Head First Mobile Web

Chapter 2. Responsible Responsiveness: Mobile-first Responsive Web Design

That’s a beautiful mobile site. But beauty is only skin deep. Under the covers, it’s a different thing entirely. It may look like a mobile site, but it’s still a desktop site in mobile clothing. If we want this site to be greased lightning on mobile, we need to start with mobile first. We’ll begin by dissecting the current site to find the desktop bones hiding in its mobile closet. We’ll clean house and start fresh with progressive enhancement, building from the basic content all the way to a desktop view. When we’re done, you’ll have a page that is optimized regardless of the screen size.

Just when you thought it was time to celebrate...

Mike called in a panic. As a reformed web developer, he normally resists the urge to tinker with his site, but he fell off the wagon and decided to make a few tweaks. He thinks he broke the Splendid Walrus site and needs help.

Mike added pictures for all of his new brews to the On Tap Now page. He didn’t modify the code other than to add pictures, but now the page is loading very slowly on mobile phones. It’s so slow that customers have started complaining.

Is there ...