Desktop browsers have only one viewport: the browser window. In contrast, mobile browsers have three: layout, visual, and ideal. Why is that? What does it mean for the meta viewport, media queries, and all the rest? Why does responsive design work? (Not how. Why.) And how are the desktop browsers reacting to this series of new concepts coming from the mobile side?
I feel that all web developers, and even a good slice of web designers, need to know about this topic. Although at its simplest it’s just a matter of applying the meta viewport width=device-width
and using width
media queries (standard responsive web design, in other words), you need to know a bit of the theory behind it. Using something without understanding it is dangerous, in my opinion. And there’s always browser bugs. Oh my, the browser bugs!
This year I’m going to give a few Mobile Viewports workshops that treat these topics. Legs in Utrecht and San Francisco have already been agreed, and I’m working on more.
I hope to see some of my readers at my Mobile Viewports workshops.
This is the blog of Peter-Paul Koch, web developer, consultant, and trainer.
You can also follow
him on Twitter or Mastodon.
Atom
RSS
If you like this blog, why not donate a little bit of money to help me pay my bills?
Categories: