Book description
What’s the best way to develop for a Web gone wild? That’s easy. Simply scrap the rules you’ve relied on all these years and embrace uncertainty as a core tenet of design. In this practical book, veteran developer Rob Larsen outlines the principles out what he calls The Uncertain Web, and shows you techniques necessary to successfully make the transition.
By combining web standards, progressive enhancement, an iterative approach to design and development, and a desire to question the status quo, your team can create sites and applications that will perform well in a wide range of present and future devices. This guide points the way.
Topics include:
- Navigating thousands of browser/device/OS combinations
- Focusing on optimal, not absolute solutions
- Feature detection, Modernizr, and polyfills
- RWD, mobile first, and progressive enhancement
- UIs that work with multiple user input modes
- Image optimization, SVG, and server-side options
- The horribly complex world of web video
- The Web we want to see in the future
Table of contents
- Preface
- 1. Embracing Uncertainty
-
2. Navigating the Uncertain Web
- Donât Blame the Web for Being the Web
- Identify and Embrace Your Audience
- Test and Pray for the Best
- Focus on Optimal, Not Absolute Solutions
-
Embrace Accessibility
- Provide Text Alternatives for All Non-Text Content
- Ensure Information and Structure Can Be Separated from Presentation
- Make All Functionality Operable via a Keyboard Interface
- Content Can Be Paused by the User Unless the Timing or Movement Is Part of an Activity Where Timing or Movement Is Essential
- Provide Mechanisms to Help Users Find Content, Orient Themselves Within It, and Navigate Through It
- Help Users Avoid Mistakes and Make It Easy to Correct Mistakes
- Support Compatibility with Current and Future User Agents (Including Assistive Technologies)
- Donât Stop There
- Lose Your Technology Biases
- Lose Your Stack Biases
- Keep at Least One Eye on the Cutting Edge
- Spread Your Wings (and Question Your Assumptions)
-
3. Lay a Foundation for the Future with Feature Detection and Polyfills
- Feature Detection
- Using Modernizr
- âFrontend Development Done Rightâ
-
4. Selecting Responsive Design or Another Mobile Experience
- Boston Globeâs RWD Redesign
- Really? RWD for Every Site?
- Mobile First, RESS, and the Rest of the Mobile Development Universe
-
Choosing a Development Path
- The Size and Skills of Your Team
- The Requirements of Your Site or Application
- Your Demographics
- Your Budget
- Benefits of RWD
- Downsides of RWD
- Benefits of a Dedicated Mobile Experience
- Downsides of a Dedicated Mobile Experience
- If Facebook Jumped Off a Bridge, Would You Jump Off a Bridge, Too? Or: What Do the Biggest Sites in the United States Do?
- Choose the Architecture That Makes Sense for Your Project
- Redirects Should Resolve Logically
- Redirect Options
- Always Offer an Escape from the Mobile Version
- Be Fluid and Design for Your Design
- âAccepting the Ebb and Flow of Thingsâ
- 5. Working with User Input
-
6. The Surprisingly Complex World of Images on the Web
-
While We Werenât Paying Attention, Images Got Complicated
- We Want to Serve the Smallest Possible File Size
- We Need to Take Advantage of the Browser Preloader
- We Want to Serve Correctly Sized Images to Multiple Resolutions
- We Need to Serve the Correct Image for Multiple Pixel Ratio Devices
- We Want to Choose Different Sizes/Images at Different Breakpoints
- We Want to Use Design Breakpoints
- Serving the Correct Format
- Images Are Easy, and They Should Stay Easy
- Optimizing Images for the Web
- Responsive Images
- Embrace SVG
- On the Server Side
- A Practical Developers Guide to All of This Complexity
- Conclusion
-
While We Werenât Paying Attention, Images Got Complicated
- 7. The Horribly Complex World of Web Video
- 8. The Web We Want
- Index
- Colophon
- Copyright
Product information
- Title: The Uncertain Web
- Author(s):
- Release date: December 2014
- Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
- ISBN: 9781491945865
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