Responsive web design refers to websites that automatically adapt their layout and content to fit the screen size of the device being used. This approach emerged from the need to accommodate increased mobile internet traffic and the variety of device screen sizes, moving away from adaptive design. By sending the same HTML code while using CSS to adjust the display, responsive design ensures an optimal user experience across devices.

1. What is Responsive Web Design?
Invented and showcased within a few years of each other, the desktop computers,
mobile phones, and the internet became three of the most significant inventions of the
last millennium, changing the way the world communicated and interacted.
The World Wide Web, invented in 1989, and the touchscreen phones, first launched in
2007, gave a massive boost to how the internet was accessed on the move. Sometime
in mid-October 2016, mobile devices (phones + tablets) overtook desktop computers in
the global market share of internet access, with mobile phones by themselves
overtaking desktops less than a month later. The turn of the millennium also saw a slew
of social media networks and e-commerce sites, making accessing the internet through
mobiles an inevitable part of our daily lives!
Recognizing the increased mobile traffic and the overall need for improved user
experience, Google and other search engines began to modify the process of ranking
websites. Tech companies, on their part, put out a slew of devices with varying sizes
and screen resolutions, compelling websites to evolve and support the range of screen
sizes.
This gave rise to a major challenge resulting in a historic shift in the way websites and
other digital content were designed! Designers moved from adaptive design, crafting
versions of one design customized for a particular dimension, to responsive design.
This single, flexible design would stretch or shrink to fit the screen, much like liquid does
to fit the shape of the vessel it’s poured in.

2. Defining Responsive Web Design
A website is considered ‘responsive‘ when a standard design starts adapting itself to
the screen size of a visitor’s device. Technically, the website server sends the same
HTML code to all devices and Common Command Set (CCS), automatically altering
the layout and design to match the device’s size and resolution. All images, text, and
icons automatically adjust to be the perfect size to ensure that each element is
attractive, legible, and usable. Read more….. https://digitalcatalyst.in/blog/what-is-
responsive-web-design/