What We Talk About When We Talk About the Web

About this presentation

Over its two decades, the web has passed through two epochs, each heavily informed by technologies and practices that came before. The “pre-cambrian” age was the web of pages. Our design practices were informed by the tradition of print design. As developers we were creating in essence “interactive paper.” Over time we learned to distinguish where the legacies of print design helped us, and where they held us back. While this era continues, a second, described by Scott Jensen as “Jurassic”, is upon us. The age of apps. Just as print informed our design of web pages and sites, the decades<span class="amp">&amp;</span>emdashlong history of developing apps weighs heavily on the web applications we are building today. And just as web designers and developers needed to learn from, and in part discard the tradition of print, so too now do we need to learn from, and in part discard the tradition of apps. Only then will the web find its true self. But what might this more “pure” web look like? For users? For developers? For designers? What technologies will we need to build it? Can we start building it today? In this presentation John Allsopp, author of A Dao of Web Design, considered by many as “<a href="https://adactio.com/journal/5351/">a manifesto for everyone working on the web</a>” will outline what he believes are the foundational principles of this web, and look at existing, as well as emerging technologies available to designers and developers to start building the once and future web.