Video: Matthias Ott – Painting With the Web

Matthias Ott often attended beyond tellerrand before and was now on the other side and gave the opening talk of day 2. Francesco Schwarz, attending the festival, summarised the talk as follows:

The web is a flexible, living medium. We have to accept the dance with uncertainty. But we often approach it with static tools and fixed mindsets. Still designing like it’s Photoshop, even though we’re building for browsers that are powerful, unpredictable, and full of creative potential. The disconnect between what’s technically possible in the browser and what most designers actually know about, it’s a shame really. In the sense that the creative potential of digital solutions often gets shut down right from the start because the thinking already begins with static tools. We have to shift that mindset and start working with code and prototypes in the browser much earlier in the process. Let the browser be part of the creative conversation from the beginning.

Here is the video of his presentation.

A full transcript of the talk is available here.

Slides can be found here.

Painting With the Web

Today’s Web is more complex, unpredictable, dynamic, and powerful than ever. Yet, 25 years after “A Dao of Web Design” we still approach building for the Web with a mindset of control, using linear workflows and static design tools that often don’t reflect the Web’s true nature and potential. The canvas we work on has transformed, the materials we use have changed. Together, we’ll explore how we can use web design engineering to start painting with the Web and create designs that are resilient, accessible, and true to the Web’s greatest strength: its inherent flexibility.

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More information about Matthias on his Speaker page

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