1/5 of the world population own a PC, 1/5 of the world population own a smartphone and 1/17 of the population own a tablet. Bearing in mind those numbers we easily understand why most companies focus on developing their sites for those 3 main devices. But what about the other formats? Massive screens of all sort such as digital signage are estimated to reach 22 million by 2016. Micro screen from wearable technologies such as Google Glass, Smart Watches will reach 171 million by 2016. And, all other screen sizes such as embarked Car systems (Apple CarPlay), Connected TV’s, Connect Thermostat (Nest), etc… are estimated to reach 22 billion by 2015! Clearly, the number of screen sizes will be closed to limitless and the current way of programing each site for each format to make it responsive will not be sustainable on the long run. Waterfall design process where content is pushed at the end of the website design process will no longer work as content will need to adopt radically different forms.

The solution is to move on to Reactive Web Design. A process where the design does not need to be re-invented by a developer or UX expert each time a new screen size appear. It will actually focus more on the context, the user need, the place, the time of the day. Screen size will be a secondary factor that we will have to adapt to. Artificial Intelligence will be at the core of the code, gathering and organizing big data to define what the end user really wants and, of course, adapt to the screen size and device features. Clearly that represents a few challenges such as browser evolution to transmit more detailed real time data about user interactions with a site directly to the server that actually delivers the dynamic code. All in all, moving to reactive design is just step further towards perfect delivery of content to an end user and richer experience.

Clearly Responsive Web Design is not dead yet but brands should think about going reactive now!