There has been some confusion about the difference between RWD and AWD, and within the last year, the terms have often been used interchangeably in the press. The concept and practice of flexible design is critical to creating websites that respond and flex to the display environment on desktops, smart phones, tablets and mobile devices. Credit for coining the ‘Responsive Web Design’ term is typically given to Ethan Marcotte (ethanmarcotte.com). The term AWD and ‘progressive enhancement’ is credited to Aaron Gustafson (easy-designs.net), and is considered a more global approach to website that takes into account CSS, assistive tech support, levels of markup, and JavaScript. Both terms describe the design, development and deployment of technology and techniques to make a web site flexible enough to accommodate the various sizes of smart phones, tablets and desktops.
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