Building responsive websites is hard! No longer can we get away with churning out some comps, writing barebones HTML and CSS, and calling it a day. We have to get comfortable using phrases like "performance budgets," "device-agnostic," "fluid width," toss our heavy documentation and involve our entire team in the design process, and to establish the right metrics to evaluate our design’s success.

You’ll learn

1) Introduce a collaborative, team-based design approach

• Increase your team’s efficiency and remove the overhead of heavy design deliverables
• Brainstorm ideas for a real-world design project using divergent and convergent approaches
• Write your product’s value proposition to immediately get your project on track

2) Establish success criteria for your design projects

• Use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Jobs-to-be-Done, and other frameworks to align your projects to organizational priorities
• Use the KJ Technique, a collaborative prioritization method, to define project goals
• Get the design juices flowing using familiar elements of the Design Studio method

3) Assemble, sketch, and code your team’s design approaches

• Use the “3Cs” (Create, Collect, and Code) framework for team ideation and collaboration
• Create element collages, an assembly of disparate design elements, to communicate ideas
• Learn to effectively articulate your design ideas through a mini demo day

4) Iterate and converge on a design solution that addresses a real-world problem

• Use Pinterest boards, element collages, and prototypes to present and critique multiple design ideas
• Work collaboratively as a team to iterate and refine your design
• Sell the power of a collaborative design workflow to the people who matter most in your organization

We want you to spend your effort in the parts of the design process that pack the most punch. We promise you’ll look at your design process differently and immediately be able to see ways to trim the fat.

Who is it for?

This workshop is appropriate for all experience levels. This workshop is for designers, art directors, creative directors, developers, project managers, and anyone else who believes that responsive web design doesn’t have to have a million comps.

What hardware/software do you need?

Laptop is recommended but not required.

Time & Location

This full-day workshop will be hosted at the Ivey Tangerine Leadership Centre and will take place before the two days of Smashing Conference. The workshop will be running from 9:30am to 5:30pm on Monday, June 25th.

Schedule for Monday, June 25th

9:00 – Doors open, Registration
9:30 – Introduction & Kick-off
11:00 – Coffee Break
13:00 – Lunch
14:00 – Afternoon Session
15:30 – Coffee Break
17:30 – The End, Networking

Save $100 when signing up for the conference and a workshop!