Sunday, June 16, 2013

Getting Responsive: Let's talk about Responsive Design

IndoWill's new website is being completed as you read this.  The contact form has been completed, and its functionality is being tested its functionality.

We're still working on the responsive design aspect.  What is responsive design you ask?   It's a relatively new concept of designing a website while ensuring it shows up best regardless of screen size.  

This came up in response to the demand of users of wanting to browse the web not only from their computers.  Today, your audience view your websites through a multitude of devices.  Websites are no longer viewed using a desktop computer or  laptops, but through mobile devices, like Apple iPhones, iPad, and any other smart phones and tablets..        

Speaking of Apple iPhone and iPads, these newer devices may look like it has a small screen, but it has what Apple is calling a Retina display.  These retina display. has much greater pixel density than normal displays.   What it means is, it allows the display to cram more detail per small area, allowing it to produce much sharper images than regular displays - the images are so sharp that a human eye cannot see the pixelation.

Why is this important? Sharper displays is great news, right? Who doesn't want sharper, brighter, and clearer images?   However this presents a new challenge for web designers.  Now smaller screen like for an iPhone, which is about  480 "pixels" wide and  320 pixels tall, is actually not so.  The new retina display packs roughly 10 times a much pixel in what used to be 1 regular pixel.  The new iPhone 5 / 4S, measured in inches,    1 inch of screen size now contains 336 pixels, when it used to contain much less.  That means the screen may look small, but the actual resolution is comparable to a larger monitor screen, packed into a tiny screen.

Back to responsive design, a well designed website will need to provide a good readable interface regardless of the screen size.  Now we add the complexity of retina display into the mix. 






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