One small step for the web, one giant leap for responsive web design. I’m being dramatic, but yesterday was a big day for #RWD and the web in general. It was redesign launch day, with Element and Paravel both showing off their latest versions of their sites. As cool as they are, two web shops releasing responsive redesigns isn’t that big of a deal.
Microsoft and Disney kind of are, though. Microsoft released only a home page redesign, but it’s a great step in the right direction. Disney went further than the home page but still has plenty of content linked that isn’t responsive…yet. The reason that I see this as important is that they are introducing it to their markets and leading them by doing it. This will be huge for enterprise and entertainment sites.
Wordpress introduced responsive to publishers with their free 2011 theme. This enabled publishers to begin producing content that could then be consumed more easily across a wide range of devices. The Boston Globe lead the charge into news/media delivery and now we will see the demand surge in business and entertainment. With a much wider array of content, there will be fantastic solutions that come out of the teams behind these projects. It is going to be an exciting couple of years.