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The Responsive Web: The Web - Past, Present, Future
SummaryThe Responsive Web is an easy-to-read introduction to responsive web design packed with instantly useful tips and techniques, and dozens of examples that show you exactly how to benefit from this valuable approach. You'll learn innovative ways to use what you already know along with design techniques leveraging new HTML5 and CSS3 features.Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.About the BookIn a world of mobile devices, new browsers, and changing standards, each page of your website can require an unmanageably large number of separate designs. Responsive web design is a set of techniques that allow you to design pages that efficiently adapt to whatever device or platform loads them. For web designers and developers and their customers, responsive design can be a big win.The Responsive Web builds on the best practices that have shaken out over a few years of production experience. This concise book skips pure theory and shows you exactly how to make responsive web design work for you in the real world. You'll learn innovative ways to use what you already know along with design techniques leveraging new HTML5 and CSS3 features. Along the way, you'll discover strategies to balance apps and websites, manage browser incompatibilities, and learn when multiple versions are the best option.What's InsideResponsive design conceptsCSS preprocessingRapid prototyping techniquesFluid typographyFuture-proof designs About the AuthorMatthew Carver is a front-end developer and web designer with real-world responsive design experience for clients like American Airlines, The Dallas Morning News, and Chobani Yogurt.Table of ContentsPART 1 THE RESPONSIVE WAYLearning to work responsivelyDesign for mobile firstPART 2 DESIGNING FOR THE RESPONSIVE WEBUsing style tiles to communicate designResponsive user experience design patternsResponsive layoutsAdding content modules and typographyPART 3 EXPANDING THE DESIGN WITH CODEAdding graphics in the browser with CSSProgressive enhancement and obsolescence control with ModernizrTesting and optimization for responsive websites
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 28, 2013
3 people are currently reading
22 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 28, 2015
Responsive web pages are all the rage these days. I figured this book could help me make sense of it all.
In the end, I couldn't help but be disappointed. Carver, the author, tries to straddle the divide between designers and programmers but the book is too short to be helpful to either. The design insights are too few and too high-level. The technical insights are either too trivial or would require better exposition to highlight their internal structure and explain their tradeoffs.
For example, the section on design patterns was a missed opportunity to illustrate multiple related patterns and show how they resolve forces in different ways. The reader would have a better perspective of the solution space and of how to navigate it. Instead, we get two measly patterns and no clear discussion of why or when one might be more beneficial than the other. A footnote points to a website of responsive design patterns, but the site is not well suited to side-by-side comparison.
Carver uses an interesting device by having sidebars for designer-specific and developer-specific advice. In these sidebars, he can raise the level for these audiences. The unfortunate side effect is that the main text appears condescending to both.
There were some nuggets here and there. Modernizr and Foundation look like good tools to have under your belt. But it missed other opportunities to discuss emerging technologies like Bootstrap and Purecss under the excuse that frameworks can constrain and stiffle your creativity. Smells of Not Invented Here syndrome to me. Or maybe the editor didn't want to undermine potential of new titles on these technologies.
In the end, I couldn't help but be disappointed. Carver, the author, tries to straddle the divide between designers and programmers but the book is too short to be helpful to either. The design insights are too few and too high-level. The technical insights are either too trivial or would require better exposition to highlight their internal structure and explain their tradeoffs.
For example, the section on design patterns was a missed opportunity to illustrate multiple related patterns and show how they resolve forces in different ways. The reader would have a better perspective of the solution space and of how to navigate it. Instead, we get two measly patterns and no clear discussion of why or when one might be more beneficial than the other. A footnote points to a website of responsive design patterns, but the site is not well suited to side-by-side comparison.
Carver uses an interesting device by having sidebars for designer-specific and developer-specific advice. In these sidebars, he can raise the level for these audiences. The unfortunate side effect is that the main text appears condescending to both.
There were some nuggets here and there. Modernizr and Foundation look like good tools to have under your belt. But it missed other opportunities to discuss emerging technologies like Bootstrap and Purecss under the excuse that frameworks can constrain and stiffle your creativity. Smells of Not Invented Here syndrome to me. Or maybe the editor didn't want to undermine potential of new titles on these technologies.
May 21, 2015
Some good info and a lot of links and how to guides for third party libraries. Not enough practices or examples of DIY responsive design. Glad I got this half off and not af full price.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews