Website Update: Responsive Design

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Submitted by Andrew Simard on 2020-Jul-08 Wed 22:51
2 minutes
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One of the biggest changes to web design, likely since its inception, is the need for 'responsive design' - a fancy term that just means that a website has to be both functional and presentable on a wide array of device resolutions and orientations, ideally without regard to vendor or other device-specific settings.  Basically a website designed in this way should look and work great on a phone, a tablet or a desktop screen, and nothing should be lost when moving between these formats.  Sounds simple, right?

Well, there have been many developments over the years to help make this kind of thing a little more palatable.  And this is a constantly evolving thing, making matters all the more difficult.  And the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from - web standards are no different.  So there are lots of ways to design pages to be responsive, and lots of designs that fit well in this model, and also plenty that don't.  The end result is that a lot of time is spent on testing and fixing little discrepancies to finally end up with a design that looks like it didn't take any effort at all.  Not the most rewarding thing to be doing in terms of value versus time spent. 

But alas, it is the cost of doing business these days.  If a company can't present itself via a functional website, well, that's akin to having a broken front door at a retail store.  Not a great way to inspire confidence in potential customers or other visitors.  So here we are at long last, at a revamped and reasonably 'responsive' 500 Foods website.