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Responsive Web Design
(A Book Apart #4)
by
From mobile browsers to netbooks and tablets, users are visiting your sites from an increasing array of devices and browsers. Are your designs ready? Learn how to think beyond the desktop and craft beautiful designs that anticipate and respond to your users’ needs. Ethan Marcotte will explore CSS techniques and design principles, including fluid grids, flexible images, and
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Paperback, 150 pages
Published
June 7th 2011
by A Book Apart
(first published March 1st 2011)
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A very short book; I think it took me an hour or so to read all the way through. BUT...it brings together all the threads of the Responsive Web Design concept in a clear and useful way. (He's self-deprecating about it, but the math for calculating a flexible grid's proportions based on a pixel grid is easy and just what I needed.) I ended the book fired up to do design this way from now on, and to go back and update sites I already have out there. Great color screenshots, easy-to-read code. And
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Silly comment reader, don't read this comment when you could be reading the book this comment is about. It's awesome and might change web development for the better for the rest of humanity and you are just wasting time reading a review that has little to nothing to do with it.
Seriously, go read the book. You could have already read the first page by now. ...more
Seriously, go read the book. You could have already read the first page by now. ...more

Ugh.
This book was uselessly beginnerish.
I can't imagine that anyone who'd pick this book up would be less than an intermediate Web designer. Beginners are way too focused on the functionality of their products to really think much of design beyond the basics. This book is targeted toward them and they're not going to read it. ...more
This book was uselessly beginnerish.
I can't imagine that anyone who'd pick this book up would be less than an intermediate Web designer. Beginners are way too focused on the functionality of their products to really think much of design beyond the basics. This book is targeted toward them and they're not going to read it. ...more

Is it too soon to call this book seminal? A decade ago, Jeffrey Zeldman's Designing WIth Web Standards certainly fit that description, convincing many of us to drop our table-based layouts in favour of accessible, standards-compliant CSS layouts. By my estimation Ethan Marcotte's 'Responsive Web Design' looks set to become just as formative by calling for another new approach to designing websites - this time, one better suited to the ever-increasing number of devices and browsers that people us
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Finally a book written by a designer who can actually write. Ethan Marcotte has a lively style, supporting his statements with vibrant anecdotes, analogies, jokes, and concrete examples. He grounds the book in traditional architecture and art history just enough to give it depth without detracting from its focus of responsive web design.
My favorite quotation from the book is:
My favorite quotation from the book is:
Pretend for a moment that you're working as a front-end developer. (If you're already a front-end developer, well, prete...more

I've just finished going through the book and it's examples. It's quite handy in that it's collected several techniques for building a 'responsive' layout design. However, only look to this book for theory and history. This is NOT a step-by-step guide in building a responsive site from scratch. Previous experience in HTML, CSS, and Javascript is highly recommended.
See, this book has been written like many of the web development (html/css/js/php) tutorials you can find online by simply performing ...more
See, this book has been written like many of the web development (html/css/js/php) tutorials you can find online by simply performing ...more

Like all the previous items from A Book Apart, this is concise, useful and finds room for a little humour too. This one is about making websites that will cope with the multitude of different browser sizes and contexts web developers have to deal with these days.
I've read almost all the articles Marcotte references, and had started using some of the principles before beginning this book. But Marcotte brings them altogether in a way that has thoroughly convinced me to give up on merely elastic la ...more
I've read almost all the articles Marcotte references, and had started using some of the principles before beginning this book. But Marcotte brings them altogether in a way that has thoroughly convinced me to give up on merely elastic la ...more

This book makes you fully understand responsive design. Easy to read, humorous and full of valuable information. It's perfect for anyone who wants to build a new responsive website.
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Responsive web design is the idea that, when creating a web page, it should work seamlessly and correctly on all screen sizes and devices, from an iPhone or Android phone up through a widescreen desktop computer. But with so many computing devices available today (and many more coming in the future), you can't hope to customize the experience for each device.
Instead, the page's HTML, CSS, and Javascript should adapt to the device's reported capabilities. This book uses an example site to demonst ...more
Instead, the page's HTML, CSS, and Javascript should adapt to the device's reported capabilities. This book uses an example site to demonst ...more

