Breaking Development Conference – Nashville – July 2014
Conference Session: Real World Responsive Web Redesign
Jonathan Stark

This session discussed the RWD/redesign of Entertainment Weekly. I took away more about about project management than RWD but I was more so looking for PM tips.

My Notes:

• RWD Guiding Principles: speed is a feature; progressive enhancement from low device to high; assume low; easier to progressively add features than to degrade gracefully.
• Design: No Big Reveal – Constant feedback during design. Final design is 1 week from last review.
• Big Pieces From Client: we knew all photos, videos, etc. from current site, and challenges before we started design process.
• Advertising is a big challenge for mobile.
• Prioritize Design with typical sticky note voting. Allow 20 seconds for +/- reactions to similar sites or comps/mood boards.
• Set Initial design decisions: e.g. no carousels, progressive content, etc. Now you have a roadmap.
• Did not use Agile or Waterfall but a hybrid, with information architecture, visual, and development in parallel.
• Weekly build and push to dev site. Weekly all hands review with client. Weekly freeze.
• Throw out elements client doesn’t like (e.g. which callout do you not like). Thereby weekly not a sign off.
• Always design and demo in the browser, not comps.
• Emphasize phone view in weeklies.
• Start with small scale elements for review (e.g. and build to footer, then pages).
• JavaScript: “Every script has a cost”
• Consider starting with a site that works without JavaScript.
• Create your own JavaScript library is better for minimum footprint. Don’t go to extremes with JavaScript.
• Help yourself out: Use a common/single bug tracker; lots of screen shots for bug documentation with re-creating; we used multiple trackers – should have learned GIT better; automate deployment.

“Communication Trumps Process!”
~Jonathan Stark