Scaling screen sizes of web applications for different devices

Question

How do you properly scale a web application so that it is cross platform compatible. With so many different phones having different screen resolutions what is a good height/width I should aim for. What is the most effective way to do this scale?

If you don't understand my question: when you load a webpage on a phone it automatically scales it to be the full size of a web page, as opposed to having it zoomed in so you can properly see the text. How do you have it so it is automatically zoomed in.

Answer 1

I would suggest you read about Responsive Web Design.

Quoting from Wikipedia: "Responsive web design (often abbreviated to RWD) is an approach to web design in which a site is crafted to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones)."

If you search for it, there are hundreds of great articles.

Here's a beginner's guide. There are also books on the topic.