Defining responsive web design
The term "responsive web design" was coined by Ethan Marcotte in 2010. In his seminal A List Apart article http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design, he consolidated three existing techniques (flexible grid layout, flexible images/media, and media queries) into one unified approach and named it responsive web design.
Responsive web design in a nutshell
To attempt to put the philosophy of responsive web design into a "nutshell," I would say it's the presentation of web content in the most relevant format for the viewport and device accessing it.
In its infancy, it was typical for responsive design to be implemented by starting with a fixed-width desktop design before trying to scale the design down as needed for smaller screens. However, processes evolved and it became apparent there was a better way. Namely, that everything from design to content management and development worked better when starting...
