Responsive Web Design in 24 Hours

by Jennifer Kyrnin

Learn responsive web design (RWD) with HTML5, CSS3 & JavaScript in just 24 one-hour lessons
  Sams Teach Yourself Responsive Web Design in 24 Hours helps you create websites that work equally well on everything from smartphones and tablets to multi-screen monitors.   This book&;s straightforward, step-by-step approach shows how to use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build the responsive sites today&;s users and clients want. In just a few hours, you&;ll be building layouts, sites, forms, and web apps that automatically adapt to virtually any device. Every lesson builds on what you&;ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success.
Learn how to&; CONTENTS AT A GLANCE

PART INTRODUCTION TO RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN
H OUR 1: What Is Responsive Web Design?
&; History of Responsive Web Design &; Why We Need Responsive Web Design
HOUR 2 : Alternatives to Responsive Web Design
&; Table-Based Layouts &; CSS Layouts
&; Detection Scripts HOUR 3: The Growth of Mobile
&; Basic Cell Phones &; Smartphones &; Tablets &; Retina Devices
&; Why Responsive Design Is Important
HOUR 4 : Progressive Enhancement
&; What Is Progressive Enhancement? &; How to Use Progressive Enhancement on a &; Website &; Benefits of Progressive Enhancement HOUR 5 : HTML for Responsive Web Design
&; Using HTML5 &; Clean Code &; Don&;t Forget Semantic Elements &; Validating Your HTML HOUR 6: Basic CSS &; How to Write CSS Rules
&; Embedded and External Style Sheets &; Styling Fonts and Colors &; Creating a Layout with CSS
&; Understanding Cascading and Specificity HOUR 7: Unobtrusive JavaScript
&; What Is Unobtrusive JavaScript? &; How to Implement Unobtrusive JavaScript
  PART BUILDING A RESPONSIVE WEBSITE
HOUR 8: Planning a Responsive Website &; Should You Make Your Website Responsive? &; How to Plan for a Responsive Website HOUR 9: Mobile First &; Why Design for Mobile First?
&; What Makes a Site Mobile Friendly? &; What About Mobile Only? HOUR 1 0: CSS Media Queries &; What Is a Media Query? &; Media Query Expressions HOUR 1 1: Breakpoints &; What Is a Breakpoint?
&; How to Define Breakpoints in CSS
&; Optimal Breakpoints HOUR 12: Layout
&; What Is Web Layout? &; Types of Layouts &; Columns in Layout HOUR 13 : Navigation &; Why Responsive Navigation Is Important
&; What Makes Navigation Mobile Friendly? &; Basic RWD Navigation Patterns HOUR 14 : Responsive Fonts and Typography &; Using Web Fonts
&; Sizing Typography
&; Relative Versus Absolute Font Sizes &; New CSS3 Measurement Units HOUR 15 : Creating and Using Images in RWD &; Making Images Responsive &; Improving Download Speeds &; Building and Using Retina-Ready Images HOUR 16: Videos and Other Media in RWD
&; How to Make Videos Responsive &; Making YouTube Videos Responsive HOUR 17: Tables in Responsive Web Design
&; Tables on Small Devices &; Can Tables Be Responsive? &; Where Do Layout Tables Fit in RWD? HOUR 18 : Responsive Web Forms &; HTML5 Forms &; Making Web Forms Usable &; Creating Responsive Forms HOUR 19 : Testing Responsive Websites &; Testing in Your Browser
&; Testing in a Device for All Your Breakpoints &; How to Test When You Don&;t Have the Devices
HOUR 20 : Problems with Responsive Web Design
&; Responsive Designs Can Be Slow &; RWD Can Make More Work for Designers &; Not All Customers Like Responsive Sites &; RWD May Break Advertising   PART IMPROVING RESPONSIVE DESIGN
HOUR 21: Tools for Creating Responsive Web Designs &; Planning and Designing Your RWD Site &; HTML Element and CSS Tools &; Web Editors for Building Responsive Web Pages HOUR 22 : Device and Feature Detection &; Why Use Detection Scripts &; Modernizr &; WURFL HOUR 23: Using RESS with RWD &; What Is RESS? &; Benefits of Using RESS &; Getting Started with RESS &; When to Use RESS
HOUR 24: RWD Best Practices
&; Give Everyone the Best Experience
&; Use the Best Breakpoints You Can &; Be Flexible and Think Small &; Don&;t Forget the Content &; Manage Costs

373 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 2014

About the author

Jennifer weaves code by day and stories by night. When she's not crafting digital experiences or penning tales like her latest novel Digital Dryad, she can be found surrounded by the menagerie of animals on her small farm outside Seattle.

Her first novel, Digital Dryad, came out in 2025. Her short fiction has appeared in Meniscus Journal and the DreamPunk Press Anthology Blame It On the Pumpkin, while her expertise in web design and development has led to seven technical books and various video courses. A lifelong lover of fantasy and science fiction, Jennifer writes daily in her writing shed, a fresh, black coffee close at hand in her purple Yeti.

Reviews

[Ronisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides an excellent overview of responsive web design with examples. At this point however, the books contains a few outdated concepts. I'd love to see an updated version.