Table of Contents for
Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3 - Second Edition

Version ebook / Retour

Cover image for bash Cookbook, 2nd Edition Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3 - Second Edition by Ben Frain Published by Packt Publishing, 2015
  1. Cover
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3 Second Edition
  4. Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3 Second Edition
  5. Credits
  6. About the Author
  7. About the Reviewers
  8. www.PacktPub.com
  9. Preface
  10. What you need for this book
  11. Who this book is for
  12. Conventions
  13. Reader feedback
  14. Customer support
  15. 1. The Essentials of Responsive Web Design
  16. Defining responsive web design
  17. Setting browser support levels
  18. Our first responsive example
  19. The shortcomings of our example
  20. Summary
  21. 2. Media Queries – Supporting Differing Viewports
  22. Media query syntax
  23. Combining media queries
  24. Using media queries to alter a design
  25. Considerations for organizing and authoring media queries
  26. Combine media queries or write them where it suits?
  27. The viewport meta tag
  28. Media Queries Level 4
  29. Summary
  30. 3. Fluid Layouts and Responsive Images
  31. Introducing Flexbox
  32. Getting Flexy
  33. Responsive images
  34. Summary
  35. 4. HTML5 for Responsive Web Designs
  36. Starting an HTML5 page the right way
  37. Easy-going HTML5
  38. New semantic elements in HTML5
  39. HTML5 text-level semantics
  40. Obsolete HTML features
  41. Putting HTML5 elements to use
  42. WCAG and WAI-ARIA for more accessible web applications
  43. Embedding media in HTML5
  44. Responsive HTML5 video and iFrames
  45. A note about 'offline first'
  46. Summary
  47. 5. CSS3 – Selectors, Typography, Color Modes, and New Features
  48. Anatomy of a CSS rule
  49. Quick and useful CSS tricks
  50. Word wrapping
  51. Facilitating feature forks in CSS
  52. New CSS3 selectors and how to use them
  53. CSS3 structural pseudo-classes
  54. CSS custom properties and variables
  55. CSS calc
  56. CSS Level 4 selectors
  57. Web typography
  58. New CSS3 color formats and alpha transparency
  59. Summary
  60. 6. Stunning Aesthetics with CSS3
  61. Box shadows
  62. Background gradients
  63. Repeating gradients
  64. Background gradient patterns
  65. Multiple background images
  66. High-resolution background images
  67. CSS filters
  68. A warning on CSS performance
  69. Summary
  70. 7. Using SVGs for Resolution Independence
  71. The graphic that is a document
  72. Creating SVGs with popular image editing packages and services
  73. Inserting SVGs into your web pages
  74. Inserting an SVG inline
  75. What you can do with each SVG insertion method (inline, object, background-image, and img)
  76. Extra SVG capabilities and oddities
  77. Animating SVG with JavaScript
  78. Optimising SVGs
  79. Using SVGs as filters
  80. A note on media queries inside SVGs
  81. Summary
  82. 8. Transitions, Transformations, and Animations
  83. CSS3 2D transforms
  84. CSS3 3D transformations
  85. Animating with CSS3
  86. Summary
  87. 9. Conquer Forms with HTML5 and CSS3
  88. Understanding the component parts of HTML5 forms
  89. HTML5 input types
  90. How to polyfill non-supporting browsers
  91. Styling HTML5 forms with CSS3
  92. Summary
  93. 10. Approaching a Responsive Web Design
  94. View and use the design on real devices
  95. Embracing progressive enhancement
  96. Defining a browser support matrix
  97. Tiering the user experience
  98. Linking CSS breakpoints to JavaScript
  99. Avoid CSS frameworks in production
  100. Coding pragmatic solutions
  101. Use the simplest code possible
  102. Hiding, showing, and loading content across viewports
  103. Validators and linting tools
  104. Performance
  105. The next big things
  106. Summary
  107. Index

Defining a browser support matrix

Knowing the browsers and devices a web project needs to support up front can be crucial to developing a successful responsive web design. We've already considered why progressive enhancement is so useful in this respect; if done correctly, it means that the vast majority of your site will be functional on even the oldest browsers.

However, there may also be times when you need to start your experience with a higher set of prerequisites. Perhaps you are working on a project where JavaScript is essential, not an uncommon scenario. In that instance, you can still progressively enhance. Instead, you are merely enhancing from a different start point.

Whatever your starting point, the key thing is establishing what it is. Then, and only then, can you define and agree upon what visual and functional experiences the different browsers and devices that you intend to support will get.

Functional parity, not aesthetic parity

It's both unrealistic and undesirable to try and get any website looking and working the same in every browser. Besides quirks specific to certain browsers, there are essential functional considerations. For example, we have to consider things like touch targets for buttons and links on touch screens that aren't relevant on mouse-based devices.

Therefore, some part of your role as a responsive web developer is educating whoever you are answerable to (boss, client, shareholders) that 'supporting older browsers' does not mean 'looks the same in older browsers'. The line I tend to run with is that all browsers in the support matrix will get task parity, not visual parity. This means that if you have a checkout to build, all users will be able to get through the checkout and purchase goods. There may visual and interaction flourishes afforded to the users of more modern browsers, but the core task will be achievable by all.

Choosing the browsers to support

Typically, when we talk about which browsers to support, we're talking about how far back we need to look. Here are a couple of possibilities to consider, depending upon the situation.

If it's an existing website, look at visitor statistics (Google Analytics or similar). Armed with some figures you can likely do some rough calculations. For example: if cost of supporting browser X is less than the value produced by supporting browser X, then support browser X!

Also, consider that if there are browsers in the statistics that represent less than 10% of users, look further back and consider trends. How has usage changed over the last 3, 6, and 12 months? If it's currently 6% and that value has halved over the last 12 months you have a more compelling argument to consider ruling that browser out for specific enhancements.

If it's a new project and statistics are unavailable, I usually opt for a 'previous two' policy. This would be the current version plus the previous two versions of each browser. For example, if Internet Explorer 12 was the current version, look to offer your enhancements for that version plus IE10 and IE11 (the previous two). This choice is easier with the 'evergreen' browsers, the term given to browsers that continually update on a rapid release cycle (Firefox and Chrome for example).