In the ever-advancing technological realm, those technologies are becoming user-friendly due to expert designing has taken a trend in which designers are choosing the best method to provide the best output. When a designer is designing he needs to think about the basics that the design will be responsive or adaptive. After that, another thing comes like what kind of front-end he will put together to make it look unique. Choosing the right between responsive vs adaptive is important as there are times when your design needs to be focused on one.
So, based on that, In this article, the two basic methods are being mentioned which are known as responsive vs adaptive ways which help the designer two understand the target platforms and how he will be designing it further, understanding the difference and where to use them for unlocking the best design.
Table of Contents
Understanding Responsive Design vs Adaptive Design
Understanding the Source
The word responsive vs adaptive is mostly heard in the web development field including the software development field and used by the front-end developer. As a front-end developer understanding the basics is important to work on the method itself.
When the world was thinking about the way to make designs more attractive Ethan Marcotte in 2010 revealed that responsive design can be used for creating designs which can change the whole way until the designer is doing it. As the world is advancing it was necessary to get something like responsive design because it is made to work for multiple devices at the same time so that people can access the application on any device. Due to this feature, everybody nowadays uses responsive design for creating their websites or software without considering about adaptive designing method.
However, the adaptive method is also a creative method when a person is creating a website particularly aiming for one platform. In adaptive designing, the person can design the website or software for that platform and create a whole different unique level of design that does not need to be adjusted in another platform. So the designer does not need to consider any other platform designing and look factors.
Importance of Design in the Digital Experience
In the increasingly technological world, people are using and want to contribute to the technological field in some ways and are choosing to be front-end designers. However, designing a platform application is not just about how beautiful that platform looks. There are other factors that need to be taken into consideration as a front-end designer because without understanding factors like clientele demand, the business it will be used for, the website will be responsive or adaptive, and lastly how it will be coded.
As the development field becomes filled with front-end developers, everybody wants to know how to choose the best developer and the developers want to know how to become the best. So, the key to this is to “WORK”. When the employer searches for a developer they look at the previous work a developer has done. For the developers who are new in the field and starting their career in the front-end development field creating a portfolio is important for appealing to the customers. It is known by developers who are working in the field that without a portfolio it is hard to gather working opportunities because the work you have done and uploaded to your portfolio will back your skills.
The Evolution of Web Design Approaches: Responsive Design vs Adaptive Design
When the technology was advancing the people did not consider front-end development that much. However, over time the internet developed the applications we are using those developed and now proper virtual visible content is present on the internet so everybody wants a uniquely dynamic look for their website or software. The front end is mostly used in website development and has a huge potential in it. However, the front-end designer should know the needs plus is the website going to be used on multiple devices.
Today everybody has a smartphone in their hands so people do not have to like in the old days go into an internet cafe and access websites they can just open them on their phone. So responsive design is dominating the market however there are cases when the website should not be responsive due to security purposes or due to having a huge structure of the website in the background. So the developer needs to make sure that the website will be adaptive vs responsive all the time.
Exploring Responsive vs Adaptive Advantages and Disadvantages
Pros and cons of Responsive design
1. Pros
- Responsive design offers a level of flexibility
- Scalability is particularly appealing in the rapidly changing landscape of digital devices and responsive methods can give you that.
- With a single codebase, responsive websites can easily adapt to new devices and screen sizes.
- Also ensures a consistent brand image and user experience across various platforms without recoding.
- Budget-friendly
2. Cons
- Responsive design can sometimes malfunction in different platforms due to image dimensions not being supported.
- If a huge website is created using responsive design performance optimization can be affected.
- Security can get loopholes as different platforms will need different considerations of validations.
- Sometimes on some specific devices, some pages do not support and crashes
Pros and cons of adaptive design
1. Pros
- Adaptive design is best for specific device-based use only.
- The developer can adjust the size and resolution as per his wish and make that unique.
- Best for websites with multiple pages and complex functionalities or content-heavy websites
- Also, it can be used by websites whose priority is performance-based. Page load time can be decreased by customising it with an adaptive design.
- As focused on one platform results can be best in his class
- Security and validation will be strong as the focus is on one platform only.
2. Cons
- Not budget friendly
- Time-consuming as the developer needs to adjust and customize each page hand.
- Without an experienced developer, the page can have some errors.
- Multiple coding should be done to completely affect the design.
Key Differences Between Adaptive vs Responsive
Understanding the need to design
Adaptive vs responsive are both designing styles but the most important thing is what the customer needs from the developer. Without understanding that part any kind of decision on the design cannot be made. At first, the developer needs to understand the website structure and which platform it will be going to be used in. Then what kind of design does the customer want from him and based on which purpose the website is going to be used? After these, all the developers will have all the information and can start with the design. If the demand is made for one platform working purpose only and it is a one or two-page website the best choice is going with adaptive design and when it is a heavily loaded web page with multiple pages and will be opened on multiple devices the best choice will be a responsive design.
Flexibility and fluidity in responsive design
Nowadays everybody has smartphones in their possession and it is hard to find anybody who does not have one. By having devices which allow them to open any website or software on it people are accessing it from phones. Like the old days, they do not have to go back and find the nearest internet and computer point to access it in an emergency. It is possible due to the advancement of technology and thanks to the discovery of responsive designing methods.
This method is made to make any website or software usable from any device because it makes sure to adjust automatically to the shape and size of the device’s resolution. However, the page load time increases due to it but the best is that the user can access it from any device and enjoy the website services. Plus the maintenance of the website is easy because there are no extra resolution setting codes inside it as the adaptive design has.
Device-specific customization in adaptive design
As responsive is covering the market the adaptive design is getting used less and less. It can not be helped as technology is advancing different devices are available and those are made to make it easy for the users to access anything which they can do from the desktop itself. However, For a developer learning both methods is essential as without understanding the adaptive method directly creating a responsive website can be possible but with the knowledge of adaptive website then creating a responsive website will give better results as the developer will be aware of the resolution and size shaping methods and can customize the website more professionally.
The adaptive method is still useful in websites that are small and have limited services or aim for better performance load time. However, it can be used for creating big projects but the cost will be higher and customization will take a huge amount of time. After completion, the website maintenance will be hard as there will be many codes that are essential for the maintenance guy to understand properly or he can create a major error in the future. These are the reasons why the adaptive designing method is used less nowadays but it is important to learn it as it will help the developer in his knowledge of creating a website or who knows a work come were he need to create a website based on adaptive design.
Factors Influencing the Choice
As the market is now full of visible content that is dynamically stunning in its own unique way. Audiences want to enjoy the content on their smartphone technologies and the responsive method is being used in all the websites or software coming out recently. It is not like the website is not openable at a non-responsive adaptive website but the images and videos can show errors or crash due to not being adjusted to display in the smartphone or any other devices separate from the specific one on which the website was originally created to run. Also, when a person wants a customised website he goes with responsive because it can be used in any device plus the coding part for adjusting gets cut short and the budget only focuses on the creation part of the main website so its reasonable to go for it.
Conclusion
In this article, a brief discussion is being done on adaptive vs responsive methods including the advantages and disadvantages of responsive design vs adaptive design to clarify the understanding of the developer about the basic two-choice methods. Also, in the end, how to choose between responsive vs adaptive design methods and how to understand the key factors are being mentioned for the new and old developers to resharpen their knowledge.