The Responsive Framework

Responsive is the hot trend in website design. But unlike pet rocks and bell-bottoms, responsive design is not just a fad—it allows web content to be easily discovered and consumed on a growing number of internet-connected devices.

Introducing Responsive Framework—the new theme for BU WordPress. But Responsive Framework is more than just a new theme—it’s a design philosophy. It’s a standards-compliant, responsive, accessible, distraction-free foundation upon which to build BU websites. Maintain your site with one theme that works across all devices. It’s built with best practices and forward-thinking technologies to be supportable and sustainable.

In short, it’s the new future of website maintenance and design. And it’s here today.

A responsive design is a fully fluid grid-based system that responds to the size of the device. Your visitors experience an interface that is optimized for smartphones, tablets, desktop monitors and the various-sized devices in between.

A framework is defined as a supporting structure, and our framework must not only support more than 1,000 websites on the BU Web, it must be secure and scalable, not to mention maintainable, for the thousands of website editors at BU.

By law, your web content must be accessible to visitors who use assistive technologies. Responsive Framework meets all fundamental elements of the University’s Minimum Web Accessibility Standards. And while content editors must always be responsible to publish accessible content, this theme gives you a fully compliant foundation upon which to build your site.

The design approach in Responsive Framework is clean, modular, and distraction free. At the same time, you have greater control than ever over colors and layout options, and now have premium web fonts to choose from. And with Custom CSS, you can use Responsive Framework as a blank canvas to build your own custom design.

It’s easy to switch your website to Responsive Framework, but it’s not an automatic process—you have to plan a site migration. It involves cloning your current site to a staging network, testing your site with the new responsive theme, and then re-launching your site with the new design.