UI

Adaptive images: solving the responsive image problem

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By Dain Miller
July 31, 2012

[“\"Adaptive<\/a>Responsive design isn’t just a change in layout or the use of media queries here and there, it is a mind-state and an action that has clear meaning.<\/p>\n\nResponsive design is essentially saying that we care more about the content than we have in the past. In fact, we care so much that we will even optimize content to be read and viewed on devices that haven’t been launched yet.\n\nIn essence, we are trying to present information as clearly as possible and be as efficient as possible all at the same time. Here’s a common misconception; mobile first means designing as though your entire site revolves around the mobile phone. That isn’t quite accurate. Mobile first simply means to design for the simplest experience first, which often leads us to cut out overheads that we are experiencing or may experience in the future.\n\nIn the world of design; quick decisions; responsiveness; and creative content we need to be vigilant first and foremost. And being vigilant comes down to knowing when we have a problem in our responsive designs, and how to fix it. Today, we are doing just that.\n\nResponsive images have been a tough topic for years now, as there have typically been more than one ​‘hack-around’ way to make your images responsive. Let’s go through this topic from the ground up, starting with how we used to do it.\n\n

The past<\/h1>\n\n

Dain Miller

Dain Miller is a former Presidential Innovation Fellow at The White House, and mentor for developers at starthere​.fm. He now works to lead engineering teams at a distributed media company. You can find him on Twitter @dainmiller or at his website 

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