?Describe how and why responsive web design was developed.

What will be an ideal response?

?Throughout the history of the web, the challenge for web designers has always been to adapt their page designs to a wide range of user needs and browsing devices. Traditionally, the variables have included browsers, connection speed, and device types. Web designers have tried many techniques to adapt to device specifications. For example, in the earlier days of the web, designers created browser specific web pages to deal with different browser types, developed centered web pages to deal with different screen sizes, and used other ill-advised methods that defeat the
accessible nature of the web. Ideally, no matter what device, connection speed, or browser type you design for, everyone should be able to access your web content. The temptation to design separate pages for different browsers or devices leads to maintenance problems because customized sites must be updated concurrently with the same content. Although many web-publishing software platforms can help support this multiple-site model, it is not ideal.
With the advent of smartphones and tablets in the last few years, the web developer's challenge to provide web sites that display content and perform correctly regardless of device has become even more complicated. More device sizes, screen orientations, and screen resolutions
are available now than ever before. The variety of screen formats is almost endless, and the challenge for web designers is growing as more new devices debut every day. You should design responsively for the needs of the content rather than those of the device.In the past, designers adapted their web sites by creating flexible designs that adjusted to different screen sizes or used fixed designs that always appeared in the center of the browser window. However, these techniques do not create suitable results in the many smaller devices that people now use to browse the web. The issue includes more than the inability to easily view a web site because of smaller screen size. Navigation is often a problem, especially on the smallest handheld devices. Users should be able to view your content without zooming or scrolling. Anyone with a smartphone is aware of such limitations, as many web sites designed for the large screens on desktop and laptop
computers merely shrink their contents to fit on a smaller screen. The answer is to build a more flexible type of web page that responds to the varying size of displays used for online viewing. This new web design trend is called responsive design.