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The Big Web Show

by 5by5

The award winning Big Web Show features special guests and topics like web publishing, art direction, content strategy, typography, web technology, and more. It's everything web that matters. Hosted by Jeffrey Zeldman.

From the show's RSS feed, refreshed Feb 9, 2026. Source feed.

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Episodes

  1. Episode 187: On beyond Pantsuit with Mina Markham

    Front-end architect and speaker Mina Markham is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Mina discusses her career path, her work at as a senior engineer at Slack, how she came to create the Hillary Clinton UI pattern library “Pantsuit,” her time at IBM, helping others and inviting women of color into STEM…

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  2. Episode 186: Tantek Çelik—web standards, toolchains, and the decentralized web

    Legendary computer scientist, web standards pioneer, and indie-web proponent Tantek Çelik is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. The secret history of standards in our web browsers. How web standards moved from academic ideas that sometimes couldn’t even be implemented to the foundation of our modern web.…

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  3. Episode 185: Design is a Relationship Business, with Joe Rinaldi

    Founder and business development consultant Joe Rinaldi (That Was Clutch, Philamade, Bureau of Digital) is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Agency and freelance networking, mining contacts for work, honesty in client services, what they don’t teach in design school, the value of having worked in service....

  4. Episode 184: Accessibility is not a “nice to have” – with Derek Featherstone

    Why do companies de-prioritize accessibility? Making a digital map accessible to the blind. Pros and cons of the straw test. Why simulating a disability is not the same as working with disabled people. Using Twitter threads to prototype book chapters. How diversity (including neurodiversity and...

  5. Episode 182: It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work, with Jason Fried

    Basecamp founder, New York Times best-selling author, and web software pioneer Jason Fried is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. The two discuss Jason’s latest book (co-authored with David Heinemeier Hannson), It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work, which The Economist called “by far the best thing on...

  6. Episode 181: Last Agency Standing – with Clearleft’s Andy Budd

    Web design pioneer, Clearleft chief executive, and UX thought leader Andy Budd chats with Big Web Show host Jeffrey Zeldman about the failings and triumphs of our design community over the past 20 years, why the success of design thinking killed the market for design studios, and how to reinvent...

  7. Episode 180: Where AI Meets IA: Improving Digital Personalization with Jeffrey MacIntyre

    Jeffrey MacIntyre, a long-time independent UX consultant and researcher specializing in thoughtful digital personalization, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. The two Jeffreys discuss personalization and its intersection with AI, the business opportunity of responsible personalization, aligning...

  8. Episode 179: The Future and Past of Web Typography with Jason Pamental

    Long-time (since 1994) web design practitioner Jason Pamental, author of Responsive Typography from O’Reilly, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. For more than an hour, the two designers geek out over responsive typography, the history of type on the web, and the explosive creative potential of the new...

  9. Episode 178: Pay attention to that woman behind the curtain – with Katel LeDu

    Katel LeDu, Co-founder of the No, You Go podcast and CEO of A Book Apart, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Topics include: Getting comfortable putting yourself out there when you’re really more of a behind-the-scenes person. Starting a podcast. The life of a photo director at National Geographic.…

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  10. Episode 177: Pixel Perfect with Rachel Andrew

    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…

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  11. Episode 176: Intrinsic Web Design with Jen Simmons

    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....

  12. Episode 175: Meeting Design with Kevin Hoffman

    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....

  13. Episode 174: Planning for Everything with Peter Morville

    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…

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  14. Episode 173: But What I Really Want to do is Creative Direct, with Dan Mall

    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…

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  15. Episode 172: Design Grows Up (and that gives us all the feelings) with Mike Essl

    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...

  16. Episode 171: Art Directing the News – with ProPublica Design Director David Sleight

    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....

  17. Episode 170: Days of Future Present with Josh Clark

    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…

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  18. Episode 168: Design Evolution Revolution with Jen Simmons

    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...

