When the topic of responsive design started floating around the web-dev blogosphere it made sense to me. Stop building for different browsers, resolutions, devices, etc. But I've found that there's another great reason to build responsively.

"I want a fresh look..."

Is what I'm sure other designers have heard from clients they work with routinely. Just polish the site without a complete rebuild. I recently came across this with a site that was built with responsive design.

So I popped open the template in Fireworks, played with some new styles, mocked up something awesome and started building.

What I never really considered with responsive design was it's application to the design in general. As I was coding the CSS and some minor changes to the HTML structure everything came together so perfectly. I quit using classing/naming conventions like .left_column a long time ago so I simply moved the column/block, changed a little design code and presto! The thing fit.

Improved Semantics

There are plenty of reasons to use responsive design touted by the community pertaining to compatibility and flexibility, but the fact is that when I built with responsiveness in mind the results weren't just responsiveness in the design as it applies to the viewer, but also a major improvement in structure and in turn a drastic increase in efficiency when changes were needed.