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Is Responsive Design Dead?
It’s no longer a selling point when everyone is doing it. And it‘s not impressive if you’re doing a lazy job.
Designers, raise your hand if you’ve designed a website or web app in the last few years that was not responsive to all the screen sizes and devices.
* Crickets *
Of course you haven’t. That would be absurd. Every website is expected to be responsive these days. Delivering anything less would be a crime towards your clients. Responsive design is the new minimum baseline. It’s an expected human right, like shelter, food, water, and internet access.
And what fun would interface design be if it only had to fit one size and shape? We might as well be print designers. The flexible design patterns that emerge from responsive requirements are usually the most interesting challenges in my freelance design jobs.
Yet, you’re probably still using the term Responsive Design, even though all screen design is responsive. Responsive Design is just Design.
I admit I’m guilty of it too. I still list Responsive Design as a service on my website. (Scrambles to go update it before anyone notices my hypocrisy).
I use it there because clients still respond to it. They’ve heard the terms and probably understand what it means. They want their project to include the industry best-practices, and it’s reassuring for them to hear that you do responsive design as a default. It’s important to speak your client’s language, and if this term is still part of their lexicon, then it should be in yours as well. So my website and project proposals still talk that way.
But when we talk to other designers, to developers, or other technology professionals, saying Responsive Design is like saying Motor Car (as if we needed to distinguish between the horse-drawn cars). Responsive is no longer a valid adjective when it’s an automatic and expected part of the noun’s meaning.
So can we just stop saying it, please?
