Responsive Web Design with Html5 and Css: A Complete Guide

Responsive web design is a game-changer for website owners and developers alike. By using HTML5 and CSS, you can create websites that adapt to different screen sizes and devices, providing a better user experience.

A key concept in responsive web design is the use of a flexible grid system, which allows content to reflow and resize based on the screen size. This is achieved through the use of CSS media queries and flexible units such as percentages and ems.

With HTML5, you can create semantic markup that helps search engines understand the structure and content of your website. This is especially important for responsive design, as it allows search engines to crawl and index your content more effectively.

In the next section, we'll dive deeper into the specifics of creating a responsive website with HTML5 and CSS.

Responsive web design is not just about adjusting screen resolutions, it's a whole new way of thinking about design.

Ethan Marcotte's concept of responsive web design was inspired by the idea of responsive architectural design, where a space adjusts to the number and flow of people within it.

We can't create a custom web design for each group of users, just like architects don't design a building for each group size and type that passes through it.

Responsive web design requires a more abstract way of thinking, but it's already being practiced through fluid layouts, media queries, and scripts that can reformat web pages effortlessly.

It's not just about making images resizable, but about creating a design that automatically adjusts to different devices and user needs.

We can't keep creating custom solutions for each new device, so we need to find a more flexible approach.

To set up responsive design, start by including a meta viewport tag in the head of your document, which tells the browser how to control the page's dimensions and scaling. This tag is essential for pages optimized for various devices.

The meta viewport tag should include the value width=device-width, which tells the page to match the screen's width in device-independent pixels. You can also add the value initial-scale=1 to set a 1:1 relationship between CSS pixels and device-independent pixels, regardless of device orientation.

For mobile devices, consider using the mobile first approach, where you target smaller viewports as the default styles for a website, and then use media queries to add styles as the viewport grows. This approach reduces bandwidth waste and improves user experience.

The mobile first approach is a popular technique for using media queries in responsive design. This approach involves using styles targeted at smaller viewports as the default styles for a website, then adding styles as the viewport grows.

Using mobile first design saves bandwidth by avoiding the need to load styles for a desktop computer only to have them overwritten with mobile styles later. This is especially important for users looking for a snappy website experience.

Mobile first design also advocates designing with the constraints of a mobile user in mind. With the majority of Internet consumption expected to be done on mobile devices, it's essential to plan for them accordingly and develop intrinsic mobile experiences.

A common way to implement mobile first media queries is to start with the default styles and then add media queries to adjust for larger viewports. This can be done using the following syntax:

By using mobile first design, you can ensure that your website loads quickly and efficiently on mobile devices, providing a better user experience for your audience.

Adjusting screen resolution is crucial for responsive design, as it allows your website to adapt to various screen sizes and orientations. The reality is that with so many devices available, it's impossible to design for every single one.

Morten Hjerde and his colleagues analyzed data from over 400 devices sold between 2005 and 2008, revealing some common screen sizes.

Here are some of the most common screen sizes:

Mobile browsers render pages at a desktop screen width (usually around 980px), but using the meta viewport tag can help control the page's dimensions and scaling. By setting the meta viewport value to width=device-width, you can match the screen's width in device-independent pixels, allowing the page to reflow content to match different screen sizes.

Some browsers keep the page's width constant when rotating to landscape mode, but adding the value initial-scale=1 tells browsers to set a 1:1 relationship between CSS pixels and device-independent pixels, regardless of device orientation. This lets the page take advantage of the full landscape width.

Designing for both landscape and portrait orientations is essential, and enabling those orientations to switch instantly upon page load can be achieved with media queries. By using the screen media feature, you can specify different styles for different screen sizes and orientations. For example, you can use the following media query to target screens with a minimum width of 400px: @media screen and (min-width: 400px) { ... }

Responsive images are a crucial part of responsive web design, and they can be achieved using various techniques.

One popular option is to use CSS's max-width property, which allows images to scale proportionally to fit their container. This technique is easy to implement and works well in modern browsers.

The max-width property sets the maximum width of an image to a percentage of its container, so when the container becomes narrower, the image will scale down accordingly.

However, it's worth noting that max-width is not supported in Internet Explorer, but a good use of width: 100% in an IE-specific stylesheet can solve the problem.

Adding width and height attributes to your img tags can also help prevent layout shifts, as it reserves space for images before they load.

Flexible images are a great way to resize images proportionately, and many techniques can be used to achieve this.

Setting text size with a "vw" unit is a great way to make it responsive to the browser window size. This means the text will follow the size of the browser window, making it easy to read on any device.

1vw is equal to 1% of the viewport width, so if the viewport is 50cm wide, 1vw is 0.5cm. This is a useful unit to know when designing responsive text.

