Lately, being more on the front end side of software development, I have been approached about responsive layouts and responsive applications. The idea of responsive design is really cool, and there are a lot of frameworks and tools out there now to make your life easier when designing for a responsive layout.
My problem is the one size fits all mentality. A lot of the design talk and ideas usually stem from blog designers, news and/or magazine designers. They are transitioning from paper to web. Paper is fixed, where the web is naturally fluid. Idea's have now been coming to play that responsive layouts are the answer. I agree to some degree, but not one size fits all. There are many situations where responsive design is perfect. Usually simple text/image content based sites are the right fit for responsive design, not complex javascript, css and html5 applications.
I have a hard time explaining my thoughts, whether putting it in written words or in spoken discussions. Personally, I feel that "Responsive" is the new buzz word, and everyone thinks its the answer to all new development problems.
- It will save money
- It will save time
- You only need one code base
- It is easy
Responsive is not for all cases. In most cases it is for simple content sites. Below is a perfect article that describes exactly my opinion.
If you have comments, please let me know your thoughts. I think this is an important discussion.
