From bc0fee10b556b0e5f30edd1aaeb4b0316d8e00ae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Rob Levin Date: Sun, 2 Jun 2019 10:51:16 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] [CSS] Point out the potential issues between responsive and adaptive design (#199) --- questions/css-questions.md | 5 +++++ 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+) diff --git a/questions/css-questions.md b/questions/css-questions.md index 5a1072fb4..13e98d64b 100644 --- a/questions/css-questions.md +++ b/questions/css-questions.md @@ -495,6 +495,11 @@ Responsive design works on the principle of flexibility - a single fluid website Adaptive design is more like the modern definition of progressive enhancement. Instead of one flexible design, adaptive design detects the device and other features and then provides the appropriate feature and layout based on a predefined set of viewport sizes and other characteristics. The site detects the type of device used and delivers the pre-set layout for that device. Instead of a single ball going through several different-sized hoops, you'd have several different balls to use depending on the hoop size. +Both have these methods have some issues that need to be weighed: + +* Responsive design can be quite challenging, as you're essentially using a single albeit responsive layout to fit all situations. How to set the media query breakpoints is one such challenge. Do you use standardized breakpoint values? Or, do you use breakpoints that make sense to your particular layout? What if that layout changes? +* Adaptive design generally requires user agent sniffing, or DPI detection, etc., all of which can prove unreliable. + ###### References * https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Archive/Apps/Design/UI_layout_basics/Responsive_design_versus_adaptive_design