Conference sessions from WebDirections 2007, held in Sydney, Australia. Sessions are © Web Directions and the respective speakers. See individual sessions for license details http://www.webdirections.org/ Podcasting See individual sessions for license details. en-au Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:48:58 +1000 info@webdirections.org Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:42:36 +1000 FeedForAll v2.0 (2.0.2.9) http://www.feedforall.com WebDirections 2007 Conference sessions from WebDirections 2007, held in Sydney, Australia. Sessions are © Web Directions and the respective speakers. See individual sessions for license details WebDirections 2007 WebDirections info@webdirections.org web development, web design, web 2.0, CSS, HTML, XHTML, AJAX, user centered design, mobile web, usability, future of the web, API no no We’ve always had metaphors to understand and design for the Web. The original conception of the Web was as a library of documents. Our building blocks were derived from spatial ideas: "breadcrumbs", "visits" and "homepages" were used to understand the medium. Website-as-application was a new and novel metaphor in the late 1990s. The spatial concept of navigation was replaced by concepts derived from tools: buttons performed actions on data. These metaphors inspire separate but complementary models of the Web. But the Web in 2008 has some entirely new qualities: more than ever it’s an ecology of separate but highly interconnected services. Its fiercely competitive, rapid development means differentiating innovations are quickly copied and spread. Attention from users is scarce. The fittest websites survive. In this world, what metaphors can be most successfully wielded? Matt takes as a starting point interaction and product design, with ideas from cybernetics and Getting Things Done. He offers as a metaphor the concept of the Web as experience. That is, treating a website as a dynamic entity - a flowchart of motivations that both provides a continuously satisfying experience for the user - and helps the website grow. From seeing what kind of websites this model provokes, we’ll see whether it also helps illuminate some of the Web’s coming design challenges: the blending of the Web with desktop software and physical devices; the particular concerns of small groups; and what the next movement might bring. Matt Webb is a principal of the creative design consultancy Schulze & Webb where his work has included material prototypes for Nokia, Web strategy for the BBC, and exploration into the future uses of RFID. S&W works in near-term product R&D and, as embodied in the USB puppet Availabot, has a special focus on the social life of stuff. Matt speaks on interaction design and technology, is co-author of Mind Hacks, cognitive psychology for a general audience, and builds polite social software and Web toys. He can be found at Interconnected and in London. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#webb Software How-To B50C5BAA-C2F4-4ADE-955F-9A49A526DA69 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:42:36 +1000 Movement (Closing Keynote) - Matt Webb We’ve always had metaphors to understand and design for the Web. The original conception of the Web was as a library of documents. Our building blocks were derived from spatial ideas: "breadcrumbs", "visits" and "homepages" were used to understand the medium. Website-as-application was a new and novel metaphor in the late 1990s. The spatial concept of navigation was replaced by concepts derived from tools: buttons performed actions on data. These metaphors inspire separate but complementary models of the Web. But the Web in 2008 has some entirely new qualities: more than ever it’s an ecology of separate but highly interconnected services. Its fiercely competitive, rapid development means differentiating innovations are quickly copied and spread. Attention from users is scarce. The fittest websites survive. In this world, what metaphors can be most successfully wielded? Matt takes as a starting point interaction and product design, with ideas from cybernetics and Getting Things Done. He offers as a metaphor the concept of the Web as experience. That is, treating a website as a dynamic entity - a flowchart of motivations that both provides a continuously satisfying experience for the user - and helps the website grow. From seeing what kind of websites this model provokes, we’ll see whether it also helps illuminate some of the Web’s coming design challenges: the blending of the Web with desktop software and physical devices; the particular concerns of small groups; and what the next movement might bring. Matt Webb is a principal of the creative design consultancy Schulze & Webb where his work has included material prototypes for Nokia, Web strategy for the BBC, and exploration into the future uses of RFID. S&W works in near-term product R&D and, as embodied in the USB puppet Availabot, has a special focus on the social life of stuff. Matt speaks on interaction design and technology, is co-author of Mind Hacks, cognitive psychology for a general audience, and builds polite social software and Web toys. He can be found at Interconnected and in London. