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Resilient Web Design
With a title like Resilient Web Design, you might think that this is a handbook for designing robust websites. This is not a handbook. It’s more like a history book.
Marshall McLuhan once said:
We look at the present through a rear‐view mirror. We march backwards into the future.
But in the world of web design, we are mostly preoccupied with the here and now. When we think beyond our present moment, it is usually to contemplate the future—to imagine the devices, features, and interfaces that don’t yet exist. We don’t have time to look back upon our past, and yet the history of web design is filled with interesting ideas.
The World Wide Web has been around for long enough now that we can begin to evaluate the twists and turns of its evolution. I wrote this book to highlight some of the approaches to web design that have proven to be resilient. I didn’t do this purely out of historical interest (although I am fascinated by the already rich history of our young industry). In learning from the past, I believe we can better prepare for the future.
You won’t find any code in here to help you build better websites. But you will find ideas and approaches. Ideas are more resilient than code. I’ve tried to combine the most resilient ideas from the history of web design into an approach for building the websites of the future.
I hope you will join me in building a web that lasts; a web that’s resilient.
Marshall McLuhan once said:
We look at the present through a rear‐view mirror. We march backwards into the future.
But in the world of web design, we are mostly preoccupied with the here and now. When we think beyond our present moment, it is usually to contemplate the future—to imagine the devices, features, and interfaces that don’t yet exist. We don’t have time to look back upon our past, and yet the history of web design is filled with interesting ideas.
The World Wide Web has been around for long enough now that we can begin to evaluate the twists and turns of its evolution. I wrote this book to highlight some of the approaches to web design that have proven to be resilient. I didn’t do this purely out of historical interest (although I am fascinated by the already rich history of our young industry). In learning from the past, I believe we can better prepare for the future.
You won’t find any code in here to help you build better websites. But you will find ideas and approaches. Ideas are more resilient than code. I’ve tried to combine the most resilient ideas from the history of web design into an approach for building the websites of the future.
I hope you will join me in building a web that lasts; a web that’s resilient.
150 pages, ebook
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
February 24, 2025
This book is ok. I read it for a course I’m taking. The content matter is somewhat interesting. The author goes into the history of web development, which was the best part. The trends in design philosophy was boring. There is only so much you can write about HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and how to organize a page. The main take away is self evident to anyone observing trends in technology, which is to create flexible designs which can be used on mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop. I read some of the papers the author referenced which were also useful. I appreciate all of the resources he compiled and provided at the end of each chapter.
The author mentions that for a long time a limiting factor in design was the idea of a webpage as a text or literal page/piece of paper. This made me think of paper media and their relevance. Books are not obsolete, and neither are webpages. But it feels as though they are declining in popularity in favor of short form content and apps. Even though the connection technologies are the same used to carry internet traffic, applications feel safer, more elegant, like a secluded garden. They give the user less control over what they do, so I don’t think web development will ever go away entirely. But it does feel as though the medium is outdated. When this was written I believe mobile devices had only just gained popular adoption.
It seems like the logical next step beyond the page is the creation of 3D spaces in the web browser, using the screen as a window into 3 dimensional shops, forums, blogs, to free the medium entirely from the “page” and move towards the creation of whole worlds inside the browser, inside a URI/URL.
Overall the book is very short, and not badly written. Because the industry is moving so fast and is so early in its development much of what he talks about is irrelevant. Some of it was thought provoking. I would recommend this book if you are curious about web development.
The author mentions that for a long time a limiting factor in design was the idea of a webpage as a text or literal page/piece of paper. This made me think of paper media and their relevance. Books are not obsolete, and neither are webpages. But it feels as though they are declining in popularity in favor of short form content and apps. Even though the connection technologies are the same used to carry internet traffic, applications feel safer, more elegant, like a secluded garden. They give the user less control over what they do, so I don’t think web development will ever go away entirely. But it does feel as though the medium is outdated. When this was written I believe mobile devices had only just gained popular adoption.
It seems like the logical next step beyond the page is the creation of 3D spaces in the web browser, using the screen as a window into 3 dimensional shops, forums, blogs, to free the medium entirely from the “page” and move towards the creation of whole worlds inside the browser, inside a URI/URL.
Overall the book is very short, and not badly written. Because the industry is moving so fast and is so early in its development much of what he talks about is irrelevant. Some of it was thought provoking. I would recommend this book if you are curious about web development.
March 22, 2017
I read this online on https://resilientwebdesign.com/, which proves some of Jeremy Keith's points. It's a great historic overview of how the web got to where it is today, and how it works. I didn't necessary learn much new, I'm above average interested in this already, but it gave me a better vocabulary to talk about it. I'll most likely also read the book again.
May 2, 2020
A good book for someone who wishes to know a little history of the World Wide Web and how it evolved. Personally I liked the idea Materially Honest(no material should be a substitute for another, each one has its own purpose) - HTML for marking up the meaning of content, CSS for presentation, and javascript for behavior. Like every philosopher, the author says 'embrace the change' in technology scape and he likes to adopt 'Progressive Enhancement' for web design. Overall a good book and you can read in one or two sit. For the first time, I read a book in two sits.
