Overview
Over the past few years, there has been more emphasis on the capabilities of a front-end “themer” who implements re-usable systems, over a front-end designer (FED) who challenges the norm and strives for something novel. The responsive design revolution has made the web increasingly more complex to design, forcing us to embrace standardization and find opportunities for reducing labour in order to increase profit. The resulting trend: front-end development is more effectively executed by a robot.
History shows us that automation leads to a shift in the nature of labour. Wether or not you share my belief in a robot take-over, I will share techniques that may change your current perception of the FED role. I will also show practical examples of rapid experimentation, giving you the unfair advantage moving forward. As soon as you label something, you stop thinking about what else it can be.
Objective
A look at the state of the industry and how the future of FED requires us to provide more value than just arranging boxes and text on a screen.
Target Audience
Front-end developers, interactive designers, motion designers, UX designers, UI designers.
Assumed Audience Knowledge
Basic knowledge of FED best practices and frameworks.
Five things audience members will learn
- The fast pass to badass is embracing automation of development tasks so that you can free up time to pioneer new challenges
- Layout building skills is no longer a differentiator, how design is valued these days and the massive importance of animation
- Learn how to recognize when we are too reliant on automation frameworks, e.g. responsive web design as your only mobile strategy is a waste of time
- Walk away with techniques for using WebGL, WebVR, three.js and other frameworks to create rich, interactive content, shifting the role of FED from layout to content creation
- Tools and tips for experimentation and re-invention, how to invent visual and interactive methodologies that have the potential to become new standards