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 00:58:33 Matt Webb metaphor, user experience, user experience design, flowchat, web design, wdn08 no no Last year, Google released an experimental Greasemonkey API for Gmail: coding hooks that let anyone add CSS and Javascript to Gmail that enhances how it looks and behaves. Why would you want to do this? Why wouldn’t you? Hear how Google’s using Greasemonkey to distribute Gmail development amongst independent web developers–and how those developers are integrating their own product into Gmail — resulting in a Better Gmail for everyone. Gina Trapani is a web developer and the founding editor of Lifehacker.com, the 2006 Wired Rave Award-winning daily weblog on software and productivity. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#trapani Software How-To 147661C4-211C-49A1-8975-F6DA2CE22840 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:39:45 +1000 Better Gmail: How Google Opened Gmail’s Web Interface to Any Developer Who Cares (And Why You Should) - Gina Trapani Last year, Google released an experimental Greasemonkey API for Gmail: coding hooks that let anyone add CSS and Javascript to Gmail that enhances how it looks and behaves. Why would you want to do this? Why wouldn’t you? Hear how Google’s using Greasemonkey to distribute Gmail development amongst independent web developers–and how those developers are integrating their own product into Gmail — resulting in a Better Gmail for everyone. Gina Trapani is a web developer and the founding editor of Lifehacker.com, the 2006 Wired Rave Award-winning daily weblog on software and productivity. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 00:37:49 Gina Trapani gmail, better gmail, google, API, wdn08 no no Have you ever seen a web site so clear, logical, and exquisitely composed it made you stop in your tracks? Have you wondered how the designer achieved such a stunning and cohesive design? In this presentation, Kimberly Elam, designer and author of the best-selling "Geometry of Design" and "Typographic Systems" will reveal the mysterious relationships between proportion, visual systems, composition and aesthetics. Too often excellent conceptual ideas suffer during the process of realization, in large part because the designer did not understand the essential visual principles. This presentation explores these elements and how they work by examining how the use of visual principles informs, even creates, beauty in typographic design, but, more importantly, how you can use these techniques to create cohesiveness in your own design. The wide range of visual examples are both informative and insightful, and any designer can benefit from learning or revisiting the rules governing the basics of typographic design. Kimberly Elam is a writer, educator, and graphic designer. She is currently the Chair of the Graphic & Interactive Communication Department at the Ringling College of Art + Design, Sarasota, Florida, where she has developed an academic minor in the Business of Art and Design. Her first book, Expressive Typography - Word as Image, identifies and analyzes methods by which words can transcend didactic meaning and become images. Geometry of Design - Studies in Proportion and Composition, visually illustrates the connection between classic proportioning systems and modern graphic design, industrial design, illustration, and architecture. Grid Systems - Principles of Organizing Type puts forth a clear methodology for understanding and learning the grid system of composition. Her most recent book, Typographic Systems - Rules for Organizing Type presents an innovative series of nontraditional, rule-based, visual language systems for typographic composition. Her current work focuses on the development of a series of innovative ebooks and print-on-demand books for design education on her website, StudioResourceInc.com. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#elam Software How-To 708035AE-464F-4B34-934B-697B4A9E0E6C Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:35:37 +1000 Five Essential Composition Tools for Web Typography - Kimberly Elam Have you ever seen a web site so clear, logical, and exquisitely composed it made you stop in your tracks? Have you wondered how the designer achieved such a stunning and cohesive design? In this presentation, Kimberly Elam, designer and author of the best-selling "Geometry of Design" and "Typographic Systems" will reveal the mysterious relationships between proportion, visual systems, composition and aesthetics. Too often excellent conceptual ideas suffer during the process of realization, in large part because the designer did not understand the essential visual principles. This presentation explores these elements and how they work by examining how the use of visual principles informs, even creates, beauty in typographic design, but, more importantly, how you can use these techniques to create cohesiveness in your own design. The wide range of visual examples are both informative and insightful, and any designer can benefit from learning or revisiting the rules governing the basics of typographic design. Kimberly Elam is a writer, educator, and graphic designer. She is currently the Chair of the Graphic & Interactive Communication