The new season of The Big Web Show gets a running start with the brilliant and delightful Rachel Andrew, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, co-founder of Perch and Notist, author of over 30 books including The New CSS Layout, and more. Rachel and host Jeffrey Zeldman discuss learning to say no, productivity hacks, finding the inspiration to write and the courage to begin public speaking, the latest news with CSS Grid Layout, leaving Apple hardware behind, and the pleasures of Pixel.

Jen Simmons—Designer Advocate at Mozilla, creator of Firefox Grid Inspector, host of Layout Land and The Web Ahead, member of the CSS Working Group, coiner of Intrinsic Web Design, and general force of nature—is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest.

Everything we thought we knew about web design just changed. Making sites that sing. Designing with the viewport in mind. A time-based storytelling journey. Real whitespace on the web. Real designer/developer tools: the Shapes Editor, Grid Inspector, and next-generation fonts panel in Firefox.

Links for this episode:

• Jen Simmons (@jensimmons) | Twitter
  
• Layout Land - YouTube - YouTube
  
• Jen Simmons
  
• Try New Browser Features in Pre-Release Versions | Firefox
  
• Jen Simmons | Labs
  
• Layout Land
  
• Transcript
  

Kevin M. Hoffman, VP Design at Capital One, and author of Meeting Design, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. “Design is not the end result.” How to assert control when you feel powerless. This one weird trick that can resolve conflict in difficult meetings. The relationship between meetings and change. Hacking your meetings, hacking your company culture. Five kinds of bad meetings. Escaping our biases, assumptions, and patterns. How illustration changes writing. A Jeff Veen joint. Designing an environment that lets people succeed. How design is like music and why you are not Prince. A new way of writing a book.

Links for this episode:

• Kevin M. Hoffman (@kevinmhoffman) | Twitter
  
• Meeting Design - Rosenfeld Media
  
• Meeting Design · An A List Apart Article
  
• Kevin M. Hoffman - Rosenfeld Media
  
• Capital One (@CapitalOne) | Twitter
  
• Facilitating Great Design · An A List Apart Article
  
• Kick Ass Kickoff Meetings · An A List Apart Article
  
• Matt Sutter Books - List of books by Matt Sutter
  
• Birthday Street
  
• Matt Sutter (@mSutters) | Twitter
  

UX and IA pioneer Peter Morville, founder of Semantic Studios and author of four major design books discusses his latest, Planning For Everything, with host Jeffrey Zeldman. When Peter Met Lou, “Peak chaos,” belief bubbles, why the dichotomy between planning and doing is false, how to plan a family vacation swimming with sharks, striking a balance between planning and improvisation, and more.

Links for this episode:

• About Peter Morville
  
• Peter Morville (@morville) | Twitter
  
• Semantics
  
• Amazon.com: Planning for Everything: The Design of Paths and Goals
  

Creative director, advisor, designer, developer, author (Pricing Design), speaker, mentor, musician, and entrepreneur (SuperFriendly, SuperBooked) Dan Mall is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Running a studio, pitching, value pricing, the apprentice program, “Make Grunt do it,” how to start a startup, “the most exciting design systems are boring,” walking away from big pitches, launching a service to help you find work.

Links for this episode:

• A Book Apart, Pricing Design
  
• “How to Scope Work,” an article by Dan Mall
  
• SuperBooked
  
• Dan Mall (@danmall) | Twitter
  

Mike Essl, Dean at Cooper Union School of Art in New York, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest.

Topics: The designer as hobbyist. “I was an expert witness for the Associated Press.” Design is a machine. Working in a comic book store. The Cooper Union coincidences. Web design in 1995 versus today. New York design versus San Francisco design. Systems making versus picture making. Kind of Bloop.

Links for this episode:

• Mike Essl
  
• Mike Essl (@essl) | Twitter
  
• Welcome | The Cooper Union
  
• Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop: Johan Kugelberg, Joe Conzo, Afrika Bambaataa, Buddy Esquire, Jeff Chang: 9780789315403: Amazon.com: Books
  
• Amazon.com: Watching the Watchmen (9781848560413): Dave Gibbons: Books
  
• The Chopping Block, Inc :: World Domination Through Graphic Design
  

David Sleight, Design Director at ProPublica, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces “investigative journalism with moral force.” David is a web designer, creative director, and leader at the intersection of publishing and digital technology.

Topics include: Stop blaming the algorithm. Design ethics. Stories as products. How the role of the story affects art direction. Our medium needs design that is faster and design that is slower. The renaissance of The Washington Post. How reporting creates products. Can reporters be part of the Resistance?

Links for this episode:

• Home — ProPublica
  
• ProPublica Data Store
  
• David Sleight (@stuntbox) | Twitter
  
• Stuntbox – Design and strategy of the finest cut.
  
• ProPublica (@ProPublica) | Twitter
  
• Inside Atomwaffen As It Celebrates a Member for Allegedly — ProPublica
  
• Bombs in Our Backyard — ProPublica
  
• 5by5 | The Big Web Show #66: David Sleight
  

Designer Josh Clark (@bigmediumjosh) is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Josh founded the consultancy BIG MEDIUM, whose slogan is “Design for what’s next.” He designs mobile and IoT experiences, AIs, and bots; is the author of Designing For Touch and Tapworthy; and got his start as the creator of Couch to 5K.

Links for this episode:

• Josh on Twitter
  
• Big Medium
  

Jen Simmons (@JenSimmons), Designer Advocate at Mozilla, creators Layout Land, host of The Web Ahead, and driving force with Rachel Andrew behind CSS Grid in our browsers, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Free speech, Libertarianism, and doxxing. The CSS Grid Inspector and other tools coming our way—including Flexbox Inspector and Shape Path editor, Variable Fonts tooling, and tools for font features. #metoo and #blacklivesmatter. Video blogging’s unheralded heroes. Rough consensus and running code. Layout Land and modern layouts. Team teaching with Rachel Andrew. What goes into a great instructional video.

Links for this episode:

• Layout Land
  
• The Web Ahead
  
• JenSimmons.com
  
• Learn CSS Grid | Jen Simmons
  
• The Web Behind: Videoblogging with Jay Dedman, Ryanne Hodson and Michael Verdi | The Web Ahead
  
• An Event Apart News: Revolutionize Your Page: Real Art Direction on the Web by Jen Simmons—An Event Apart video
  
• An Event Apart News: Modern Layouts: Getting Out of Our Ruts by Jen Simmons – An Event Apart Video
  
• Jen Simmons (@jensimmons) | Twitter