Sacrificing a Uniform Look
HTML5 and CSS3 often speed up development and result in less code and use of decorative images. Smaller page downloads are particularly important for sites that will be viewed on mobile devices. Using CSS3 for rounded corners and drop shadows means sacrificing those effects in earlier browsers. But as long as you provide an acceptable basic design for them, it’s a sacrifice worth making. Attempting to make websites look identical in every browser makes little sense when increasing numbers of people browse the web on a variety of devices—a desktop in the office, a smartphone while commuting, and a tablet at home.
To see what the Tozai Hotel website looks like after its transformation with HTML5 and CSS3, view ch02/complete in a variety of desktop browsers. The next chapter takes the transformation further with the help of CSS media queries to prepare the site for viewing on mobile devices using different screen resolutions.