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Matt

This topic is so incredibly important for web developers to pay attention to.

Where I run into some confusion is identifying the fine-line-difference between responsive and scalable. Responsive implies that there are needs (inferred or gathered) to be addressed. We all know that a user viewing our sites on mobile devices have needs that are different than those on desktop screens. Responsive design goes a long way to begin addressing those needs. But what happens when I simply resize my browser window? Do my needs change? Or does everything just need to scale?

Responsiveness and scalability appear to be closely related, yet remain distinctly different. The former aims to solve needs, while the latter ushers/facilitates a design to the point until the user’s needs change.