How to tell difference between responsive and adaptive sites

This has been a pet peave of mine for awhile now, seeing authors on here labeling their themes as responsive when in fact they are adaptive! Cool site to checkout to understand the differences:

I have noticed that people write on TF in item name – Responsive = Adapted; Full Responsive = Responsive

Still wrong though eh?

Dont get an option for adaptive when you upload an item. Its either fixed responsive or liquid

As developers we are able to make this distinction. To many (most?) customers, responsive just means “it resizes to the viewport” – whether it does this using a static-adapt technique or a fluid technique can be seen in the product demo.

I suspect most customers really want an adaptive theme (they’re easier to lay out), but think of it as “responsive”. The theme naming convention is a reaction to this slightly ambiguous, but common usage, of the term. I doubt a huge portion of customers would recognize the term “adaptive” and be aware of the distinction.

IamHasanAli said
Dont get an option for adaptive when you upload an item. Its either fixed responsive or liquid

Yep, they can’t help that but they include the “responsive” name throughout their theme title and description etc… It’s just a wrong thing to do imo.

EireStudio said
they include the “responsive” name throughout their theme title and description etc… It’s just a wrong thing to do imo.

This annoys me as well. There are many more themes built here that are adaptive not responsive and incorrectly labelled. Fluid grids are one of three defining principles of responsive design (fluid grids, flexible content, media queries).

An adaptive design is significantly less useful because it is essentially several fixed layouts designed to work at those specific sizes only. A glance at the spectrum of devices available makes it painfully clear that you should not be designing for specific device sizes.

Yes, it takes more work to build an “actually responsive” site — and that’s why most authors don’t do it. It’s off-putting that so many here are piggybacking on the consumerization of the terminology and undermining those who do responsive work in its full spirit. It’s their fault the word responsive is misunderstand outside the industry.

GravityDept said
Yes, it takes more work to build an “actually responsive” site — and that’s why most authors don’t do it. It’s off-putting that so many here are piggybacking on the consumerization of the terminology and undermining those who do responsive work in its full spirit. It’s their fault the word responsive is misunderstand outside the industry.

Totally agree. As sevenspark says:

I doubt a huge portion of customers would recognize the term “adaptive” and be aware of the distinction.

Well, if we keep calling adaptive themes ‘responsive’ it’s our own fault really as buyers won’t know the difference.