Move to HTML5 and CSS 3 for Web Design

When planning a new web design, remember that many different versions of HTML are now in use on the web. All the most recent versions work in the iOS (Apple’s operating system on the iPhone and iPad), so you have to decide which one to use.

Many are diving into HTML5 because they think that the upside of all the new features is too good to wait for and they believe that the W3C is right in making HTML5 the next standard.

If you’re concerned about anyone who visits your site using an older web browser, such as Internet Explorer 7 or 8, keep this point in mind: Older browsers don’t display the new features of HTML5 or the new styles in CSS 3. As a general rule, if a browser doesn’t understand a new tag, it ignores it, so if you design your pages well, you can create designs that degrade gracefully.

For example, if you use the new text drop shadow features in CSS 3, you see drop shadows around your text in the Safari browser on an iPad but no drop shadows in IE7 on a Windows computer. As long as the text is still readable in IE7, it’s worth adding the enhancements, such as text drop shadows, that CSS 3 brings to newer browsers.

Similarly, most designs that work well on the Apple iOS on an iPhone or iPad also look good on phones and tablets that run the Google Android operating system, because the browsers on most Android devices also support many HTML5 and CSS 3 features.

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/move-to-html5-and-css-3-for-web-design.html