Responsive Design Turns Two

In typically self-effacing manner, Ethan Marcotte deflected the gobs of praise and gratitude being offered to him today, on the two-year-anniversary of his seminal A List Apart article in which he first described what’s come to be known as Responsive Web Design.

I think this deserves one tiny footnote, and that’s that Ethan didn’t simply write an article. That’s misleadingly humble. Ethan got tenaciously interested in solving a particular problem related to how a proliferating variety of devices and browsers displayed websites. Yes, the author community caught the fever, spreading and advancing the technique, but before Ethan’s article delivered Responsive Design to ALA readers, he noticed something, got intensely curious about it, and put in a lot of dedicated effort to satisfy his curiosity.

That’s the part I’m thankful for, and it’s why congratulations are most certainly in order.