  19. Episode 167: “Can Celebrities Save the Internet?” with Sarah Parmenter

    Designer, entrepreneur, and social media consultant Sarah Parmenter is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Working with celebrities, the wrong way to save a troubled brand, using social media is not the same as consulting on social media, design ten years ago and now, can one web designer do it all? Links…

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  20. Episode 166: Floating Words and the Mechanics of Delight – with designer Michael Simmons

    Michael Simmons, designer and CEO of Flexibits (makers of Fantastical and Cardhop) is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Designing “professional but not professional boring” experiences. Usefulness versus “garnish.” How animation can convey brand values. Creating experiences instead of feature sets....

  21. Episode 165: Webfont Festival with Bram Stein

    Host Jeffrey Zeldman interviews Bram Stein, Typekit’s director of web fonts and author of the Webfont Handbook (A Book Apart, 2017). The two designers discuss creating great font stacks, optimizing web font performance, FOUT versus FOIT, the horror of fallback fonts, and new technology including...

  22. Episode 164: Meet Ben Jackson, Onboarding For The Win

    Ben Jackson, founder & principal of Brooklyn advising firm For the Win, and creator of the open-source onboarding app Aloha, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Ben and Jeffrey discuss service design, the opportunity cost of bad onboarding experiences, the 4Cs of good onboarding (compliance, clarity,...

  23. Episode 163: Animation at Work, with Rachel Nabors

    Rachel Nabors, author of Animation at Work (A Book Apart, 2017) stops by The Big Web Show to discuss how animation can help ease cognitive load in UX; creating the illusion of life; developing data to make the case for animation; pattern libraries; prototyping; and the link between animation and...

  24. Episode 162: The Mysteries of UX with Clearleft’s Andy Budd

    Clearleft’s Andy Budd and host Zeldman discuss the changing role design agencies must play to remain relevant; the rise of in-house design; working with pattern libraries (since 2008!); whether the “golden age” of web design and blogging is over; and much more. Andy Budd has been blogging about...

  25. Episode 161: Cultivating a Creative Culture with Justin Dauer

    As designers, we create human-centered interactions and experiences. Empathetic purpose drives our every decision. This same mentality, turned inward, forms the cornerstone of something amazing: a creative culture. Jeffrey Zeldman interviews designer, creative director, iconist, and author Justin...

  26. Episode 160: Color Accessibility Workflows with Geri Coady

    Illustrator, designer, and author Geri Coady (@hellogeri) is @zeldman’s guest. The two designers discuss blogging, learning graphic design, transitioning to web design, color accessibility tips and strategies, book writing, and the upcoming travel blog, Geri Draws Japan. Links for this episode:...

  27. Episode 159: If You Can’t Stand the Heatmaps, Stay Out of the Conversion, with @nickd

    Nick Disabato (@nickd) and @zeldman discuss heat maps, conversion rates, design specialization, writing for the web, Jakob Nielsen, and the early days of blogging in Episode #159 of The Big Web Show – “everything web that matters.” Links for this episode: NickD.org : Bio Draft NickD.org Nick...

  28. Episode 158: Old Men Shake Fists at the Cloud – with Jim Coudal

    Internet veterans Jim @Coudal & Jeffrey @Zeldman on the death of blogging, the birth of Field Notes, the virtues of a subscription model, and much more. Begins in tears, ends in triumph. One of the most fun (and most inspiring) episodes ever. Links for this episode: Memo Books, Notebooks…

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  29. Episode 157: David Sleight, Design Director at ProPublica

    ProPublica (@ProPublica) design director David Sleight (@stuntbox) is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. How do publications brand themselves when a platform removes their fonts, art, and layout? What is “journalism in the public interest” and how does it differ from traditional reporting? What is bespoke...

  30. Episode 156: Practical Design Discovery With Dan Brown

    Dan Brown is a web designer who specializes in IA, design research, and leading teams. He's written three books: Practical Design Discovery (2017), Designing Together (2013), and Communicating Design (2011), and created a card game, Surviving Design Projects, to help designers practice conflict...

