Responsive web design is how web designers make website pages look right on different types of devices and on screens with different dimensions. When responsive web design is effective, you can look at the page on a computer monitor or your mobile device and it looks visually appealing and everything works properly on both devices. Designers use programming languages, such as HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript to make web pages that are user-friendly and function properly.
Whether you're a webmaster building your own website or a web design professional building sites for others, it's important to learn responsive web design to make sure each site visitor enjoys an optimized browsing experience. Creating a site that offers a positive user experience encourages site visitors to stay on each web page longer. The enhanced user experience that results from learning responsive web design reduces a site's bounce rate and can help to improve its SEO for higher search rankings.
There a number of careers that involve the use of responsive web design, all of which revolve around building websites, including being a website designer or a web developer. Front-end design and digital interface design are two other career paths that require responsive web design knowledge. Anyone who is working on any aspect of building websites, such as a graphic design professional, is in a career that benefits from understanding and having hands-on experience with responsive web design. Publishing, advertising, and management consulting professionals may also use responsive web design.
If you're a creative problem solver who enjoys sticking with a challenge until everything is right, responsive web design may be right for you. If you're already working in website development and want to take your career to the next level, learning about responsive web design can bolster your skillset and make you more valuable to your employer. If you're embarking on this path as a novice, you can start with beginner-level courses to learn what you need to know and work your way through to earn the level of certification you want as a website developer.