I found the whole book particularly interesting and believe anyone web-business-related can benefit from reading it.
Why I find it interesting? Because:
1. The book is technical enough for dev people not to get bored when reading, but covers all the fundaments: fluid coding (em, %), media-queries, progressive enhancement rather than degradation. (Chapters II - IV)
2. The book is not technical to much for designers - going through 'technical' part of the book gives design-heads an idea of what dev ...more
Why I find it interesting? Because:
1. The book is technical enough for dev people not to get bored when reading, but covers all the fundaments: fluid coding (em, %), media-queries, progressive enhancement rather than degradation. (Chapters II - IV)
2. The book is not technical to much for designers - going through 'technical' part of the book gives design-heads an idea of what dev ...more

Web design is a field that's always progressing with time. And as a web designer it might seem intimidating. Because new standards are brought into play every 3 years, of even sooner. So it's a field that in which reinventing your self is is not an option. This book goes over the new creative method for designing websites that's sustainable for creating pages for all different devices. I would say if your feeling alarmed about approaching this new coding method. Don't be. Ethan Marcotte makes hi
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(3.5) Finally finished this book again! When I had read this the first time, I didn't notice the bit regarding working with engineering collaboratively, but I appreciated the recommendation to get to a live prototype in code and iterate the design with engineering, rather than spinning your wheels in a design tool.
This was a good updated primer for RWD, but I think the Responsible Responsive book has more tactical knowledge for engineers looking to implement responsive designs. ...more
This was a good updated primer for RWD, but I think the Responsible Responsive book has more tactical knowledge for engineers looking to implement responsive designs. ...more

This is one of the best books to start learning about responsive web design. What makes it great is that it's not just a technical book on how to apply HTML and CSS to create responsive websites, it discuss the history, the principles and motivation behind the RWD movement, as well as providing numerous links to other excellent articles about this topic.
After finishing this book I feel much more motivated to dig deeper and research about this topic. ...more
After finishing this book I feel much more motivated to dig deeper and research about this topic. ...more

Highly recommended. Along with HTML5 For Web Designers, it is easily the best of "A Book Apart" offerings. It's a quick read with concrete examples – you can start using what you learn here immediately. It is well written and even funny at times.
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A really well written and thoroughly illustrated conceptualization of responsive web design. This is a book for coders and non-coders alike that provides ammunition for the fight to redevelop organizational websites that can be accessed device nonspecifically. A very good read if you're in the throes of working on a new website and would like it to function universally.
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I don't normally buy books like this, but this is a great tutorial into proper responsive web design; very well written and simple to understand. I've not finished it - because halfway through everything kind of "clicked" and I could do the job I wanted to do. I'd recommended it.
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This is indeed a must read for front-end developers and web designers as well. The practices applied within this book have been standards for so many years and we've been following them already. The book helped me explain to my fellow designers about the philosophy behind RWD and how can we effectively produce a responsive design with less iterations and frustration. Before sharing this book with the designers I used to work with we used to struggle with their intention to always have a perfect
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The book provides a good peek into responsive web design via CSS3 and HTML5. While it covers fluid layout and media queries, it is more introductory. If you are looking for either a deep dive into concepts, terms, and nuances or a how-to guide for various situations, then this is not the book. If you are looking for an introduction to fluid layout and media queries, then this is the book; however, I wished the author would have gone into more details about the dynamics/interaction between fluid
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One of the good reads. First time this book, I was able to see the code through the eyes of designer. It's a fun read and quick read too. I was so impressed with this book that I added this book on the list of required reading for YashaaGlobal library, especially for our new Web Designers, According to our library review this is one of the best addition for our Web Design Jacksonville
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I have been doing web sites for over a decade. I had a good knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I wanted to improve my skills for creating web sites that would scale well across devices and screen sizes. This book showed me by example the principals needed to accomplish my goals. The book goes step-by-step to teach each principle. https://proweb365.com/
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Very useful info for beginner, avarage spelling, clear language, technical details are also useful to make responsive website. Good, my developer just changed some from book at https://www.medyator.net
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Father of responsive design - 'nuff said. Great book
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