You wake up. Check your phone. Check social media. Get your morning coffee. Get your breakfast. Check your emails. Browse the internet.

As mundane as that is, you’ve already met both responsive and adaptive designs on your ever day journey. 

“But Will, what is the difference between adaptive and responsive designs? I don’t understand this?”

Well lucky for you, we here at Creative Team have you covered because the blurred line between the two is about to be uncovered. Join us as we go over Adaptive vs Responsive Design! Let’s get started.

First off, what is responsive design and adaptive design? 

Responsive Design – Designs that respond to the change in the browser width and change the placement of the elements to fit the space available. In this instance, the content on a webpage will move itself dynamically to arrange in a more optimal setting for the browser window. This concept is really simple and straight forward. It is like a glass of water. You can pour the water into different cup sizes and the liquid changes shape no matter what it is put in. Responsive design uses CSS media queries to change styles based on display type, width, height, and more. This design style doesn’t have near as much control as the other. However, it takes much less work to both build and maintain.

Adaptive Design – Designs that allow the designer to take control of the design and retrofit it to make it more mobile-friendly. 

Introduced in 2011, this concept allows designers to select viewpoints, whether it be desktop, mobile, or even tablet, and change the viewpoints according to the device itself. With current drag and drop website builders like Elementor, it’s as simple as selecting what kind of device you are working with and adjusting everything accordingly to suit your needs. You have more control over this type of style. It is most commonly used to retrofit an existing site to make it mobile friendly. 

In the end, the difference comes down to responsive design relying on the changing design pattern to adjust itself to the real estate available. Meanwhile, adaptive design focuses on multiple fixed layouts based on device types. Both can be utilized together to make the best experience possible.

Which one should you choose? That is up to you. Just take a look at the pros and cons and you’ll get an idea of which one may suit your site better.

Responsive design (Pros)

• Abundance of templates to use.
• SEO friendly.
• Often easier to implement

Responsive design (Cons)

• Less screen size design control.
• Elements can move around.
• Advertisements lost on screen.
• Longer mobile download times.

Adaptive design (Pros)

• Designers have more control over the UX for appropriate devices.
• On mobile, devices can sense the user’s environment.
• Advertising can be optimized based on user data from smart devices.

Adaptive design (Cons)

• Takes longer to build
• Devices are constantly changing screen sizes, which could make or break your design.
• Challenging for Search Engine Optimization because search engines have a difficult time appreciating the same content on multiple sites.

And if you are in need of more help or still don’t know which to choose, we at Creative Team are here to help. Our team of experts can get your site up and running for any audience type in no time. 

Which design are you currently using? Let us know in the comments section down below. Subscribe to the channel to stay up to date. And as always, I’ll see you guys in the next video.