# RWD

Published articles for RWD.

This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles.

## Ebb, Meet Flow: Intrinsic Design in a Nutshell

DevFeed: [Ebb, Meet Flow: Intrinsic Design in a Nutshell](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/ebb-meet-flow-intrinsic-design-in-a-nutshell-40788.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://zeldman.com/2026/08/18/ebb-meet-flow-intrinsic-design-in-a-nutshell/>)

Author: L. Jeffrey Zeldman

Published: 2026-08-18T17:24:50Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Jeffrey Zeldman](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jeffrey-zeldman.md>)

Topics: [Responsive Design](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/responsive-design.md>), [web design](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-design.md>), [Front end](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/frontend.md>), [web-standards](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-standards.md>)

Tags: [authoring](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/authoring.md>), [best-practices](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/best-practices.md>), [css](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css.md>), [design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design.md>), [essentials](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/essentials.md>), [responsive](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/responsive.md>), [responsive-design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/responsive-design.md>), [responsive-web-design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/responsive-web-design.md>), [rwd](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rwd.md>), [standards](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/standards.md>), [state-of-the-web](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/state-of-the-web.md>), [the-essentials](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/the-essentials.md>), [the-profession](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/the-profession.md>), [type](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/type.md>), [typography](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/typography.md>), [usability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/usability.md>), [user-experience](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/user-experience.md>), [ux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ux.md>), [w3c](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/w3c.md>), [web-design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-design.md>), [web-design-history](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-design-history.md>), [web-standards](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-standards.md>), [webdesign](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webdesign.md>), [webtype](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/webtype.md>)

### AI overview

This article explains intrinsic or fluid responsive design: define type scales for small and large screens, then let the browser interpolate between them according to viewport width. It connects the approach to earlier ideas about designing for the web's natural ebb and flow and to the development of Responsive Web Design through improved web standards and browser support.

### Source excerpt

In 2020, the gifted makers of websites at Clearleft shared methods to achieve fluid responsive design. "Utopian" web design was (and still is) their half-kidding name for this approach, which Apple's Jen Simmons, working indendently, called "intrinsic design." Instead of chasing an ever-changing number of fixed breakpoints, utopian or intrinsic design follows the web's intrinsic [...] The post Ebb, Meet Flow: Intrinsic Design in a Nutshell appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.