This week is all about “Responsive Web Design” (RWD). Last week you worked on the skills necessary to build a ‘basic’ website. This week, you will learn more about the tools available to you as a developer that can assist with the creation of current trends in web design.
If you have not already done so, you should read the end of chapter 15 from the Duckett, specifically, pages 377-402. This provides an excellent summary of where web design was when the book was written in 2011.
Pay particular attention the the difference between “liquid”, “fixed” and “grid-based” layouts. All of these are possible using the tools you explored last week.
Although all of the approaches discussed in Chapter 15 from the Duckett are valid, they are falling our of favor for a more modern approach.
This week you will learn about;
These tools and techniques are being used heavily currently to design modern looking web pages.
There is a lesson from this though,
“things change quick”
Web design and development is a quickly evolving discipline and as such, you cannot plan on the tools you learn now being relevant forever.
This is not to say that HTML and CSS will go out of favor (although, who knows), but rather, the way things are done within these languages will continue to evolve quickly. If you find yourself making websites for a living, you will need to invest some time every year in learning new techniques, tools, and changes to the language specifications, so that you can be in a position to drive the field.
This is another heavy week of content, with a lot to learn. Give yourself plenty of time to work through the material and to play with the concepts.
I am leveraging a lot of content from a free Udacity course this week that was co-built by a developer from Google.
They do a nice job describing the problems and needs of responsive web design. As such, their videos will be used as the primary content this week, along with supplemental information.