ARTIFACT’s mission is to inspire web designers and developers with emerging practices for creating device-independent sites. We also aim to foster a sense of camaraderie in the designer/developer community. The 2-day conference program features an all-star line-up of leaders in the mobile web design field, and the third day of workshops allows attendees to deep-dive into design and development topics.
What We Talk About
The ARTIFACT program and workshops address many aspects of designing and developing sites that work on multiple devices. We provide as many practical takeaways as possible, topped off with a layer of inspiration.
- Workflow and Process
- Tools and Technologies
- Case Studies
- Design Strategy
- Inspiration
Who We Are
Jennifer Robbins has been designing for the web since 1993 when she designed the first commercial web site, Global Network Navigator, for O'Reilly Media. Since then she has written more than a dozen books on web design for O'Reilly, including Web Design in a Nutshell and Learning Web Design. She co-founded Artifact Conference in 2013 with Christopher and Ari. Once upon a time for fun, she interviewed indie rockers about cooking and food on her early video podcast, Cooking with Rockstars.
Christopher Schmitt is an award-winning web designer who has been working in the medium for over twenty years. He has a Masters in Communication for Interactive and New Communication Technologies, and is the author of many books. He is currently an Accessibilty Tech Expert for Knowbility
Ari Stiles is a communicator by nature, a writer and designer by habit, and a conference organizer by circumstance. She has helped produce hundreds of hours of design and development sessions with thousands of Web professionals around the globe. You want her on your trivia team.
Our Origin Story
Despite over 20 years of web design experience and authoring 13 books on the topic, Jennifer felt lost when it came to making mobile-friendly web sites. What she wanted was for smart people who were already doing this work to just show her how it’s done.
On August 12, 2012, she put this desire out to the Universe…using Twitter, of course! Just two minutes later, Christopher Schmitt answered her call with “I’m in!” and a conference was born. The combination of Jennifer’s, Christopher’s, and Ari’s years of experience, connections in the web community, and passion for education has gotten ARTIFACT off to a roaring good start.