The Web Ahead

Web pages are visually and technically a pile of boxes. By default, all those boxes are rectangles and squares. But they don't have to be any longer. With CSS we can now transform those rectangles into parallelograms, rhombuses, skewed boxes, circles, and elephants — or any shape we want. Eva Ferreira joins Jen Simmons to talk about what's possible and how to do it.

There’s a lot of pressure these days to use a JavaScript framework to create every website. “Which one is best?” people ask, “Which one should I use?” Stefan Tilkov joins Jen Simmons to talk about the architectural style of the web, and how to understand to best create an application on the web. What is the role of each of the technologies available?

The landscape of what's possible in web page layout is changing. Jen has a theory that this change will be a big one — perhaps the biggest change to graphic design on the web in over 15 years. Rachel, Jeffrey, and Eric join her to debate if that's true or not, and to surmise what the future might bring. This special episode was recorded live at An Event Apart Nashville.

Everything about web page layout is changing. New CSS specifications will make it possible to do designs we've never seen before. Rachel Andrew joins Jen Simmons to talk about what's happening.

Our technology has gotten really complicated. Sometimes we get so deep into our work, we lose sight of what matters. We have hundreds of choices to make — “Which tool should we use?”; “Should we change what we are doing, or stick with what we’ve got?”; “Do I keep solving this problem, or move on to the next one?” — how do we ever decide? Husani Oakley joins Jen Simmons to debate these questions and more.

Talking about the Internet of Things is all the rage these days. What is it about, and why is there so much hype? Will an ecosystem of internet-connected “devices” take over our lives? What role does the web play in all this? Stephanie Rieger joins Jen Simmons to discuss. Then Jonas Sicking joins Jen for a second interview, to talk more about what how the web might be involved.

It’s clear. Responsive is the way to go. One website for all screen sizes, for all devices. But what does it take for a company with an pre-existing site or pre-existing way of working together to make the needed changes to go responsive? It's not about the media queries. It's about everything else. Karen McGrane joins Jen Simmons to talk about her new book, and to imagine an amazing future.

The web is being compared to "native" a lot these days, with some even declaring the web dead. But what are the strengths web? What does it do that native can't touch? What is it we are making when we are creating something of the web? Jeremy Keith joins Jen Simmons to articulate how to understand and appreciate the web.

Designing a successful product takes more than attention to the look & feel, or the interface architecture. Great product design happens earlier in the process, when the product itself is defined and understood. With his experience as the lead designer for Medium, Dustin Senos knows a thing or two about making a product great. He joins Jen Simmons to explain what it takes.

We often focus on improving user experience — making it easier for people to use the sites and products we create. But when do we get to focus on a bigger picture? Are we making true improvements to people's lives? Are they happier because they use our work? Pamela Pavliscak has been deeply researching this question. What does it take to improve humanity? How are different generations being affected differently? What will life look like for our children?

We've all known for many years that the websites we use keep track of who we are and what we are doing. Lately though, it seems like things have gotten out of control. Surveillance has gotten quite sophisticated and intrusive, and we've become more aware of what exactly we are giving up in exchange for being online. Is this a problem? How bad is it? What can we do?

As soon as you have many people chiming in on the direction of a website, you get disagreements, conflicting idea, and turf wars. What about what customers want? Gerry McGovern has developed a specific step-by-step methodology for identifying what matters to your customers, focusing effort on those things, and objectively testing the performance of those tasks. Helpful and well-gathered data can quickly end debates and focus a team. Gerry joins Jen Simmons to walk through the process.

Progressive Enhancement is a core principle of the web. But these days it seems a lot of folks don't quite understand what it's about. Aaron Gustafson joins Jen Simmons to break it down, and explain why and how your website should be built using the principles of Progressive Enhancement.

An inordinate amount of attention is being paid these days to complex tools chains, JavaScript frameworks, and the assumption that the web is an application platform. Has the web actually been taken over by this one flavor of site? Aren't we getting off-track when we act like nothing else exists anymore? What about the everyday developer? Rachel Andrew joins Jen Simmons to discuss.

How can we use animation on the web to provide information and improve the user experience? What uses should we avoid? How should we go about thinking of animation, including built-in animation experiences that are so common we don't see them anymore? Rachel Nabors joins Jen Simmons to explore the possibilities.

Apple's Watch is almost here. What does it mean to design for this space? Josh Clark joins Jen Simmons to dig in.

