To adapt to the different screen sizes and orientations that users may have, content creators can develop a responsive design format, an adaptive design format or dedicated mobile content:

• With responsive design sites, only 1 source of content is maintained, and the website code adjusts the positions, sizes and order of elements to suit the user’s device, screen size and orientation. For example, 2 columns may become 1, or sidebars may be moved into expandable menus (see Menus for more information). The underlying content is unchanged. However, the responsive design influences layout and design, and may affect whether some content is displayed.
  Because the arrangement of elements is not fixed, but is determined by rules, a responsive website must be tested on different devices and configurations to ensure that the content reconfigures correctly and makes sense on different platforms.

• With adaptive design, the server for the content assesses the device being used and then provides only the elements of the site that can be viewed properly, based on a number of preset layouts. Rather than trying to have the entire website reconfigure for a phone, for example, the server would send the predetermined mobile version of the site to the user’s device. If the user moved to a tablet, they would then see the predetermined tablet version, and so on.

• With dedicated mobile sites, content is housed in a separate site for small-screen viewing. The 2 sources of content serve audiences in different ways: the desktop version delivers the full experience and suite of content, and the mobile version offers a cut-down version with mobile-specific features.
  If you have a dedicated mobile site, you will need to identify priority content and exclude other information. You may also need to reconfigure information to suit a smaller screen. For example, a train timetable, in its typical large, detailed, landscape-oriented format, would not be easy to view on a mobile screen. In this case, repurposing the content into a mobile-friendly format would be important.
  You will need to ensure that the 2 sites are updated at the same time so that content stays the same across the sites.