Embracing the Universal Web
Web browsers are constantly evolving, introducing features like subgrid, variable fonts, and enhanced developer tools. This presents a golden opportunity to rethink web design principles. While responsive design has served us well, its roots lie in the limitations of the 2010 web. Today, we can create more "intrinsic" designs (a term coined by Jen Simmons) and reconsider outdated best practices.
This evolution is particularly exciting in the context of a universally accessible web. My career began during the peak of the Web Standards Project, influenced by the philosophies of CSS Zen Garden, Designing with Web Standards, and A Dao of Web Design. CSS, then relatively new, was designed to balance the needs of web creators and individual users across diverse devices. "Progressive enhancement" and "unobtrusive JavaScript" were key concepts, shifting the focus from browser-specific limitations to an accessible, resilient, and user-centric medium.
Many of these concerns have become standard practice. CSS is ubiquitous, and responsive design is the norm. However, I also observe a growing trend towards applications designed for a narrow range of modern browsers, often ignoring older browsers or new features for years to maintain compatibility with outdated ones like IE11. We've become accustomed to a binary view of browser support, limiting ourselves to features compatible with our "supported" browsers.
This shift has various causes, including the allure of cutting-edge features. While such cycles are natural, it's time for reflection. New browser features often prioritize universal accessibility, and tools exist to manage browser support more flexibly, similar to viewport management.
Whether we call it Intrinsic Design, Resilient CSS, Progressive Enhancement, Universal Accessibility, or something else, a new era of web creation is dawning. We should build upon the lessons learned from responsive design—adapting to screen sizes—and expand this to encompass screen readers, legacy browsers, smart speakers, and other interfaces.
I'm eager to explore new methodologies and conventions that transcend managing specificity and cascading styles, or simply targeting phones and laptops. The goal is to effectively manage accessibility and universal compatibility. Let's embrace the web's exciting new features without abandoning the vision of a truly universal web. The tools are available; let's create it.
The above is the detailed content of Embracing the Universal Web. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

It's out! Congrats to the Vue team for getting it done, I know it was a massive effort and a long time coming. All new docs, as well.

With the recent climb of Bitcoin’s price over 20k $USD, and to it recently breaking 30k, I thought it’s worth taking a deep dive back into creating Ethereum

I had someone write in with this very legit question. Lea just blogged about how you can get valid CSS properties themselves from the browser. That's like this.

The other day, I spotted this particularly lovely bit from Corey Ginnivan’s website where a collection of cards stack on top of one another as you scroll.

I'd say "website" fits better than "mobile app" but I like this framing from Max Lynch:

There are a number of these desktop apps where the goal is showing your site at different dimensions all at the same time. So you can, for example, be writing

If we need to show documentation to the user directly in the WordPress editor, what is the best way to do it?

Questions about purple slash areas in Flex layouts When using Flex layouts, you may encounter some confusing phenomena, such as in the developer tools (d...
