The Map Is Not The Territory

Ethan Marcotte, author, and father, of Responsive Web Design, explores how the needs and habits of an emerging audience are profoundly reshaping how we design for the web.

In this session, Ethan revisits what we’ve learned about responsive design, to ensure that our content, not just our design, is readily accessible to all people, wherever and whenever they are—and examines how the audience itself is reshaping how we think about our medium. Discover where they will lead us, and the web, next.

When we create for the web, we participate in a kind of public art. We code, we design, we build for an audience, and our work feels successful when, if, it’s met with their delight. We shape digital experiences that provide a service, or that create joy, or that simply connect readers with words written half a world away. But in this session we’ll instead look at some ways in which our audience reshapes the way we think about our medium, and see where they might be leading us, and the web, next.