Responsive Web Design – Day 1

After many years of focusing on the programming aspect of web side development – ColdFusion, SQL & jQuery – I decided it was time to get back into the game of better web site design.  After all, HTML is apparently up to version 5 and CSS 3 is now pretty much the standard.

This renewed interest is in thanks to a large part in my attending RIACon 2012 a few weeks ago.  There was a lot of focus on building sites for mobile devices and I was introduced to the wonderful world of responsive design.  Those of you who are not familiar with the term – as I was not – fear not!  It is a concept I was familiar with already – sites that update their design and layout when the size of the browser changes.  I could give you lots more background, but just do a Google search of jump to Wikipedia for more information.  One of the issues I face is one of my largest clients still uses IE7 in-house.  Anyone who has worked with jQuery UI knows how much fun IE7 can be.

I’ve been looking at some of the frameworks for a week or so, and finally settled on one yesterday.  I downloaded it and created a small test site on my computer.  I also browsed different sites that use responsive design and found some to use as starting guides.  After an hour or two I realized I was out of my element – no pun intended.  For years I’ve just been copying styles and making modifications to do what I desired, but I never really understood how the CSS worked when it came to layout.  I would just make change after change after change, hoping I could reach my preferred outcome.

So yesterday I decided that I’ve had enough of that.  I figured it was time to actually learn the advanced concepts of CSS so making something the work the way I wanted it to was just a matter of making a change, not hours of trial and error.

Because I’m old, I decided to go out and buy some actual, paper books.  I just learn better that way.

I will be posting regular updates on this journey for those of you interesting in seeing an old dog learn a new trick.  Maybe you’ll learn something along the way as well!

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