1. or laptop computer, for example, squeezes into a cell-
phone-friendly vertical image, with navigation buttons
lined up vertically instead of horizontally. And it offers
you swipe screens so you can navigate without a mouse.
Mashable, an Internet news blog, calls 2013 the year of
responsive design.
“Thisissomethingyoushouldprobablygetontheband-
wagon with,” said Craig Lamb, co-owner of
Envative, a computer programming firm on
UniversityAvenue.“Ifyouhaven’tconsidered
it, you’re probably already behind.”
Lamb feels Rochester is running behind,
evidenced by a recent “best of the web” con-
test held locally where only one of the finalists
had a responsive website that allowed it be
viewed easily on all devices.
While many companies recognize the need
for mobile versions of their websites, they of-
ten create entirely separate mobile sites, or
present apps that mobile users can use to ac-
cess the appropriate site for their devices.
Democrat and Chronicle Sunday, May 5, 2013
Len LaCara Business Editor (585) 258-2416
llacara@democratandchronicle.com
Len LaCara
Hermann Einstein gave his 6-year-
old son, Albert, a compass that would
unleash in the boy an insatiable curi-
osity that would result in some of the
greatest scientific breakthroughs of the
20th century.
Seven-year-old Steve Jobs helped his
father put up a fence around their back-
yard; the father meticulously instruct-
ed his son on the importance of making
even the parts of the fence that
wouldn’t be seen as beautiful as those
that would.
That simple lesson stuck with him
while creating one of the world’s great-
est technology companies.
A young Ben Franklin, on his first
transatlantic voyage in the mid-18th
century, recorded water temperatures
daily and performed other experi-
ments. In time, these observations led
him to document with great accuracy
the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream, one
of his many discoveries and innova-
tions that would shape the birth of the
United States.
Last Tuesday, I attended a talk by
Walter Isaacson, the noted biographer
of Jobs, Einstein and Franklin. Isaacson
shared insights on each man. He de-
scribed Jobs as complex, with unbri-
dled passion to create a perpetual foun-
tain of innovation, leading to difficult
and petulant behavior. “Don’t be afraid.
Yes, you can do it,” Jobs would say; he
then would stare down his subject who
believed the request was impossible. It
worked most of the time.
Einstein’s successes are well docu-
mented. Early in 1905, at the age of 26,
Einstein submitted to a leading scien-
tific journal his “Special Theory of
Relativity,” known to the world as
E=mc2
. On his deathbed in 1955, Ein-
stein wrote mathematical proof equa-
tions trying to determine his unified
field theory until he took his final
breath.
Franklin’s contributions are often
overlooked and are particularly pre-
scient today.
In addition to being a Founding Fa-
ther, Franklin invented the Franklin
stove, bifocals and the lightning rod. He
patented none of these inventions, feel-
ing a duty to make life easier for all, not
just those who could afford it.
He is also the father of the volunteer
fire department, public libraries and
daylight saving time. He founded the
University of Pennsylvania, was our
first postmaster general, a politician,
diplomat and the largest single contrib-
utor to the churches and synagogues of
Philadelphia.
Franklin understood the value in
forming volunteer associations around
a particular societal issue to tap into
the collaborative creativity of groups.
Isaacson rightly points out that it
was Franklin’s “balanced” approach to
matters that was possibly his greatest
gift. Franklin understood that to
achieve in anything, you must first
experiment with many things.
Years ago, I read Franklin’s
autobiography, which was published
shortly after his death in 1790, and con-
sider it one of the best books I’ve read.
It should be in every businessperson’s
library, and required reading for poli-
ticians. Maybe we can recapture Frank-
lin’s spirit of balance.
So let’s get to work.
Great minds offer lessons to live and work by
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY DANI CHERCHIO
If you’re a smartphone user, you know how frustrating
it can be to access some websites.
There’s constant scrolling and panning as you try to
find navigation buttons that always seem to be outside of
the vision field of your hand-held screen.
And then you have to zoom in — making
those buttons even harder to find — to be able
to read the print on the site.
Or, perhaps you have an app that directs
youtoastreamlineddisplaywhereyoucansee
and navigate better. But you may not be able to
access all the content you know the company
has online.
The answer, according to a growing num-
ber of technology mavens, is responsive de-
sign.
That’s a term to describe website program-
ming that automatically recognizes what sort
of device is accessing it, and adjusts accord-
ingly.Ahorizontalpagedesignedforadesktop
Diana Louise Carter
Staff writer
See DESIGN, Page 5E
GO DEEPER
ON DIGITAL
To see an example of a
website using respon-
sive design, check out
our golf guide at
media.democratand
chronicle.com/golfguide
on your smartphone
and then on a tablet or
PC.
Local companies turning to responsive design
for their desktop, tablet and smartphone sites