Unit 7 Reading Response

Unit 7 Reading Response

Chapter ten was particularly appropriate for the upcoming project, as it discusses in great detail how to approach the design and development of mobile-based websites. The supplemental reading of the website assigned, was also very helpful, as the distinction between Responsive and Adaptive design is still under debate, at least in my opinion it is. This specific distinction debate is a constant thorn in my side, as though I understand the difference between them, I simply have trouble deciding on which one is more appropriate. Adaptive seems to be a better choice, as the design itself takes for granted that there will be specific parameters of size, regardless of the myriad devices on the market.

For example, there are dozens of different sized mobile devices, but they are all in a particular range of size, which makes adaptive a better choice, as the layout and design are designated for a particular pixel count and that they work perfectly for the given device. Responsive seems like it could get messy, as instead of reorganizing the data and content, it simply makes it smaller. Currently, I am working on my personal website, and am leaning more towards a media query for Adaptive design, as that seems to be a better look.

The other aspect I was glad to see mentioned in the chapter was the fact that it helps to have a link to the desktop site on the mobile site. Call me old-fashioned, but I do like to feel safe in what I know. I know this is probably the worst thing I could say as a web designer, but it’s nice to know that the desktop version of websites is not dead and that on a mobile device, I can still access the desktop version of a particular website.

There are numerous sources for Adaptive design in the website that was part of the reading that I will be bookmarking, as they are very helpful to get me to where I wish to be.


Inspirational Websites:

http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/19/responsive-design-adaptive/

http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/design/blog/web-design-101-adaptive-vs-responsive-design/

http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/the-many-faces-of-adaptive-design/

http://artificialrome.com/
I chose the last page as it was a very clever mix of parallax scrolling and responsive design.