The Uncertain Web: Web Development in a Changing Landscape

What’s the best way to develop for a Web gone wild? That’s easy. Simply scrap the rules you’ve relied on all these years and embrace uncertainty as a core tenet of design. In this practical book, veteran developer Rob Larsen outlines the principles out what he calls The Uncertain Web, and shows you techniques necessary to successfully make the transition.

By combining web standards, progressive enhancement, an iterative approach to design and development, and a desire to question the status quo, your team can create sites and applications that will perform well in a wide range of present and future devices. This guide points the way.

Topics include:

• Navigating thousands of browser/device/OS combinations
• Focusing on optimal, not absolute solutions
• Feature detection, Modernizr, and polyfills
• RWD, mobile first, and progressive enhancement
• UIs that work with multiple user input modes
• Image optimization, SVG, and server-side options
• The horribly complex world of web video
• The Web we want to see in the future

Rob Larsen has spent 13 years building web sites and applications for some of the world's biggest brands. He applied that experience to teaching a broad audience in Beginning HTML and CSS.