For years, we've put content on websites by dumping text, images and video onto a page like it's one big blob. In the age of mobile, it's become painfully clear that really doesn't work anymore. Planning a content system of types and fields yields much better results. Why? How? Eileen Webb joins Jen Simmons to explain exactly what this means.

For episode 100 of The Web Ahead, we have Jeffrey Zeldman, the Godfather of Web Standards (or Web Design, depending on who you ask), to talk about the past, present and future of making things for the web. We debate the pros and cons of everything from parallax scrolling to data mining.

It's time to start using responsive images on our websites. You specify multiple files in your image HTML. Browsers download the best one for a user's screen size or context. Improve image quality. Save bandwidth. Make sites load faster. Jason Grigsby joins Jen Simmons to explain all the details.

Advertising is a major business model for the web. Yet most ads arrive from a parallel universe, an industry of CPMs, ad units, and inflexible demands. As designers and developers, how can we best work with ads on the web? Mark Boulton joins Jen Simmons to explore.

The Internet Archive is a treasure trove of digitized culture — films, software, audio, websites and more. How it it being collected, and how might the Internet Archive be our best hope for preserving the history of this era, as we invent the web? Jason Scott joins Jen Simmons to talk about the challenges of archiving in the digital age.

Virtual reality technology is starting to take off. VR hardware has been steadily improving. VR films are getting a lot of attention. VR games are leveling up. But so far, virtual reality systems are closed platforms, each working with the equipment and software of one company. What could a cross-platform web of Virtual Reality look like? What might web designers do with a fully-immersive web experience? There's a team at Mozilla working on WebVR. Jen Simmons talks to Josh Carpenter and Vladimir Vukicevic to find out what they are doing.

After months of work, I've launched a new website for The Web Ahead, at thewebahead.net. Hear a saga of the agony, the ecstasy, the design and the build. How? Why? On what? A lot of geeking out about tech and design and some talk about future plans, too. The inimitable Jeff Eaton switches seats and interviews me, Jen Simmons, all about it.

Microsoft announced that they will be introducing a new browser, codenamed Project Spartan. Windows 10 will ship with both IE and Project Spartan, but Spartan is the future. What is happening? How is it that the oldest popular browser is going to end? Rey Bango joins Jen Simmons to tell all.

The practice of web design has evolved tremendously over the last two decades — so much so it's almost hard to understand where we are at. User experience design, user interface design… so many complex pieces working together. Andy Budd joins Jen Simmons to articulate his vision of the current state of web design.

Sadly, a lot of websites are a mess. They're rife with inconsistencies, broken links, mangled meaning, confusion and frustration. How does this happen? How do we get out of these messes? Information architecture can help. Abby Covert joins Jen Simmons to explain.

Too often, websites are designed with only the ideal user in mind — a typical person, in great health and sound mind, happy to be on your website doing a thing. In reality we humans exist in a variety of states, including panic, fear and reacting to a crisis. How could our sites be better, considering the needs of people in crisis? What are the consequences when we don't acknowledge the impact of our design decisions? Eric Meyer joins Jen Simmons to talk about his last year and a half, what he learned, and what he's thinking.

Front-end development has changed a lot. What used to be simple text in files is now a deep stack of robust engineering tools. Is this a good change? What advantages do the power tools provide, and what might we be giving up in exchange? Claudina Sarahe joins Jen Simmons to debate.

It's clear that responsive web design is the way to build a website in today's crazy world of mobile devices, but what's the best way to do so? How can you create a responsive site that's fast and snappy? Scott Jehl joins Jen Simmons to tell us about the latest in how to do RWD right.

This week has been declared "Geek Mental Health Week" by Andy Clark. He asked us at The Web Ahead to participate, so I invited yogi Peter Ferko to talk about ways to find contentment, balance, and sanity in a world that can be painful or overwhelming.

Using real typefaces on the web creates amazing design opportunities. But how do you deliver web fonts while not messing up the rest of the experience? Jason Pamental joins Jen Simmons to talk about tips and tricks for optimizing web font performance.

Web Components are all the rage these days — a way to create the web using chunks of code that are reusable across projects. Polymer is a polyfill for using Web Components today. Rob Dodson joins Jen Simmons to explain the current landscape.

The web was invented at CERN 25 years ago. To mark the anniversary, the web team at CERN has been working on a number of projects, restoring the original website, recreating the first two browsers, and documenting the history of the early web. Dan Noyes joins Jen Simmons to tell all about it.

