Modern Layouts: Getting Out of Our Ruts by Jen Simmons – An Event Apart Video

In the early years of the web, there was a lot of variation and experimentation with where to put content on a web page. Then, it seems, we all settled into a handful of patterns and stayed there for over a decade. It wasn’t until the arrival of responsive design that new ideas for page layout started appearing. Now with new CSS properties for layout landing in browsers, we may be about to see a bigger renaissance in layout design patterns.

How can we better use the space inside the glass rectangle? What layout innovations could help users better find and focus on what they want? In this 60-minute video caught live at An Event Apart Austin, Jen Simmons takes us on a journey through where we’ve been, where we might be going, and how we can better design for the true medium at hand. This video features plenty practical examples of what’s newly possible, plus access to a code repo for you to play with later.

Dubbed “the Terry Gross of the tech industry,” Jen is the host and executive producer of The Web Ahead. Her in-depth interviews explain emerging technology and predict the future of the web—and won the 2015 Net Award for Podcast of the Year.

Jen is a Designer and Developer Advocate at Mozilla, where she advocates for web standards and researches the coming revolution in graphic design on the web. She’s spoken at events including An Event Apart, SXSW, Fluent, Generate, Future of Web Design, and Respond.

Jen launched her first client website in 1998 and spent years making sites for small mom and pop shops, large organizations, and creative individuals. Her better-known clients include CERN, the W3C, Google, Drupal, Temple University, and the Annenberg Foundation.

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