I’ve heard writers use a trick that is similar to mine, and that is setting small goals. So here’s how I approach the problem—I start with something small. It can be as small as just writing a couple of crappy lines, just to get things going. It can be analyzing the semantics and rethinking the structure. It can even be as small as going through the code and thinking of ways to optimize little pieces of it. Sometimes all you need is a small trigger to set things off. And even if what you end up with is writing bad code before realizing the timing is not right, at least you’ve done something to kickstart your next session. So start small and take it from there.

Unfortunately this caused a massive and aggressive reaction in the SEO community. Smashing Magazine was attacked for publishing the post, I was told I was out-of-date and ill informed (which is of course entirely possible), but worst of all there were a shocking number of attacks on me personally.

To be honest this doesn’t entirely surprise me. I have been working with the web long enough to be all too aware of the over reaction it creates in people. However, it is always hurtful when somebody attacks you as a human being, rather than your opinion.

Of course, controversial topics will produce controversial debate, but this does not give you permission to attack anyone. Debates are welcome and you’re always free to disagree. Disagreements will make us rethink things and make progress. But disagree on someone’s opinion, don’t attack the person. Tell them why you think they are wrong, but don’t be hurtful. The unimmediate nature of debating through article comments and the fact you aren’t speaking to someone face to face makes these sort of personal attacks easy, but you know better, so please don’t use that as an excuse to attack anyone.

• Vitaly Friedman of Smashing Mag
• Eva-Lotta Lamm of Google
• Leisa Reichelt of Disambiguity
• Joe Leech of cxpartners

More super good news: you can now buy super early bird tickets at just € 199. I grabbed my ticket, hope you do the same and we can hang at the conference.

I can safely predict that for anyone who wants to postpone designing for mobile untill the next occasion, it will be too late. It’s already too late. We are going towards the One Web and the amount of expertize will soon be too great to simply jump on the bandwagon. So you better start learning.

— Marko Dugonjić

I completely agree with Marko, and this is just what I’ve been writing about recently. Time to roll up your sleeves.

However, a lot of web people are being cautious towards responsive web design. Two issues that I feel are coming up most often as possible disadvantages to RWD are:

• it requires more effort
• it requires a change in the process

I agree. I can see it becoming a disadvantage for anyone who didn’t invest time to catch up, especially agencies. I’m assuming it was a problem for pretty much everyone at a certain point. It certainly was for me.

More effort

Naturally, we need to make an effort to learn new things. This extra effort takes time. But hey, we’re people who make websites, so we’ve grown accustomed to that, right? It’s undoubtedly a big part of our job. We’ve had the same situation with the introduction of web standards, CSS positioning, web typography, grids on the web… The list goes on. No web designer can afford to stand still. We know we need to keep in touch with new techniques and methods. We know we need to constantly improve. We’ve signed up for this. Therefore, I do not see more effort being an issue.

After making the effort to get familiar with the idea of responsive web design, we need to brush up our skills and make changes to the process of developing websites. It’s a jump from theory into practice.

Change in Process

The process of of making websites is also constantly changing. It is by no means the same as it was a couple of years ago. Web designers are always upgrading old techniques or thinking up new ones. Those techniques lead to a change of the process. Out with the old, in with the new.

Probably the least favorite part of my old development process was something I like to call static comp ping-pong. For years, web designers have been playing ping-pong with clients to polish static eye-candy. Those days, thankfully, are gone. Ultimately, we’ve learnt that static comps ping-pong is a wasted effort. We’ve adapted, and now we deliver interactive mockups—prototypes in the browser. Focusing on content and tackling it as a design problem brings better results. Getting into HTML and CSS as soon as possible is a real time saver and it benefits both the designer and the client. Instead of meeting with the client to discuss how things look, we’re discussing how things work.

Improving the process could mean we may need more time in one phase of the project, but it could also mean we will need less in another. For me, this was exactly the case. Once you learn and implement new techniques, you’re back on track. So, again, I am not seeing change in process being a real disadvantage.

What it All Boils Down To

The thing is, it’s all just a matter of adapting to the change. Extra effort and a change in process are just elements of this adaptation. What responsive web design—or any improvement on the web—implies is learning, testing, improving. It implies keeping up with the developments in the industry and education of both web designers and clients. Nothing more, nothing less.

In its early days, Google had only a couple of links, a search field and a button. It was great at doing one single thing—search. A year ago, the iPhone had 24 preinstalled apps. Nexus S had 72. Evo 4G had 160.

If you already have a website with a lot of features, you’re actually in a great position to analyze which ones are being used and which aren’t. The next version of your website should only have the important features to create a better experience. If you won’t do that, the competition will.

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

― Jim Rohn