HTML5: What should I be using right now?

With all of the hype around HTML5, you may be wondering what (if anything) you and your team can start implementing into your workflow. With new tags available and a plethora of features aimed at browser application development, the HTML5 feature set looks rich and inviting.

Disclaimer: Before I go further, I want to point out that my department at Advice specializes in web marketing. Many of our clients are not computer people and regularly use legacy systems (and browsers) at work. Yes – we still support Internet Explorer 6. I know, I know.

I say this to point out that I can only speak about HTML5 from the perspective of someone who does not have the luxury to drop IE support or to decide what browsers I think it’s acceptable to ignore. My department focuses on web marketing – not application development. As such I can only speak to what we’ve been able to implement.

So, without further ado – here are the HTML5 and CSS3 features that we’ve found to be practical for our clients’ websites:

Box-Shadow. No it’s not totally browser compatible, but it degrades pretty gracefully.

HTML5 Tags. With the help of Modernizr, we can make use of some of HTML’s new tags like header and footer.

Input Field Placeholder Attributes. Also with Modernizr, we can get legacy support for HTML5 placeholders.

Rounded Corners. We don’t slice corners and edges anymore – and we’ve never looked back. For legacy support, we turn to CSS3Pie

Are you using other HTML5 and CSS3 tools in your clients’ websites? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Dot Com Infoway – Software and Mobile Application Development Company