August 26, 2019
Un libro brillante. Es sorpredente como puede hablar de teoría del diseño web actual y de sus buenas prácticas a través de su historia. Y todo ello siendo apasionante, ameno y ágil. La única pega que le puedo poner es que ignora completamente la era Flash de la web, y aunque a día de hoy no tenga nada de relevancia para la manera actual de hacer web, sí que tuvo su importancia.
Por cierto, se puede leer y descargar gratis en: https://resilientwebdesign.com/
Por cierto, se puede leer y descargar gratis en: https://resilientwebdesign.com/
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May 23, 2025'bir iletişim baglami olarak web' dizayn edilirken uzerinde durmamız gereken fikirlerin tartisilmasini cok begendim. ama mühendislikte salt felsefe ise yaramıyor. bir felsefen varsa bunu temsil eden bir urun ya da araç ile birlikte koyman gerekiyor ortaya. unix, python, c++, git, openbsd, gcc toolset hepsi birer felsefenin ürünle birlikte ortaya ciktiginğa nasıl daha efektif oldugunu gosteriyor.
araçlar ve ürünler felsefeye gore degil, is yapabilirlige gore seciyor.
araçlar ve ürünler felsefeye gore degil, is yapabilirlige gore seciyor.
May 27, 2020
This is a pretty basic book. Though it gave a few interesting and valuable insights into web design, it approaches from such a broad view that it fails to add much critical information to the web design industry. Resilient Design may be better suited to an essay, not a book. That being said, it's a short and easy read probably worth adding to your knowledge arsenal.
April 20, 2018
A solid, enjoyable history of the infrastructure, design assumptions, movements, and technologies of the web, set out in support of an argument for progressive enhancement. Certainly, a must-read for anyone new to the field, who might ask, "why does this work this way?"
January 20, 2022
Lot of parallels from the print medium and the industry, I love this book for principles such as the Principle of Material Honesty. Useful insights on what to strive for the best web design and content.
March 21, 2018
It's available as a podcast, and the reading is excellent! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/r...
March 6, 2021
Perfect for beginner who wants to learn about web
March 31, 2021
This is a great read for web developers and designers!
February 6, 2025
don't fully understand sense of book, but at least it's written interesting
July 9, 2025
Must read for anyone who’s gonna design the web. ❤️🔥
March 19, 2017
Great book reviewing the history of Web development and a reminder of why progressive enhancement is still the best strategy for building resilient sites/apps.
January 25, 2024
Nice short listen. Author has extensive experience in web dev world, shares stories and reasoning behind many web technologies. Somewhat opinionated, but captures a unique philosophical thread running through web development since the early days!
I enjoyed the framing of web technologies as having resilience built into them. Eg., HTML, CSS, JS tend to be more tolerant than a lot of other programming languages: a browser may not recognize some CSS, but this won't cause a site to crash, instead it will just ignore it and continue.
Author encourages development practices that don't rely on users having any particular device or software version, since there is so much user variability. Progressive enhancement is designed to provide an acceptable experience for every user (what is the key information every visitor must be able to get from a web page?), while allowing for experiences that take advantage of the latest software or technology (pleasing animations, advanced interactivity, etc.).
Plenty more insights, recommend for modern web developers.
I enjoyed the framing of web technologies as having resilience built into them. Eg., HTML, CSS, JS tend to be more tolerant than a lot of other programming languages: a browser may not recognize some CSS, but this won't cause a site to crash, instead it will just ignore it and continue.
Author encourages development practices that don't rely on users having any particular device or software version, since there is so much user variability. Progressive enhancement is designed to provide an acceptable experience for every user (what is the key information every visitor must be able to get from a web page?), while allowing for experiences that take advantage of the latest software or technology (pleasing animations, advanced interactivity, etc.).
Plenty more insights, recommend for modern web developers.
March 6, 2017
I nodded in agreement with basically everything here, but for some reason it didn't really have much impact on me. Sadly I don't think this is going to change anybody's mind.
February 16, 2017
A brilliant look at how the web got to where it is today, and the principles and philosophy necessary to design for it (that haven't really changed, at their core, since the beginning).
February 3, 2017
I love Jeremy Keith. He is seemingly the lone voice of reason in a world of JavaScript-only writing and philosophy of the web nowadays. This book is a fairly lengthy history of the web from one of the darlings of the web design blogosphere of the naughts. There's are no specifics mentioned, but I see this as his answer to the current slew of bloated front-end frameworks like React and Angular. I agree with Keith that JavaScript is far too brittle and too heavy to be used as much as it is and in the way that it is. I think he could have pushed the accessibility angle a little harder; but by talking about working offline, on slow connections, and on non-cutting-edge mobile devices; he touches on enough tangential elements to still hit the mark. I am convinced after reading this that we are in a bubble of JavaScript frameworks as we were 10 or so years ago with fixed-width layouts and a few years before that with table-based layouts. This bubble feels much larger and more dangerous, though.
December 17, 2016
combination of a lot of stuff jeremy has talked about in the past. was pretty nice
December 23, 2016
Clear, engaging, persuasive writing. As someone who has been building websites since 2000, I particularly enjoyed the nostalgic web history at the beginning.
May 2, 2017
I loved reading through the history of web design. I remember it all since I started coding in the mid-1990s. Also, I appreciate the author's call to be a free-thinker and make web design that stands the test of time.
June 5, 2017
Short and sweet.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews