Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Elliot Jay Stocks – Progressive enhancement

Web Directions South 2009, Sydney Convention Centre, October 9 11.45am.

Presentation slides

Session description

In the summer of ‘07 in a flood-soaked Oxford, England, Elliot appeared on stage for the very first time. His presentation, ‘Progressive Enhancement & Intentional Degradation’, looked at how to reward modern browsers with the latest CSS tricks and punish IE by dropping certain site features. Over two years later, what has changed? We’re starting to see the ideology of progressive enhancement — especially with CSS3 — spread throughout the web design community, but more work needs to be done.

What can we do to spread the message further and design a better-looking web faster? Elliot will look at how features of the CSS2.1 and CSS3 specs can enhance your websites and he’ll examine the implication of using such techniques. He’ll look at the issues surrounding font embedding and the recent development of the font-as-service; the arguments about browser support; the potentially controversial irrelevance of validation; and how we can attempt to reach the future sooner by writing forward-thinking code. In this motivational presentation Elliot will urge you to embrace the techniques of modern web design and to stop worrying about the so-called restraints.

About Elliot Jay Stocks

Elliot Jay Stocks PortraitElliot Jay Stocks is an independent designer whose work is frequently featured in online and offline publications, showcased on various ‘inspiration’ websites, and used as an example to design students around the world of how accessible web design can still look beautiful. A regular face at design conferences around the globe and author of the best-selling book Sexy Web Design (SitePoint, 2009), Elliot can often be found writing about design trends, issues, and techniques for industry-leading publications such as .Net (aka Practical Web Design), Computer Arts, and Computer Arts Projects. His extensive portfolio includes work for clients such as The Virgin Group, WordPress.org, The Beatles, Blue Flavor, Twiistup, EMI Records, and Carsonified.

Follow Elliot on Twitter: @elliotjaystocks

delivering year round learning for front end and full stack professionals

Learn more about us

Web Directions South is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development

Phil Whitehouse General Manager, DT Sydney