In this chapter, we've considered the fundamental differences between progressive enhancement and graceful degradation. We've then used a polyfill to make old IE understand our media queries so that our design responds there too. Finally, we used Modernizr to conditionally load CSS and JavaScript files based upon any number of feature tests, thereby allowing us to serve up polyfills and additional or alternate styles only when a browser lacks the requisite features. Finally, we've taken a sneak peek at the technologies that are becoming commonplace in the immediate future and how we can use CSS3 to serve yet further enhancements for the devices that support them.

At this point, your humble author believes (and hopes) he has related all the techniques and tools you'll need to start building your next website or web app responsively.

It's my firm conviction that currently, responsive web designs built with HTML5 and CSS3 represent the best frontend development option for the vast majority of websites. With only a little modification to our existing workflows, practices, and techniques they enable us to provide fast, flexible, and maintainable websites that can look incredible regardless of the viewport used to visit them.

As mobile device usage continues to grow exponentially, and new devices that we never before contemplated enter the browsing fray, this methodology arguably provides the surest and most future proof means of building designs that will work on any device, on any viewport, and render as quickly as possible however those devices connect to the web.