Clarke: Hardboiled Web Design review

Andy Clarke's book is billed as a guide to HTML5 and CSS3. That's not entirely correct, but not entirely wrong either. He doesn't cover everything in HTML5 and CSS3, but does cover the new (and cool) things these unofficial specifications offer. Mostly, though, this book is about the philosophy of web design.

To often we're stuck with clients who insist that their websites look and behave the same in every browser. That's just not a useful view now. Clarke states that we should always design for the best browsers on the market and then deal with the shortcomings of lesser browsers. It's very much like the concept of graceful degradation, except that he highly recommends using features that are not yet standardized. Standards, you see, are a consensus of implementation and use of technologies. They don't come from on high and then get used. So, push the envelope of what the best browsers are capable of so that the others will follow suit and eventually the features becomes a standard.

This is a pretty solid book for web designers. I'm not a designer, I'm a developer. The main difference is that designers make things look good and developers make things functional. There is, however, an overlap between the two. Sometimes a design relies on available function. And function can often be limited by the developers' understanding of design concepts. So, for me, I gained a greater understanding of elements available for design. And in many cases found that these new elements make many functions much easier to implement.

We can now do many things with HTML5/CSS3 that in HTML4/CSS2 required the addition of JavaScript and/or Flash to accomplish. This is important for a developer to know so we don't stick with the same old technologies while the world passes us by.

Anyhoo, quite a good book for the web designers and developers of the world. Perhaps Elftown could benefit greatly from these concepts...


/ [Viking]

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