by Berika Williams, Web Management Section Chair (Published September 1, 2012)

Web Management Survey

The web management section recently underwent a name and scope change in the past year. We need additional feedback from Web Management section members on ways to further improve this section.

Please take the time to answer this 5 question survey. Survey closes September 30, 2012.

Responsive Web Design

Recently, a colleague introduced me to a different approach for web design, independent of browser or device called “Responsive Design”. Content “responds” to the user’s device to fit on any screen, regardless of how small or large it is. This quickly drew my interest. It goes beyond expandable width websites. It uses a dose of CSS and JavaScript to work its magic and deliver a less painful approach than building a separate mobile and desktop site.

An example of such a site is Texas A&M Writing Center’s website:. Try resizing the width and see responsive design in action. Also, check out the website on your mobile device and see how content is displayed to fit on your screen compared to the full version on your PC or Mac.

There are advantages to this approach versus designing a separate mobile website. The obvious benefits are less time managing two different websites and having all content available at your fingertips. This does mean that more time has to be spent developing the site, to allow for the content to be organized so that it can be reshaped when resized. What this may mean for the future of mobile development is that apps and mobile websites designed for specific platforms will become less attractive as users focus on applications that are compatible with any device.

For more information about responsive web design, visit Google’s developer’s page to read their brief explanation on ways JavaScript is incorporated in this approach.  To learn more about how to implement responsive design visit this page: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/mobile/responsivedesign.

I’m interested in hearing about IT division or web management section members’ encounters with responsive web design. Continue the discussion by posting a message to the SITW discussion list. To post to the list, send messages to SLA-SITW@lists.sla.org.

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