Foreword
by Ethan Marcotte

I have to be blunt: this is a wonderful book you’re about to read.

There’s a quote by Ludwig Wittgenstein that I’ve always loved: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” Something’s always seemed magical about that image: the broader your vocabulary, the broader your horizons.

I think of it often, especially as I remember my first studio job. Because looking back, I realize my introduction to web design was, well, pretty narrow, framed as it was by four little words: discover, design, develop, and deploy. Those were, I was taught, the discrete, task-based phases into which each design project was segmented. Research preceded design, and then coding followed, leading to site launch. Simple. Straightforward. Linear.

That model of working felt a bit like a relay race: teams would have to finish their work before the next could begin, handing work down the line before a site could launch. Of course, the truth was often quite a bit messier. And as we began designing beyond the desktop, bringing our work to more and more screens, that old, linear workflow began to show its limitations. Teams need to collaborate more; research, design, and development are more closely related than we once thought, and that old waterfall method kept them siloed.

Thankfully, in these pages, Stephen shares his years of thinking about a more web-native, responsive design process. And as he leads us from design exercises, to a new mode of wireframing, to introducing clients to responsive design, one thing becomes clear: this is a better way to work.

If the limits of our world are set by our language, then Stephen’s book is a veritable dictionary: one full of concepts and techniques to reinvent the way you think about not only design, but the web in general.

This book is going to make your world so much wider. Enjoy.