Implement responsive design with jQuery Mobile and CSS3. The jQuery Mobile framework is a JavaScript library that you can use to easily create a mobile version of a website, converting existing web pages into touch-friendly websites and applications. The jQuery Mobile framework is arguably going to change the way mobile applications are accessed and distributed on mobile and tablet devices by allowing users to connect directly to touch-friendly applications through a web browser. There are other options for mobile development, but the difference with the approach that jQuery Mobile is taking is that they are targeting a large variety of mobile platforms.
The smartphone and tablet device adoption rate is skyrocketing, and the jQuery Mobile framework is helping developers meet the growing demand for mobile web experiences. Providing mobile web experiences requires a new set of skills from web developers and designers. Pitfalls and solutions A responsive design is one that responds to a user's device based on its screen resolution.
Listing 1. Resizing Responsive Designs with CSS REMs. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired.com Building responsive websites means that your design has to adapt to different screen sizes. We’ve covered a number of ways to do that in the past, including working with percentage widths, em-based type and other flexible techniques of responsive design.
There’s another way to achieve flexibility that doesn’t involve keeping track of ems or percentages — the new CSS REM unit. REMs are just like ems — REM stands for Root Em — but instead of being relative to the parent element like Ems, REMs are relative to the document root’s font size. Most of the time that means the html element. We’ve previously looked at REMs as a way to achieve fluid typography, but REMs can help with more than just type sizing. Mobify’s Roman Rudenko has an article on CSS-Tricks that shows how to use REM units to scale specific page elements while leaving others unaffected. For those wondering why you might want to resize some elements and not others, here’s Rudenko’s use case:
Foundation: The Most Advanced Responsive Front-end Framework from ZURB. Skeleton: Beautiful Boilerplate for Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Development. Mobify | Adaptive Platform for Responsive Websites, Mobile Commerce. Responsive Web Design - An Advanced Guide to HTML.