Update from The Haystack

Well, hello there!

A lot has been going on around here, and the most important thing is arguably the fact that my book is now available. Responsive Design Workflow is now available through various booksellers, also via responsivedesignworkflow.com. The book, which is quicker and easier to read than it was to write, explains the whys and hows of my basic responsive web design workflow, which I have presented about these past couple of years. It was my privilege to work with some great people behind the scenes, including Mr. Responsive Ethan Marcotte (who wrote the foreword), Jake Archibald (who was kind enough to be my tech editor), and Ana Nelson (author of Dexy, the document automation tool I currently use in my work).

The book site/page, which I’m scrambling to complete, will contain errata (my publisher explained that everyone makes mistakes, not just me, so I’ve stopped torturing myself, kind of) and code examples. In fact, I’ve already put the code examples on GitHub so readers don’t have to be the victim of my insane calendar.

Krijn, PPK and I just finished the Mobilism conference, which according to PPK might just have been the last Mobilism ever. We’ll have to see how that works out. It was a fantastic event nevertheless. I presented about web-based mockups, which are an important part of the responsive workflow.

Coming up in several weeks is CSS Day, a one-day event with eight speakers, each of which will be presenting about a specific CSS module. It might not come as a surprise that I’ll be handling Flexbox, as the layout specs have been my favorite CSS topic since I first presented about them in 2009.

I’ll also be speaking at Generate in London, Breaking Development in Nashville, plus a couple of other worthwhile, yet to be announced events. Also in the works: Responsive Design Workflow workshops! Stay tuned.

As for writing, I’ve obviously found time to write everywhere but here: the book, a feature on style guides (with a tutorial on one method of creating and automating them) for .net Magazine, and I’m now a (generally) bi-monthly columnist for the Dutch industry magazine Webdesigner.

In parallel with the above, I’m still doing client work, although the amount of projects I can do is limited since I started working independently two-and-a-half years ago, which even now still takes some getting used to. I have difficulty with saying “no”, but a heavy workload is good training for that.

There’s a family life in there somewhere. Social life is on the to-do list. :)

Cheers,
Stephen