A question—how many devices do you own that can access the Internet?
As a user, I'll bet the answer is likely to be quite a few; this includes smart TVs, cell phones, and the like. As developers, it is up to us to provide a user experience that works on multiple devices. Welcome to the world of responsive design!
Responsive design is not only all about creating a great user experience, but one that works well on multiple different devices, from a simple online ordering process for tickets, right through to an extensive e-commerce system. Many of the tips you see throughout the course of this book don't require extensive changes to your existing development methodology. In many cases, it's enough to make some simple changes to begin building responsive sites.
Creating responsive sites can open up a real world of opportunity for you; over the course of this book, I'll introduce you to the essential elements that you need to be aware of when designing responsively, and provide you with examples and plenty of tips to help get you started with creating responsive designs.
Are you ready to get started? Here's hoping the answer is yes. If so, let's make a start.
Chapter 1, Introducing Responsive Web Design, kicks off our journey into the world of responsive design, with an introduction into the basics of the concept; we explore the importance of RWD in today's environment and examine how it works as a concept.
Chapter 2, Creating Fluid Layouts, takes a look at creating flexible grid layouts as a key element of our design process; we explore the benefits of using them, and take a look at creating some examples using prebuilt styles.
Chapter 3, Adding Responsive Media, walks us through how to make our media responsive. We cover some of the tips and tricks available for use and examine why, in some cases, it is preferable to host content externally (such as videos)—if only to save on bandwidth costs!
Chapter 4, Exploring Media Queries, leads us to explore media queries and how we can use them to control what content is displayed at particular screen width settings. We cover the basics of creating breakpoints and examine why these should be based around where content breaks in our design and not simply for specific devices we want to support.
Chapter 5, Testing and Optimizing for Performance, rounds off our journey through the essentials of responsive web design with a look at how we can test and optimize our code for efficiency. We explore some of the reasons why pages load slowly, how we can measure our performance, and understand why even though the same tricks can be applied to any site. It's even more critical that we incorporate them when designing responsively.