Forcing users to scroll horizontally or zoom out to see the whole page is a bad user experience. To prevent this, adjust your content to fit inside the viewport.

The ideal column width for reading is 70 to 80 characters per line, which is about 8 to 10 words in English. This is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind when designing text blocks.

Adding a breakpoint every time the width of a text block grows past about 10 words is a good idea. This will help keep the text easy to read on smaller screens.

All popular CSS Frameworks offer responsive design, making it easier to create websites that adapt to different screen sizes.

Inuit.css is a great option for smaller screens, providing a solid foundation for designs on tablets and phones with minimal effort.

Flurid is another choice, with a liquid grid layout featuring up to 16 columns.

W3.CSS is a modern CSS framework that supports desktop, tablet, and mobile design by default, making it a great option for responsive web design.

W3.CSS is also smaller and faster than similar CSS frameworks, and is designed to be independent of jQuery or any other JavaScript library.

HTML5 is a game-changer for web development, offering a range of features that make it easier to build dynamic and interactive websites.

One of the key benefits of HTML5 is its ability to handle multimedia content, including audio and video, without the need for third-party plugins like Flash.

HTML5 also introduces new semantic elements like header, footer, and nav, which provide a clear structure for your website and improve accessibility.

These new elements are not only easier to use but also provide a better user experience, especially for users with disabilities.

HTML5's canvas element allows for dynamic graphics and animations, making it a popular choice for game development and interactive applications.

With HTML5, you can also use local storage to store data on the client-side, reducing the need for server-side storage and improving performance.

HTML5's geolocation API enables you to access a user's location, making it a great tool for location-based services and apps.

HTML5's offline storage capabilities allow you to store data on the client-side, even when the user is offline, making it a great choice for mobile apps and websites that need to function without an internet connection.

HTML5's support for microdata and RDFa enables you to add structured data to your website, making it easier for search engines to understand and index your content.

HTML5's drag-and-drop API allows for easy and intuitive file uploads, making it a great choice for file-sharing websites and applications.

HTML5's web workers enable you to run scripts in the background, improving performance and responsiveness on complex websites and applications.

W3.CSS is a modern CSS framework that offers a lot of benefits for responsive web design. It's designed to be independent of jQuery or any other JavaScript library, making it a great choice for developers who want to keep their code clean and simple.

One of the key features of W3.CSS is its support for desktop, tablet, and mobile design by default. This means that you can create a website that looks great on any device, without having to write separate code for each one.

W3.CSS is also smaller and faster than similar CSS frameworks, which can improve the performance of your website. This is especially important for users who are accessing your site on slower internet connections.

Here are some key benefits of using W3.CSS:

Overall, W3.CSS is a great choice for developers who want to create responsive websites quickly and easily. Its flexibility and performance make it an ideal tool for any web development project.

JavaScript is a powerful tool for responsive Web design, especially when paired with CSS media queries. It can be used as a backup for devices that don't support all of the CSS3 media query options.

There's already a pre-made JavaScript library called css3-mediaqueries.js that makes older browsers like IE 5+, Firefox 1+, and Safari 2 support CSS3 media queries.

You can also use jQuery to detect browser width and change the style sheet accordingly. A sample jQuery snippet can be used for a more hands-on approach.

Remember that media queries are not an absolute answer, but rather a fantastic option for responsive Web design when used with pure CSS-based solutions. With the addition of JavaScript, we can accommodate far more variations.

Don't define breakpoints based on device classes, operating systems, or product names. This makes your code difficult to maintain.

Instead, let the content determine how its layout changes to fit the container. This approach is more flexible and easier to work with.

Pick major breakpoints by starting small, then working up. Design the content to fit on a small screen size first, then expand the screen until a breakpoint becomes necessary.

For example, consider a weather forecast widget. To make it look good on a small screen, start by designing it to fit on a screen size of 600px or narrower. Then, refactor the CSS to add the necessary styles for larger screens.

To insert a breakpoint at 600px, create two media queries at the end of your CSS for the component: one for when the browser is 600px or narrower, and one for when it's wider than 600px.

Major breakpoints can be determined by the amount of whitespace between elements. For example, if there's too much whitespace between elements on a screen size of 600px, it's likely time to introduce a breakpoint.

Here are some common screen sizes to consider:

Pick minor breakpoints when necessary, such as to adjust margins, padding, or font sizes between major breakpoints. For example, you might boost the font size when the viewport width is greater than 360px.

Minor breakpoints can be used to fine-tune the layout and make it feel more natural.

Device Capability is a crucial aspect of responsive web design, and with the help of HTML5 and CSS, we can create websites that adapt to different devices.

