Hey EMDUG followers, as you’ve probably noticed, our blog has a new look. This new WordPress theme is a responsive design developed by OSU Central Web Services. It reformats itself to fit the size of the screen you are viewing it on, whether it be a desktop, tablet or smart phone. If you are using a desktop computer, you can see the blog automatically reformat itself by making your browser window smaller, similar to a mobile device screen size.
With more and more people accessing the web via a variety of devices with varying screen sizes, it’s important to start thinking in terms of responsive design when setting up new websites and producing content with mobile device users in mind.
So we figured we should practice what we preach! Let us know what you think of the new look.
so as I understand it, “responsive” means a blog theme that is compatible with smartphones, etc – compressed menu, etc. I like it. I’ve been wondering how people do that. Are there other WordPress themes available to OSU bloggers that are responsive besides Responsive? Would love to have something a little more customizable.
Hi Amy, actually, responsive means more than just smart phone compatible. Previously, most mobile compatible themes worked by detecting the type of device accessing the website and then would show a different layout depending on which device was detected (i.e iPhone, iPad, Android, etc.) Responsive design doesn’t care what kind of device is being used, only how much screen real estate is available or the size of the browser window. The site responds dynamically without a programmer having to code different layouts for different devices. It’s much more efficient. As far as I know, OSU Responsive is the only responsive theme available for OSU blogs at the moment. I’ve sent an note to CWS to let me know if that’s true or not, or if they they are working on other ones. I’ll let you know when I find out.
thanks Victor. Sounds like a mobile compatible theme is what I am after. Do we have any of those available? Or can we get plugins to make our existing theme mobile compatible? See WPtouch on http://designrfix.com/freebies/10-excellent-mobile-friendly-wordpress-themes.