A Web Directions event Respond 2017 Australia's Front End design conference

Session Details

Michael Taranto

Building a ubiquitous design language with components

Michael Taranto Principal UI Engineer

UI developers and visual designers, despite working very closely, often speak very different languages without realising it. Most discussions use terms that simply do not align across domains. Whether it is CSS's misuse of terms like line-height and baseline or HTML5's semantics not aligning, these deviations result in confusion and less maintainable code.

The world of components give us the opportunity to create abstractions that directly model the designer team's intent. The drive to establish a ubiquitous design language has improved the quality of conversation and the consistency of the dev team's output — innovating on solutions to things like vertical rhythm on the web. If you care about building large scale well-designed apps quickly while still focusing on maintainability, accessibility and composition, this one is for you.

Michael Taranto

Michael is a Front End Lead at Seek in Melbourne and has been working on web applications for over 10 years. With his software engineering background and a passion for design he has spent most of his career focusing on building the front end capability and quality in development teams.

Michael is embedded in the Melbourne web community — particularly through his involvement co-organising MelbJS for the past 6 years. Having presented at a number of local meet ups, he enjoys sharing his learnings with a particular passion for improving the interface between design and development teams.

Don't miss your chance to see Michael Taranto and many other inspiring speakers at Respond 17.

Tickets start at $999, for an in-depth day with the world's leading Front End design experts.

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Australia's Front End design conference, now in Sydney and Melbourne.

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What is Respond?

Australia's Front End design conference, now in Sydney and Melbourne

Now in its fourth year, and curated by John Allsopp, cited by Ethan Marcotte as one of the originators of Responsive design, Respond goes beyond the technology, to address the myriad challenges we face in delivering modern, responsive Web experiences.

Featuring a mix of renowned international and local speakers, Respond is one of the World's leading events for the Web industry.

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Praise for past Web Directions events

Web Directions is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development.

Phil Whitehouse, General Manager, DT Sydney

I’ve been admiring the Web Directions events for years, and was honored to be part… What a fantastic event!

Ethan Marcotte, inventor of "responsive Web design"

Out of any conference, Web Directions is far and away our favourite

Dave Greiner, founder, Campaign Monitor

our audience watches intently

About Us

Co-founded and now run by John Allsopp, Web Directions has for over a decade brought together leading developers, engineers, visual, IxD, UX and product designers, Art and Creative Directors, indeed everyone involved in producing web and digital products to learn from one another, and the World's leading experts across this vast field.

We spend our lives thinking about what comes next, keeping up with trends in technology, practices and processes, and filtering the hype, to make sure you don't miss trends that matter, and don't waste time on hype that doesn't.

We promise attending one of our events will leave you significantly better versed in the challenges you face day to day, and in solutions for addressing them.

In 2017, we'll be organising Respond in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane Transform in Canberra, Code also in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and Direction in Sydney.

vignettes form our events, social, speakers and more. Includes Hannah Donovan skylarking.

John Allsopp

John Allsopp has been working on the Web for over 20 years. He's been responsible for innovative developer tools such as Style Master, X-Ray and many more. He's spoken at numerous conferences around the World and delivered dozens of workshops in that time as well.

His writing includes two books, including Developing With Web Standards and countless articles and tutorials in print and online publications.

His "A Dao of Web Design" published in 2000 is cited by Ethan Marcotte as a key influence in the development of Responsive Web Design, who's rightly acclaimed article in 2010 begins by quoting John in detail, and by Jeremy Keith as "a manifesto for anyone working on the Web".

Code of Conduct

For over a decade, we've worked hard to create inclusive, fun, inspring and safe events for the Web Industry.

As part of our commitment to these values, we've adopted a code of conduct for all involved: ourselves, our speakers, our partners and our audience.

If you have any concern or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us.