  31. Episode 155: CSS Grid Layout is here, with Rachel Andrew

    CSS Grid Layout is in Firefox and Chrome, and coming to Safari. Jeffrey Zeldman talks about the new spec with one of its foremost advocates, Rachel Andrew – a web developer, writer, and public speaker from Bristol, UK. Rachel is a member of the CSS Working Group, a Google Developer Expert, the...

  32. Episode 154: Where Have All the Unicorns Gone, With Jen Simmons

    Have front-end and UX separated as practices? Is the time of the designer/coder over? The great Jen Simmons (Mozilla, CSS Grid, Layout Land) is Jeffrey Zeldman's guest in a sharply focused episode of The Big Web Show. Links for this episode: Twitter: @jensimmons JenSimmons.com Layout Land…

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  33. Episode 153: Reinvent Yourself with Jaimee Newberry

    Jeffrey Zeldman (@zeldman) interviews designer/entrepreneur/author Jaimee Newberry (@jaimeejaimee), co-founder of Picture This Clothing, Tiny Challenges, and WWDC Girls. Launching a company that goes viral; applying design principles to your life; “it’s not about what’s next, it’s about what’s...

  34. Episode 152: Writing Tweets for Joan Rivers – Zeldman interviews George Hahn

    Jeffrey Zeldman interviews George Hahn (georgehahn.com), writer, actor, web designer, and self-made thousandaire in hot pursuit of sartorial stealth and effective living. Writing tweets for Joan Rivers, doing a nude scene in “Sex and the City,” getting paid and finding clients as a designer, is…

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  35. Episode 151: Making Sense of Color Management with Craig Hockenberry

    Jeffrey Zeldman interviews Craig Hockenberry (@chockenberry), web and Mac software developer for over 20 years, and author of Making Sense of Color Management (A Book Apart, 2016). Screen evolution, color profiles, writing the first color gamut media query, how Webkit queries your screen to...

  36. Episode 150: Giant Paradigm Shifts and Other Delights With Brad Frost

    Host Jeffrey Zeldman chats with front-end developer extraordinaire Brad Frost, author of the new book Atomic Design. In a freewheeling romp through a wonderland of design and technology references, the two web pros discuss Pattern Lab and style guides, being there for the iPad launch, working…

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  37. Episode 149: Transatlantic: Hopping Continents With Sarah Parmenter

    Host @zeldman checks in with frequent guest @sazzy to discuss blogging, design, social media consulting, Britain, America, speaking, travel, and, oh, yes, that election. Brought to you by: Braintree (To learn more visit BraintreePayments.com/BigWebShow).

  38. Episode 148: Web Design in 2016 with Jeremy Osborn of Aquent Gymnasium

    Jeremy Osborn is the Academic Director of Aquent Gymnasium, an innovative MOOC for designers, developers and marketing professionals, and the author of popular books on web technology and design software, including his latest, HTML5 Digital Classroom. He and Jeffrey Zeldman discuss the rapidly...

  39. Episode 147: The Internet of Things is People – with Kate O’Neill, author, Pixels and Place: Connecting Human Experience Across Physical and Digital Spaces

    Kate O’Neill is a tech humanist, author, keynote speaker, consultant, web design veteran, former Nashville songwriter, and the author of Pixels and Place: Connecting Human Experience Across Physical and Digital Spaces. Kate and Jeffrey Zeldman discuss Integrated Human Experience Design; the…

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  40. Episode 146: Know Your Web Design History – Glenn Davis of Project Cool, Cool Site of the Day, and The Web Standards Project

    Glenn Davis is the creator of Cool Site of the Day; cofounder of Project Cool; and cofounder, Executive Committee member, and essayist for The Web Standards Project, which he also hosted. Glenn was a leading force behind Liquid Design, an approach that predates Responsive Web Design by about 20...

  41. Episode 145: Search for Tomorrow – Redesigning a major recipe site with art director June Kim of Epicurious.com

    Art director June Kim and host Jeffrey Zeldman discuss the newly launched, search-focused redesign of Epicurious.com. Approaching design through the lens of utility. Looking outside your own product category when researching for a redesign. Quick view and other functions. What Netflix has to do...

