My share on responsive design

When you think of responsive design, automatically resizable images and adjustable screens are coming to mind. However, it is the layouts that are adaptable, not the design.

Design is thinking about the user. As the platform changes, the layout changes accordingly. Sure, great. But, are we really aware of that platform’s experience? We need to consider the user’s purpose and behavior on certain platforms. Which circumstances are they in, what are they actually doing in real life?

We all know that it is a whole different story when you are browsing on the desktop and on your mobile phone. We have to dig into these stories and come up with ways that would help the user.

Let’s start to think about these platforms and user needs. As Stephen Hay indicates:

Consider the bigger picture;

1- Who is the user?

2- What is their purpose?

3-What are their circumstances?

4- What will they (need to) do?

As we do that, we can move forward from the adaptive layout to the actual responsive design.