Vitaly Friedman

About The Author

Vitaly Friedman Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. Vitaly is writer, speaker, author and editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine. He runs responsive Web design workshops, online workshops and loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems in large companies. Get in touch.

¡Vamos! Break Out Of The Box With SmashingConf Barcelona 2016

You can’t be extraordinary in every project, but knowing how and when to break out of the box can go a long way. The upcoming SmashingConf Barcelona, taking place on October 25–26, will be packed with smart solutions ranging from front-end to visual design to UX — and a few delightful surprises along the way. To the tickets. How do we avoid common traps in UX and front-end development?...

You can’t be extraordinary in every project, but knowing how and when to break out of the box can go a long way. The upcoming SmashingConf Barcelona, taking place on October 25–26, will be packed with smart solutions ranging from front-end to visual design to UX — and a few delightful surprises along the way. To the early-bird-tickets.

SmashingConf Barcelona 2016

$349 (€314 incl. VAT)

To the tickets →

Only 50 early-birds available.

About The Conference

How do we avoid common traps in UX and front-end development? How do we break out of the predictable, generic, boxy layout? How do we solve complex problems more efficiently? With the second conference in magnificent Barcelona, we'll explore practical techniques and design patterns from real projects.

Palau de la Musica
Just like last year, the SmashingConf flags will be blowing in the breeze from the Palau de la Música Catalana — an architectural jewel of Catalan Modernism. (Large view. Image credit: Jan Kraus).

Nothing obvious, nothing superficial: just actionable insights that you can apply to your projects right away. From visual design to front-end to performance to UX to eCommerce and, well, to one-of-a-kind-out-of-the-box-layouts. Think of it as a little playbook with handy rules of thumb: it doesn't get more practical than this.

We also want to hear your stories and your experiences. That's why we also invite you to speak at the meet-up before the event. Taking place on October 25–26, right at the sunny Mediterranean seaside in the one-of-a-kind Palau de la Música Catalana, it's an event that might keep you on your toes for quite some time. Seriously.

First Speakers

For this year's line-up, we invited experts who have worked in small as well as large companies, ranging from Pentagram to Shopify, Medium, Google, Skyscanner and Apple. Get ready, set, go:

First confirmed speakers: Jonathan Snook and Sara Soueidan
The first confirmed speakers: Jonathan Snook and Sara Soueidan.

Tuesday, Oct. 25th

Wednesday, Oct. 26th

  • Mystery Speaker End of the World
    (Someone you definitely know, and respect)
  • Laura Elizabeth
    From Pages To Patterns: Pattern Libraries For Mid-Size Projects
  • Jonathan Snook
    Responsive Web Apps With Container Queries
  • Jen Simmons Mozilla
    Revolutionize Your Page: Real Art Direction On The Web
  • Adrian Zumbrunnen
    Designing Choice
  • Christian Holst Baymard Institute
    Conversion Rate Optimization Techniques In Ecommerce
  • Ulrika Malmgren
    Better Testing/QA For Developers
  • Maciej Cegłowski Pinboard
    The Website Obesity Crisis

SmashingConf Barcelona 2016

Get your ticket

Only 50 Early Birds available.

Hands-On Workshops

We’ll also host hands-on full-day workshops with practical techniques and strategies taught by practitioners in the industry. So if you are going to attend the conference, why not attend a workshop as well? In fact, if you book a workshop too, you'll save $100 off the conference + workshop ticket price.

  • Sara Soueidan
    Mastering SVG by Sara Soueidan Oct. 24th • SVG is the new big thing in web design today, and for a good reason. In this workshop, Sara will go through an entire SVG workflow from creating, exporting and optimizing SVGs, to styling and animating them. Read more…
  • Stephen Hay
    Responsive Design Workflow by Stephen Hay Oct. 24th • Forget fixed-width Photoshop comps and overproduced wireframes. Yesterday’s web design deliverables fail to take into account the demands of responsive web design. Stephen will introduce a new workflow for today’s web. Read more…
  • Smashing Conference Freiburg Workshop
    Smart UX Design Patterns by Vitaly Friedman Oct. 24th • In this brand new workshop, Vitaly Friedman (editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine), will cover practical techniques, clever tricks and useful strategies you need to be aware of when working on responsive websites. From responsive modules co clever navigation patterns and web form design techniques; the workshop will provide you with everything you need to know today to start designing better responsive experiences tomorrow. Read more…
  • Jonathan Snook
    UX Sketching by Jonathan Snook Oct. 27th • Being able to sketch is like speaking an additional language that enables you to structure and express your thoughts and ideas more clearly, quickly and in a engaging way. For anyone working in UX, design, marketing and product development in general, sketching is a valuable technique to feel comfortable with. Read more…
  • Christian Holst
    eCommerce Checkout Patterns by Christian Holst Oct. 27th • In this full day checkout optimization workshop Christian Holst, research director at the Baymard Institute, will share their newest checkout usability test findings, uncovered during the past 7 years of large-scale testing of e-commerce sites and from working with clients like Etsy, Office Depot, Sears, Kohl’s, Nike, John Lewis, Carnival, T-mobile, Overstock.com, The North Face, etc. Read more…
  • Smashing Conference Freiburg Workshop
    New Adventures in RWD by Vitaly Friedman Oct. 27th • In this full-day workshop, Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, will present clever front-end tricks and strategies for building responsive websites with pattern libraries, SVG, Flexbox, CSS Grids, Accessibility, responsive images, performance tricks, service workers and HTTP/2. Yes, all of it. Read more…

Why This Conference Could Be For You

The conference could be for you just because it's very practical. You’ll learn many valuable techniques for your workflow, and you’ll meet fantastic, like-minded people from the industry. You’ll learn:

  1. Strategies for building fast responsive websites,
  2. Clever psychological techniques for smarter interfaces,
  3. Techniques and guidelines for better mobile UX,
  4. Guidelines for scalable CSS and JavaScript,
  5. Gotchas and rules of thumb when using SVG and Flexbox,
  6. How to optimize for performance and content delivery,
  7. Techniques for better lettering and interaction design,
  8. Mistakes and lessons learned from real-life projects,
  9. Responsive design patterns for future-ready websites,
  10. Avoid generic solutions with designs that exhibit soul and personality.

Download "Convince Your Boss" PDF

We also prepared a neat Convince Your Boss (PDF) (0.15 Mb) that you can use to convince your boss, colleagues, friends, neighbors and total strangers to join you or send you to the event. We know that you will not be disappointed. Still not good enough? Well, tweet us @smashingconf — we can be quite convincing, too!

SmashingConf Barcelona: Convince Your Boss PDF
"Eight reasons why you should send your incredibly hard-working, deserving employee to the SmashingConf" (PDF). Quite self-explanatory, really.

We also welcome sponsors to help us create a truly unique, unforgettable conference experience. And you can be a major part of it. We have quite a number of attractive and creative sponsorship options (PDF) for you, and we'd love to adjust them to your needs. So if you’re interested, please contact us via hello@smashingconf.com — we’d love for you to be involved!

See You In Barcelona!

We are looking forward to seeing you in Barcelona, and who knows, perhaps months after the conference is over, you'll look back at your workflow, at your projects and at this very article realizing that it wasn't far off after all. After all, it's a conference where anything can happen, right? See you there!

Get your ticket →

Hurry up! Only 50 Early-birds available.

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