AWD is suitable for the already designed websites, but not limited to that. You can use it for the new website as well. Since there are only six viewports (can be reduced or extended) for which you need to do the CSS, the time consumed in the process is way lesser. On the other hand, RWD is always best for the websites that you need to create from scratch, as you will need to use and then re-use some specific classes to make the website fully responsive.
Advantages of RWD over AWD: RWD uses grids and has the fluid design, so it fits like water in a container to every screen size, whereas AWD is less flexible. Though RWD takes a lot of efforts in the coding process, it is better for the long run, as we do not need to put any extra CSS to make it compatible with new screen sizes. But for AWD, this is not the case. The web design will only be compatible with the screen sizes with the media queries.
Which is Better?: According to Google’s search ranking algorithm, even Google prefers mobile-friendly websites over ordinary websites. So building a responsive or the adaptive website design will only bring you the best results in terms of rankings and search results.
Even though both of the website designs are built for the websites to fit in different screen sizes, the slight difference between the two will surely make you think which to opt and which to leave.
In our opinion, if you are trying to build a new mobile-friendly website, you must go for the responsive design, as it is more flexible and best for every screen size. But if you want to make your current or a new website to run on a few specific devices, you can opt for AWD.