We are currently experiencing an utter revolution brought by digital technology. The change to a digital world is not just about switching tools or building a new website; these are giant shifts in how businesses operate, how companies are structured, how people buy things, how humanity communicates. Those of us who make websites are deeply affected by the tension and frustration within organizations struggling to understand this revolution. Paul Boag joins Jen Simmons to give practical advice on how help organizations make the needed transformation.

Typography is a powerful way to immediately communicate the tone & voice of a site. But how exactly do you create great typography? Jason Santa Maria joins Jen Simmons to talk about his approaches to designing with type.

This week, Apple announced Apple Pay — a new system for making payments using iOS devices. What about the web? What work is being done to make sending payments across the web much easier? Manu Sporny joins Jen Simmons to talk about payments, banking, identity, privacy, business models, web standards, and much more.

So far, page layout on the web has consisted of a lot of boxes stacked on top of boxes — rectangular columns everywhere. That's about to change. New specifications, including CSS Shapes and CSS Exclusions, are about to the change the shape of page. Sara Soueidan joins Jen Simmons to explain.

Web projects have gotten very complex in the last few years, but the hardest part isn't the technology — it's the humanity. The success or failure of big projects is contingent on leadership, vision and planning. Trent Walton joins Jen Simmons to tell tales of working on the microsoft.com homepage and other big projects — sharing what can go right and what can go wrong. He also talks about reviving the original 1994 version of microsoft.com, and the importance of archiving the web.

Git is a powerful tool for helping developers collaborate, organize, and code at their best. But like anything powerful, Git can be confusing and overwhelming. Tobias Günther joins Jen Simmons to explain how to get through the pain points. They talk about branching, team workflows, remote servers, submodules, GUI tools, and more.

App cache, web storage, Index db, and others are powerful new technologies that change the nature of the web. These technologies are mature and ready-to-use, but so far, we aren't seeing them be used very much. Why? What is possible? What could change? John Allsopp joins Jen Simmons to discuss.

What are some of the biggest challenges when it comes to making a website fully accessible? Keyboard access and form design can make some of the biggest differences, and present some of the biggest challenges. Derek Featherstone joins Jen Simmons to explain.

Ten years ago, a small group started an email list to figure out how to put video on the web. They ended up starting a movement, posting videos, breaking through technical barriers, and inventing a new medium. Jay Dedman, Ryanne Hodson and Michael Verdi join host Jen Simmons to tell the story in another edition of The Web Behind.

Has how we approach web design become too formulaic and rote? Are we missing the opportunity to truly communicate a site's purpose and meaning? What about web design have we lost, or maybe haven't yet found? How can we understand our work as designers when even words about our work fail us?

HTML5 brought more semantic elements to HTML. How's that going? Why should developers use semantic HTML? Bruce Lawson joins Jen Simmons to discuss HTML, semantics, accessibility, ARIA roles, microformats, microdata, RDFa, web components and more.

DRM has been long touted as the solution to piracy. Recently, a few browser makers and big media companies have pushed DRM technology into the web browser — while open web advocates have fought to prevent DRM on the web. What is DRM? Why and how are companies putting it into web browsers? And what solutions would be better? Jeremy Keith and Doug Schepers join Jen Simmons to debate DRM on the web.

Style guides, once the exclusive domain of print designers, are finding their way onto the web. Built out of HTML and CSS, such style guides are handy tools for the design process, for maintaining sites over time, and for making collaboration across teams much easier. Anna Debenham joins Jen Simmons to explain.

What is the state of formal education for web design, and what might be coming in the future? Dr. Leslie Jensen-Inman joins Jen Simmons to talk about her research, what's she's found, and the school she's starting with Jared Spool.

We are collecting more data now than ever, and freely sharing some datasets on the open web. Web technology provides the power for us to present complex data interactively. How can you go about a data visualization project? What tools are available? Scott Murray joins Jen Simmons to explore the possibilities of data visualization.

Walk through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 with Luke McGrath and Jen Simmons.

A revamped version of Firefox is coming, with a tour of what's new. Created by Michael Verdi & team, this tour is a case study in customer experience. What is Customer Experience design and how can it help your projects?

SVG is one of several image formats for the web — one that has superpowers that the others don't. When would you want to use SVG & what can you do with it? Doug Schepers joins Jen Simmons to tell all.