Department at the Ringling College of Art + Design, Sarasota, Florida, where she has developed an academic minor in the Business of Art and Design. Her first book, Expressive Typography - Word as Image, identifies and analyzes methods by which words can transcend didactic meaning and become images. Geometry of Design - Studies in Proportion and Composition, visually illustrates the connection between classic proportioning systems and modern graphic design, industrial design, illustration, and architecture. Grid Systems - Principles of Organizing Type puts forth a clear methodology for understanding and learning the grid system of composition. Her most recent book, Typographic Systems - Rules for Organizing Type presents an innovative series of nontraditional, rule-based, visual language systems for typographic composition. Her current work focuses on the development of a series of innovative ebooks and print-on-demand books for design education on her website, StudioResourceInc.com. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 00:55:53 Kimberly Elam typography, web typography, proportion, visual system, design principles, composition, aesthetics, wdn08 no no What happens when a designer decides to quit his day job, hang his shingle, and wakes up seven years later nowhere remotely close to where he imagined he would be? This frank, semi-informal discussion on the pros, cons, and potential progressions of a designer’s career will explore the following: - Niching your design services - Crafting a salable product - The Web Designer of Tomorrow A serial designer-entrepreneur, Josh Williams is the founder and CEO of several well known web related companies and communities including Firewheel Design, Blinksale, and IconBuffet. He is an authority on visual design techniques for rich web applications and an expert iconographer. Recently Josh has served as the design director for Project Agape (Causes on Facebook) and currently he in the process of launching another secretive iconic web company. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#williams Software How-To 51C46197-E7E4-4AA2-BB97-7649985CBB14 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:30:47 +1000 Bedroom to Boardroom - Josh Williams What happens when a designer decides to quit his day job, hang his shingle, and wakes up seven years later nowhere remotely close to where he imagined he would be? This frank, semi-informal discussion on the pros, cons, and potential progressions of a designer’s career will explore the following: - Niching your design services - Crafting a salable product - The Web Designer of Tomorrow A serial designer-entrepreneur, Josh Williams is the founder and CEO of several well known web related companies and communities including Firewheel Design, Blinksale, and IconBuffet. He is an authority on visual design techniques for rich web applications and an expert iconographer. Recently Josh has served as the design director for Project Agape (Causes on Facebook) and currently he in the process of launching another secretive iconic web company. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 00:44:46 Josh Williams design career, freelance, web design product, entrepreneur, wdn08 no no It seems like there’s a new Ajax library or JavaScript framework coming out every week, and there probably is! Which is the best one to pick? Will you be up the creek without a paddle if you choose the wrong one? "Working with Ajax Frameworks" will delve into some common Ajax design patterns and how various frameworks can be used to meet those needs. We’ll also take a look at how we can keep our own code flexible as we bridge the gap between it and the various frameworks. Jonathan Snook is currently a freelance web developer based in Ottawa, Canada. A Renaissance man of the Web, he has programmed in a variety of languages, both server-side and client-side. He also does web site and web application design. Jonathan worked for more than seven years with web agencies, getting to work with clients such as Red Bull, Apple, and FedEx. He made the leap to freelance back in January 2006. Jonathan likes to share what he knows through speaking, writing books, writing for online magazines such as Digital Web and Sitepoint, and writing for his own popular blog at Snook.ca. He is the co-author of the acclaimed Accelerated DOM Scripting with Ajax, APIs, and Libraries, and of The Art and Science of CSS. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#snook Software How-To 9276BF9A-53A1-4D8F-BB91-0018C68EE53A Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:57:17 +1000 Working with Ajax Frameworks - Jonathan Snook It seems like there’s a new Ajax library or JavaScript framework coming out every week, and there probably is! Which is the best one to pick? Will you be up the creek without a paddle if you choose the wrong one? "Working with Ajax Frameworks" will delve into some common Ajax design patterns and how various frameworks can be used to meet those needs. We’ll also take a look at how we can keep our own code flexible as we bridge the gap between it and the various frameworks. Jonathan Snook is currently a freelance web developer based in Ottawa, Canada. A Renaissance man of the Web, he has programmed in a variety of languages, both server-side and client-side. He also does web site and web application design. Jonathan worked for more than seven years with web agencies, getting to work with clients such as Red Bull, Apple, and FedEx. He made the leap to freelance back in January 2006. Jonathan likes to share what he knows through speaking, writing books, writing for online magazines such as Digital Web and Sitepoint, and writing for his own popular blog at Snook.ca. He is the co-author of the acclaimed Accelerated DOM Scripting with Ajax, APIs, and Libraries, and of The Art and Science of CSS. