The Uncertain Web

Preface

The best way to approach the Web today is to forgo hard-and-fast rules and design for uncertainty. Embracing uncertainty as a core tenet of web development and scrapping the rules we’ve relied on in the past few years is the best bet for creating future-proof web solutions.

In the early 2000s, there was basically one browser (Internet Explorer 6), one platform (Windows XP), and one screen resolution (1024 × 768) that mattered. With that setup, you could design, develop, and test the vast majority of web users with one desktop computer. The biggest question on the horizon, it seemed, was when it would be viable to design for 1280-pixel screens.

This limited field of play meant that there was an expectation that sites and applications would look the same everywhere for everyone. Best practices were honed and codified into hard-and-fast rules that drove design and development. Major choices, such as the size of the basic design grid, were no longer choices. Everyone started with a static, 960-pixel grid and then sliced and diced it as needed.

Today, things couldn’t be more different. With the launch of the iPhone and the iPad, the rise of Android, and the growth of not just one but two real contenders to Microsoft’s position as the dominant desktop web browser (Firefox and Chrome), developers and designers have an ocean of variables to navigate. Every question around a site design is now filled with options.

Initially, developers and designers tried to navigate this new reality ...