# Code, CSS Published articles for Code, CSS. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Mobile-First CSS: Is It Time for a Rethink? DevFeed: [Mobile-First CSS: Is It Time for a Rethink?]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: by Patrick Clancey Published: 2022-06-09T02:13:10Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [A List Apart: The Full Feed]() Topics: [CSS](), [Media Queries](), [Mobile](), [Web Development](), [how to create smooth CSS transitions]() Tags: [code](), [code-css](), [complexity](), [css](), [development](), [devices](), [mobile](), [testing](), [visual-design]() ### AI overview The article examines whether mobile-first CSS remains appropriate for every project. It explains that starting with mobile styles and overriding them at larger min-width media-query breakpoints can create complexity, inefficiency, increased testing effort, and harder-to-maintain code. It also outlines benefits such as a clear development hierarchy, prioritization of mobile user journeys, and avoidance of desktop-centric development. ### Source excerpt The mobile-first design methodology is great--it focuses on what really matters to the user, it's well-practiced, and it's been a common design pattern for years. So developing your CSS mobile-first should also be great, too...right? Well, not necessarily. Classic mobile-first CSS development is based on the principle of overwriting style declarations: you begin your CSS with default style declarations, and overwrite and/or add new styles as you add breakpoints with min-width media queries for larger viewports (for a good overview see "What is Mobile First CSS and Why Does It Rock?"). But all those exceptions create complexity and inefficiency, which in turn can lead to an increased testing effort and a code base that's harder to maintain. Admit it--how many of us willingly want that? On your own projects, mobile-first CSS may yet be the best tool for the job, but first you need to evaluate just how appropriate it is in light of the visual design and user interactions you're working on. To help you get started, here's how I go about tackling the factors you need to watch for, and I'll discuss some alternate solutions if mobile-first doesn't seem to suit your project. Advantages of mobile-first Some of the things to like with mobile-first CSS development--and why it's been the de facto development methodology for so long--make a lot of sense: Development hierarchy. One thing you undoubtedly get from mobile-first is a nice development hierarchy--you just focus on the mobile view and get developing. Tried and tested. It's a tried and tested methodology that's worked for years for a reason: it solves a problem really well. Prioritizes the mobile view. The mobile view is the simplest and arguably the most important, as it encompasses all the key user journeys, and often accounts for a higher proportion of user visits (depending on the project). Prevents desktop-centric development. As development is done using desktop computers, it can be tempting to initially focus on the desk ## Breaking Out of the Box DevFeed: [Breaking Out of the Box]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: by Patrick Brosset Published: 2021-12-09T15:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [A List Apart: The Full Feed]() Topics: [PWA](), [User Interfaces](), [Web platform](), [web applications](), [Web Development]() Tags: [browser](), [code](), [code-css](), [css](), [desktop](), [user-interfaces](), [web-app](), [web-platform]() ### AI overview The article introduces the Window Controls Overlay feature for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). It explains how PWAs combine website characteristics with native-app capabilities and can use the full desktop app window, including the area normally occupied by the title bar, to create more integrated and flexible interfaces. ### Source excerpt CSS is about styling boxes. In fact, the whole web is made of boxes, from the browser viewport to elements on a page. But every once in a while a new feature comes along that makes us rethink our design approach. Round displays, for example, make it fun to play with circular clip areas. Mobile screen notches and virtual keyboards offer challenges to best organize content that stays clear of them. And dual screen or foldable devices make us rethink how to best use available space in a number of different device postures. Sketches of a round display, a common rectangular mobile display, and a device with a foldable display. These recent evolutions of the web platform made it both more challenging and more interesting to design products. They're great opportunities for us to break out of our rectangular boxes. I'd like to talk about a new feature similar to the above: the Window Controls Overlay for Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). Progressive Web Apps are blurring the lines between apps and websites. They combine the best of both worlds. On one hand, they're stable, linkable, searchable, and responsive just like websites. On the other hand, they provide additional powerful capabilities, work offline, and read files just like native apps. As a design surface, PWAs are really interesting because they challenge us to think about what mixing web and device-native user interfaces can be. On desktop devices in particular, we have more than 40 years of history telling us what applications should look like, and it can be hard to break out of this mental model. At the end of the day though, PWAs on desktop are constrained to the window they appear in: a rectangle with a title bar at the top. Here's what a typical desktop PWA app looks like: Sketches of two rectangular user interfaces representing the desktop Progressive Web App status quo on the macOS and Windows operating systems, respectively. Sure, as the author of a PWA, you get to choose the color of the title bar (using the