FEATURE Content delivery
Marry media queries with fluid design grids and flexible images, and suddenly the designer can produce a single website that is automatically rearranged according to the user platform. For example, small screen users will see content in a single column, while those on larger screens would view the same content via two or more columns. And because these responsive design websites send the same HTML, CSS and JavaScript to every device, the re-arrangement is triggered client-side by the browser. In contrast, adaptive design is quite different. Here, server-side code detects the device-type, with web developers customising content in different templates for the different platforms. For example, mobile users will only be served up smaller images optimised for their smaller screen size.
As responsive design has evolved, many designers have opted for this method over adaptive design, as content no longer need be ‘quarantined’ into disparate experiences, depending on a user’s device. But in reality, the pros and cons of each are complex, and one design doesn’t fit all.
For example, adaptive design, with its device- optimised templates, can achieve faster loading times than responsive design websites in some instances. However, developing several adaptive design templates can mean relatively high overheads.
And while many adaptive design websites use a single url for all devices, displaying a ‘mobile view’ to those on a wireless device, other such websites detect a mobile device and redirect the user towards a different website configured for, say, the smartphone. The latter approach
Silverchair has opted for a fully-responsive design approach, when developing its clients' websites
has sufficed for most mobile devices, but many believe proliferating form-factors demand a different approach.
As Priestley from Semantico puts it: ‘I think designing purely in adaptive now – given the number of specific devices, especially in the Android market – is difficult. You need to have a responsive framework as you can’t design for the increasing number of form-factors; that would be kind of crazy,’ he adds. Yet, the choice between the two is far from black and white. According to the designer, Semantico uses responsive frameworks for its websites, so designs fluidly scale to screens, but ‘breakpoints’, which are an adaptive design feature, are also used.
These, breakpoints mark the point at which a website re-arranges its layout for the detected screen-size, and if Semantico’s user analytics, say, flag up a significant number of website users browsing via a tablet, then its web developers design to reflect this.
‘Adaptive serves up optimised content, which is something that responsive doesn’t, so when we’re delivering video content, the mobile or tablet user will receive optimised content,’ adds Priestley. ‘Likewise if we start to serve up large images, then we would also think about using an adaptive approach.
‘When you’ve got huge media content, load time can be an issue, so we serve up adaptive- optimised content,” he asserts. “When you code
The leaning towards responsive design is already clear
your responsive sites well, load times really aren’t an issue.’
Like Semantico, US-based Silver Chair Information Systems, developer of the SCM6 development platform and associated tools for STM publishing, is seeing the number of mobile users across its clients’ websites rising. Brian Hubbell, director of user experience at the company, says that up to 20 per cent of traffic comes from mobile phones, with desktops taking at least 75 per cent of access, and tablets constituting the small remainder.
The latest edition of the Royal Marsden Manual Online, developed by Semantico is fully-responsive and aims to deliver quick answers to nurses questions
30 Research Information DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016
Like others in scholarly publishing, desktops still form the lion’s share of Silverchair’s website use, yet the company has opted for purely responsive design. Given the pros and cons of each design methodology, why opt for this method now? ‘We are being philosophical,’ he says. ‘Mobile numbers have risen in the last couple of years – not overwhelmingly – but figures have doubled, and we now expect the mobile ecosystem to get more and more diverse.’ ‘We want to make sure all our users, from medical students to librarians, researchers and publishers, have a good web experience, and responsive design helps us to expand
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