Skip to main content
Photography of Alvaro Montoro being a doofus
Alvaro Montoro

CSS Games Developer

artifactconf logo

Day 2 at ArtifactConf

events artifactconf

Yesterday I wrote about my experience during the first day of the ARTIFACT conference... but this is a 2-day event!

The Talks

The second day started with David Dylan Thomas' presentation about design for cognitive bias (check the hashtag #fightBias for more information). His ideas connected with the audience and made us think.

Chris Ferdinandi (aka the Vanilla JS Guy) talked about the lean web, how the web is inclusive out of the box and how by adding frameworks, and libraries, and modules, and more libraries... we often end up bloating it and breaking it.

Chris Ferdinandi during his presentation

The presentation before the break was done by Kim Williams. She spoke from the heart, set up the atmosphere, and reminded us that "Inclusive Design helps everyone belong."

After lunch, it was the turn for Mina Markham. She had a great presentation in which she showcased examples from previous jobs (a political campaign and the new Slack site). It was a enlightening and interesting. So Beyoncé, if you ever read this: hire her!!!

Context is Everything

Jason Grigsby gave a great introduction to Progressive Web Apps (PWA) and how they can be used to improve the quality and functionality of our web sites/apps, and how they boost user experience and take it to new levels.

One of the most expected speakers of the conference was Sarah Drasner... and she matched the expectations. She took the audience in a trip from past design techniques (including some Disney animations), current web design techniques, and some of the experiences that may be waiting for us in the future (including AR and three-dimensional layouts.)

Finally, Brad Frost took the stage for the closing keynote. He analyzed the state of front-end Design and Development and connected it with all the presentations that were done during the past two days.

It was a perfect ending for an amazing conference.

Conclusion

Brad's presentation marked the end of the speaking section of the event... but the conference continues one more day with workshops by Sarah Drasner, and Brad Frost & Dan Mall.

If I had to pick my favorite presentation of the day, I would not be able to pick one in particular. But the two that I enjoyed the most were David Dylan Thomas' Design for Cognitive Bias, and Jason Grigsby's Designing Progressive Web Apps. Chris Ferdinandi's The Lean Web clicked with me too, as it is a topic that I really like.

Special Thanks...

I am grateful to Smashing Magazine for giving me the opportunity of attending this event.

Article originally published on