Over the past few months I’ve had the privilege of spending some quality time with some of the web’s most talented designers. Whether over Skype, on the Happy Monday podcast, or on the upcoming Treehouse Chat show, I’ve been listening hard to the different angles and strategies revolving around Responsive Design. I’d like to share some of those insights with you now.

We’re All Figuring This Thing Out

I’m fortunate enough to co-host a podcast with the lovely and talented, Sarah Parmenter. Last week she was telling me about her experience at the annual Responsive Day Out conference that she had attended that day with the likes of Elliot Jay Stocks, Laura Kalbag, Mark Boulton, Jeremy Keith and more. Essentially, these were some of the most well-known designers on the web, and there was one underlying theme that permeated the entire conference: We’re all figuring this thing out.

I say that, to say this: Remember to keep your head up and in the game when it comes to Responsive Design because it can get complicated very quickly. There is no stopping this direction of the web and there is no denying that it is the hardest stage we have faced yet. But we can all take solace in the fact that if the web’s most talented people are fighting for their lives, then it’s okay if we do too.

That being said, let’s look at how we can tackle this Responsive beast.

Pick It Apart & Go One Element at a Time

When looking to design responsively, we tend to take on more than we can chew. If you’re looking to build out a new Responsive site, break it down into elements that you can master one-by-one. If you need to try using SVGs for the first time, start by exporting your logo from Illustrator as an SVG and open it with a code editor to remove the built-in width and height dimensions.

If you’ve decided on using a Responsive navigation, just isolate your navigation and focus on getting your “hamburger”, or 3-line navigation, working properly through JavaScript. If you’re looking to perfect your video, typography or images, just start by mastering Fitvids.js or Fittext.js, and take it one step at a time. That is how you eat an elephant after all, and Responsive Design is exactly that.

Write About It with No Shame

Another key point that I keep hearing over and over again from the people I respect in this space, is that writing about your experiences is the best way to work through your own challenges. The caveat here is that you have to be completely unashamed about being wrong. No one has all of the answers and most designers aren’t judging because they have the same challenges, so there is really nothing to fear.

The truth is that we are part of the best industry in the world and if you approach your writing and learning like this, you’re more likely to find someone willing to help you work through things. Try it; next time you’re stuck on something, write about it and post it on Twitter. You’ll be amazed at the number of good people willing to help.

Follow Paravel

There are many different designers that I would encourage you to follow to help you on your Responsive journey, but I think they all would agree with me that there is one group of three chaps that you absolutely must follow: Paravel.

Trent Walton, Dave Rupert, and Reagan Ray have single-handedly led the charge for Responsive Design. They were the ones that created Fitvids.js, Fittext.js, and Lettering.js with the help of our friend Chris Coyier. They recently redesigned Microsoft.com and many other Responsive sites, and they’ve been paramount in identifying, working through and writing about the challenges of Responsive Design when it matters most.

What It All Means

One day we’ll look back at this age of the web and be proud that we had the opportunity to be pioneers in this space. We don’t have it all figured out, but that is the beauty of it. Part of our journey is that we will never know it all and that hunger for knowing more will drive us throughout our careers. Learn everything you can, but more importantly, put it into action. Write about your experiences and let the open and collective web help you figure it all out. We are in this together and we need to have all of your voices heard.

Happy designing.

The post I Have No Idea What I'm Doing with Responsive Web Design appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

Google Sets was a the result of a early Google research project that ended in 2011. The idea was to be able to recognize the similarity of a set of terms (e.g., python, lisp and fortran) and automatically identify other similar terms (e.g., c, java, php). Suprisingly (to me) the results of the project live on as an undocumented feature in Google Doc spreadsheets. Try putting a few of the seven deadly sins into a Google spreadsheet and use the feature to see what else you should not do (e.g., creating fire with alchemy, I guess).

Google, of course, continues to work on expanding their use of semantic information, currently through efforts like the Google Knowledge Graph, Freebase, Microdata and Fusion Tables. Other companies, including Mcrosoft, IBM and a host of startups, are also hard at work on similar projects.

This year’s Spring Undergraduate Commencement ceremony is approaching, and we wanted to share some important information with the parents of undergraduate students who will be participating in Commencement. 

Please note that there has been some confusion about the start time of the Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony. It is at 1:00 p.m., with the processional beginning at 12:30 p.m., on Thursday, May 23^rd at 1^st Mariner Arena in downtown Baltimore.  The doors to the Arena will open for students and guests at 11:30 a.m.   Please keep in mind that traffic and parking will be very congested near the Arena, so be sure to allow sufficient time to locate parking and to walk to the Arena. 

If your student plans to participate in the ceremony regalia must be ordered by March 18. The cost of regalia is $47.99; starting March 7 your student will be charged a $25 late fee for ordering regalia.

Attached is a Commencement newsletter that has been e-mailed to students.  Additional information can be found online at www.umbc.edu/commencement.   

Please note that the above information pertains to Undergraduate Commencement.  Graduate School Commencement is scheduled for Wednesday, May 22^nd in UMBC’s Retriever Activities Center at 10:00 a.m.

Thank you,

UMBC’s Commencement Committee

This edition of the Parents Connection Newsletter features information on Spring Break Closing, Residential Life Room Selection Process, Career/Major Choice information, Greek Life and much more.

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) has published an updated Working Draft of WAI-ARIA 1.0 Authoring Practices: An author's guide to understanding and implementing Accessible Rich Internet Applications. It provides detailed advice and examples to make widgets, navigation, and behaviors accessible using WAI-ARIA roles, states, and properties. It is primarily for web application developers, and is also useful for user agent and assistive technology developers. Please send comments by 5 April 2013. Learn more from the call for review e-mail and read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).