Build a responsive mobile friendly website

Call 01323 872296


Build a responsive mobile friendly website

Build a responsive mobile friendly website

Build a responsive mobile friendly website

Now you have learned how to code a basic web page let’s look at develping those skills and producng a responsive mobile friendly website.

All designers need a little help and most use what is called a boilerplate, that is a basic coding structure on which to build their designs.

Moving from my ‘Build your first web page’ post the next step is to look at Skelton – http://getskeleton.com/

Skeleton is a dead simple, responsive boilerplate, light as a feather at ~400 lines & built with mobile in mind.
Its styles designed to be a starting point, not a UI framework, and it is quick to start with zero compiling or installing necessary.

Skeleton is great if you don’t need all the utility of larger frameworks. Skeleton only styles a handful of standard HTML elements and includes a grid, but that’s often more than enough to get started.

Skeleton’s grid is a 12-column fluid grid with a max width of 960px, that shrinks with the browser/device at smaller sizes. The max width can be changed with one line of CSS and all columns will resize accordingly. The syntax is simple and it makes coding responsive much easier.

Type is all set with the rems, so font-sizes and spacial relationships can be responsively sized based on a single <html> font-size property. Out of the box, Skeleton never changes the <html> font-size, but it’s there in case you need it for your project. All measurements are still base 10 though so, an <h1> with 5.0remfont-size just means 50px.

The typography base is Raleway served by Google, set at 15rem (15px) over a 1.6 line height (24px). Other type basics like anchors, strong, emphasis, and underline are all obviously included.

Headings create a family of distinct sizes each with specific letter-spacing, line-height, and margins.

Buttons come in two basic flavors in Skeleton. The standard <button> element is plain, whereas the .button-primary button is vibrant and prominent. Button styles are applied to a number of appropriate form elements, but can also be arbitrarily attached to anchors with a .button class.

Forms

Forms are a huge pain, but hopefully these styles make it a bit easier. All inputs, select, and buttons are normalized for a common height cross-browser so inputs can be stacked or placed alongside each other.

Lists

Unordered lists have basic styles
They use the circle list style
Nested lists styled to feel right
Can nest either type of list into the other

Ordered lists also have basic styles
They use the decimal list style
Ordered and unordered can be nested
Can nest either type of list into the other

Media queries

Skeleton uses media queries to serve its scalable grid, but also has a list of queries for convenience of styling your site across devices. The queries are mobile-first, meaning they target min-width. Mobile-first queries are how Skeleton’s grid is built and is the preferrable method of organizing CSS. It means all styles outside of a query apply to all devices, then larger devices are targeted for enhancement. This prevents small devices from having to parse tons of unused CSS. The sizes for the queries are:

Desktop HD: 1200px
Desktop: 1000px
Tablet: 750px

Phablet: 550px
Mobile: 400px

Finally Utilities

Skeleton has a number of small utility classes that act as easy-to-use helpers. Sometimes it’s better to use a utility class than create a whole new class just to float an element.

A number of m SellerDeck designs are built round Skeleton. Take a look at www.houseofcheese.co.uk or www.redbankcider.co.uk – Cider and cheese, what could be better on a summer’s day?

Keep in touch and share

Graphicz on Social Media



01323 872296. 07836 551000.
Email:

Website by Graphicz