You can't assume that every large device is a regular desktop or laptop computer, or that every small device uses a touchscreen.

Some newer additions to the media queries specification let you test for features such as the type of pointer used to interact with the device. This includes the hover, pointer, any-hover, and any-pointer features.

Try viewing a demo on different devices, such as a regular desktop computer and a phone or tablet, to see these features in action.

These newer features have good support in all modern browsers, making them a great tool for developers.

Here are some examples of media features that can be used to test for device capability:

The orientation media feature determines if a device is in the landscape or portrait orientation. This is particularly useful for mobile devices.

You can use the @media all and (orientation: landscape) syntax to target devices in landscape mode, for example.

This media feature plays a large part in mobile devices, and understanding how it works can help you create a better user experience.

By using media features in your media queries, you can create a more responsive and adaptable website that works well on a variety of devices.

Flexible grid demos can create dynamic websites that scale to every viewport size, but they may not be enough to handle very small or very large browser viewports.

Media queries can help build a better experience by adjusting the layout at specific breakpoint sizes, but unfortunately, they don't work in Internet Explorer 8 and below, as well as other legacy browsers.

To support media queries in older browsers, you can use polyfills like Respond.js or CSS3-MediaQueries.js, but keep in mind that they can have performance concerns and potentially slow down websites.

W3.CSS is a modern CSS framework that provides a simple and efficient way to create responsive web pages. It's a great alternative to Bootstrap and Foundation, and it's completely free.

W3.CSS supports all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. It also works on older browsers like Internet Explorer 11. W3.CSS uses a simple and consistent naming convention, making it easy to learn and use.

The W3.CSS demo page is a great resource to explore the features and capabilities of W3.CSS. You can see how W3.CSS handles different screen sizes, devices, and orientations. The demo page also includes examples of how to use W3.CSS classes to style HTML elements.

One of the key benefits of W3.CSS is its ability to create responsive web pages with minimal code. You can create a responsive layout with just a few lines of code, making it easy to create web pages that work on any device.

Unfortunately, media queries don't work in Internet Explorer 8 and below, or in other legacy browsers.

There are suitable polyfills written in Javascript that can help, such as Respond.js and CSS3-MediaQueries.js.

Respond.js is a lightweight polyfill that only looks for min/max-width media types, making it perfect for simple media queries.

CSS3-MediaQueries.js is a more developed polyfill offering support for a larger array of media queries, but it's heavier and may slow down websites.

Any polyfill can have performance concerns, so make sure it's worth the trade off.

New devices and resolutions are constantly being released, making it hard to keep up with the latest browser support.

In the fixed grid demo, percentages are used to scale the section and aside margins and widths proportionally, regardless of the parent container's width. This is achieved by dividing the fixed units of length by the parent container's width.

For example, in the fixed grid demo, the section width is set to 63.197026% by dividing 340px by 538px. Similarly, the aside width is set to 29.3680297% by dividing 158px by 538px.

The flexible grid demo takes this concept further by applying the flexible layout formula to all parts of the grid, creating a completely dynamic website that scales to every viewport size.

To achieve this, the flexible layout approach alone isn't enough, and media queries can be used to help build a better experience, especially when the layout gets too small or too large.

In the media queries demo, a media query is added to change the layout when the viewport is under 420 pixels wide. This is done by turning off the floats and changing the widths of the section and aside.

Here's a summary of the demos:

In the mobile first demo, the mobile styles are defined first, and then media queries are used to add styles for larger viewports. This approach only requires one CSS declaration for mobile devices and loads the additional styles only when necessary.

To create a smooth and seamless user experience, it's essential to use CSS transitions and media queries together. This combination allows you to design responsive websites that adapt in layout according to browser width, and you can constantly resize your browser to see how the website performs.

Elliot Jay Stocks recommends using CSS transitions to animate the resize and smooth out the jump between different styles. This can be achieved by adding a simple CSS transition to your media queries.

Data tables can be quite wide and may require a different approach for narrow screens. One solution is to reformat the table for better readability, while another is to display a pie graph from the data.

Chris Coyier and Scott Jehl suggest adapting the table into a mini-graphic for narrow screens, rather than interfering with the content when the full table is displayed. This approach can be especially useful for displaying complex data.

To create a more user-friendly experience, consider converting a regular row of links into a dropdown menu when the browser window is narrow. This can be achieved by using media queries and CSS to modify the layout of the menu.

CSS media queries can also be used to make subtle changes based on the available space. For example, you can use media queries to modify a list of links according to the browser's viewport.

A key principle of responsive web design is to use the available space effectively. By using media queries to modify the layout of your website, you can create a more flexible and user-friendly experience.