  42. Episode 144: Design For Real Life with Eric Meyer

    Eric Meyer (@meyerweb), co-author of Design For Real Life, is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Edge cases versus stress cases, identifying your assumptions, design pre-mortems, QA’ing for emotion, and more. Links for this episode: A Book Apart, Brief books for people who make websites. Welcome | Voice…

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  43. Episode 143: Emotional Design with Aarron Walter

    Aarron Walter and Jeffrey Zeldman discuss launching a design education initiative at InVision, building a UX practice at MailChimp, putting design at the heart of strategy, managing teams, the secret life of Walt Disney, and more. Aarron is the VP of Design Education at InVision. He founded the…

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  44. Episode 142: Information Architecture is Still Very Much a Thing, with Abby Covert

    Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest is Abby Covert, Information Architect; curator of IA Summit; co-founder of World IA Day; president of IA Institute; teacher in the Products of Design MFA program at New York’s School of Visual Arts; and author of How To Make Sense of Any Mess, a “brilliant introduction to...

  45. Episode 141: CSS Grid Layout With Rachel Andrew

    Rachel Andrew—longtime web developer and web standards champion, co-founder of the Perch CMS, and author of Get Ready For CSS Grid Layout—is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Topics include working with CSS Grid Layout, how Grid enables designers to “do something different” with web layout, why designers...

  46. Episode 140: Progressive Enhancement FTW with Aaron Gustafson

    Longtime web developer, lecturer, and web standards evangelist Aaron Gustafson and host Jeffrey Zeldman discuss the newly published update to Aaron’s best-selling industry classic “love letter to the web,” Adaptive Web Design: Crafting Rich Experiences With Progressive Enhancement, 2nd Edition…

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  47. Episode 139: Every Time We Touch—Josh Clark, author of “Designing For Touch”

    Touch introduces physicality to designs that were once strictly virtual, and puts forth a new test: How does this design feel in the hand? Josh Clark’s new book, “Designing For Touch,” guides designers through this new touchscreen frontier, and is the launchpad for today’s Big Web Show discussion...

  48. Episode 138: An Infrastructure For Websites, with Pantheon’s Josh Koenig

    Josh Koenig, Co-Founder & Head of Product for Pantheon Website Management Platform, is Jeffrey Zeldman's guest in "An Infrastructure For Websites," Episode 138 of The Big Web Show ("Everything Web That Matters.") Josh & Z discuss how the industry is evolving, how smartphones are driving web…

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  49. Episode 137: The Law is an Ass: Digital Law & Web Design with Heather Burns

    Digital law specialist Heather Burns is Jeffrey Zeldman’s guest. Heather is the author of The Web Designer’s Guide to the Consumer Rights Directive, a “recovering web designer,” and the founder of a monthly ebulletin with digital law and policy news you need to know. She explains: “While I am not…

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  50. Episode 136: Designed With Web Standards: USA! USA! featuring Maya Benari

    Jeffrey Zeldman’s Big Web Show guest is front-end designer Maya Benari (@mayabenari), a leading contributor to the U.S. Web Design Standards. Recently launched, and deservedly much lauded, the U.S. Web Design Standards consist of open source UI components plus a visual style guide, and are…

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About this show

The award winning Big Web Show features special guests and topics like web publishing, art direction, content strategy, typography, web technology, and more. It's everything web that matters. Hosted by Jeffrey Zeldman.

Hosted by

5by5

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Frequently asked questions

How many episodes does The Big Web Show have?

The Big Web Show has 186 episodes on PodParley. The most recent episode was published on March 29, 2019.

What is The Big Web Show about?

The award winning Big Web Show features special guests and topics like web publishing, art direction, content strategy, typography, web technology, and more. It's everything web that matters. Hosted by Jeffrey Zeldman.

How often does The Big Web Show release new episodes?

The Big Web Show publishes every two weeks, based on its 186 episodes since April 2010.

Who hosts The Big Web Show?

The Big Web Show is created and hosted by 5by5.
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