Responsive Web Design Overview for Beginners

By: Brett Romero

Narrated by: Steve Sorensen

Length: 38 mins

Publisher's summary

In Responsive Web Design Overview For Beginners, you'll get an overview of what to expect when building a responsive website.

You'll learn about all of the following:

• Responsive Web Design Overview
• Usability of Smaller Screens
• Why Plugins Aren't the Solution
• Why a Responsive Web Design Theme May Not Be
• Best for Your Existing Website
• Risks Involved with Responsive Web Design Frameworks
• Responsive Web Design or Mobile Website: Which Is Right for You?
• Measuring the Cost of a Responsive Web Design
• Designer's View on Cost
• Handling Ads in Your Responsive Web Design
• Responsive Web Design and CSS
• 5 Steps to a Responsive Web Design
• Where Do You Go From Here?
• Develop a plan for creating a responsive web design site
• Get an idea on effort and what is involved
• Understand the impact to your marketing
• Set expectations for maintaining a responsive website

©2013 Brett Romero (P)2013 Brett Romero

Very basic book, good for non-IT folks.

What did you like best about Responsive Web Design Overview for Beginners? What did you like least?

This book was written for people who have no idea what responsive design is. If you're not in the technology business, it's probably a good read for you.

Not what I was hoping for

I am a total novice, and while learning about the differences between RWD and mobile web was helpful. I could have saved my money and Googled it. Also, the chapter about estimating costs was of zero value. Finally, the person who read it sounded too robotic.

Suitable only for total novices at web design

I don't like posting negative reviews - I know it takes a lot of effort to put together a book for sale on Amazon and even more to convert that book into an audiobook.

However, it's hard to see how this book is likely to be useful to anyone other than a total novice with no idea whatsoever of web design and, even then it's likely to serve as a taster for someone saying "what does the phrase responsive web design mean?"

The plus points are that Steve Sorensen does a *superb* job of narrating the text and deals well with things like reading out web addresses at a pace which means you could note them down should you feel inclined. For total web newbies the book will at least give them some clue about what responsive web design might be.

The negative is that the book is pretty much ineffective in imparting any useful information whatsoever beyond a discussion about potentially altering site navigation menus and deciding if it is appropriate to display advertising at certain screen resolutions. However none of this is in any way discussed in terms that could be understood by someone who had the skills to make changes to their site in the first place and even then in such shallow depth that it would make the reader stop reading/listening and do a web search to find out some useful information. If that's the intention of the text then it achieves its objective.

At the end of the book there is a section inviting readers/listeners to visit a weblink and sign up for a course in web design provided by the author.

I was provided this book for free by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Very Good Intro on Responsive Web Design

Responsive Web Design Overview for Beginners does exactly what it says it is going to do so it gets five starts from me. It provided an overview and lay out the concepts in layman’s term for the average Joe who knows little to nothing about Responsive Web Design. I would go further to say it might have something even for those in IT who like me work on legacy console type applications. I have been slowly getting into Web Application Testing but I have not done a lot in this arena. I was vaguely familiar with the term Responsive Web Design and knew it had something to do with making websites functional on smaller screens.

Most of my interest in this area stems from my personal experience as a power user on my mobile devices. I notice a significant difference in usability and readability on some websites between my desktop computer, tablets and phone. I can tell what sites are optimized for mobile experience and which ones are not. I often wondered what it took to create that consistent user experience and why some companies get it wrong.

This book taught me all I need to know about the subject for now. It gave me a good understanding some of the transformations that should occur when moving down to a smaller screen in jargon that I could understand. I also got some insight into why elements are re-arrange on websites when I look at it on my tablet versus my phone. I got a lot more out if it than I thought I would. It really tied together a lot of what I knew.

I loved how the narrator read CSS code. The narration was perfection itself. I don’t know if I would recommend this book for anyone with web development training or expertise as you might already know enough of the material but it is certainly a helpful starting point for the person that is looking to learn about websites in the mobile arena.

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com