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 50:27 Jonathan Snook AJAX, JavaScript, AJAX framework, JavaScript framework, AJAX design pattern, wdn08 no no When we follow the principles of web standards, we write valid HTML and CSS, unobtrusive JavaScript and follow WCAG and other accessibility guidelines. This simple act goes a long way to creating an accessible web site, application or service. At the same time, many sites that don’t utilize all that is good and wholesome about web standards perform surprisingly well when they are used by people with disabilities. How can we get the best of both worlds to create standards-based solutions that are highly usable for real people (including those with disabilities) in the real world? In this session, we’ll dissect several examples from real sites and apps to learn about accessibility problems that arise from design and development decisions and what we can do to create a more accessible user experience for all people, regardless of their ability. Derek Featherstone is a well known instructor, speaker and developer with expertise in web accessibility consulting. Derek delivers technical training that is engaging, informative and immediately applicable. A high-quality instructor, he draws on his background as a former high school teacher plus seven years running his web development and accessibility consultancy Further Ahead. His experience includes hands-on development, web accessibility consulting and training. He advises many government agencies, educational institutions and private sector companies, providing them with expert accessibility testing and review, and recommendations for improving the accessibility of their websites to all people. As a member of The Web Standards Project, Derek serves on two task forces: Accessibility/Assistive Devices and DOM Scripting. He is a dedicated advocate for standards that ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#featherstone Software How-To D750D21E-C443-4185-885E-3D3ADE50D904 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:05:10 +1000 Real World Accessibility for Real People - Derek Featherstone When we follow the principles of web standards, we write valid HTML and CSS, unobtrusive JavaScript and follow WCAG and other accessibility guidelines. This simple act goes a long way to creating an accessible web site, application or service. At the same time, many sites that don’t utilize all that is good and wholesome about web standards perform surprisingly well when they are used by people with disabilities. How can we get the best of both worlds to create standards-based solutions that are highly usable for real people (including those with disabilities) in the real world? In this session, we’ll dissect several examples from real sites and apps to learn about accessibility problems that arise from design and development decisions and what we can do to create a more accessible user experience for all people, regardless of their ability. Derek Featherstone is a well known instructor, speaker and developer with expertise in web accessibility consulting. Derek delivers technical training that is engaging, informative and immediately applicable. A high-quality instructor, he draws on his background as a former high school teacher plus seven years running his web development and accessibility consultancy Further Ahead. His experience includes hands-on development, web accessibility consulting and training. He advises many government agencies, educational institutions and private sector companies, providing them with expert accessibility testing and review, and recommendations for improving the accessibility of their websites to all people. As a member of The Web Standards Project, Derek serves on two task forces: Accessibility/Assistive Devices and DOM Scripting. He is a dedicated advocate for standards that ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 1:00:02 Derek Featherstone accessibility, web standards, WCAG, usability, wdn08 no no Crash Course in Adobe AIR There comes a time when web developers need to reach beyond the browser to allow users to go offline, use local files or get rid of the hideous browser chrome. The Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is an up an coming runtime technology that allows desktop applications to be developed with HTML, JavaScript, Flash or Flex. The AIR runtime and SDK are completely free so anyone can get started immediately. Andre Charland will will give an overview or AIR, the APIs you get access to and how to build a simple Flex and HTML application with it. From there we will explore some of the tools available to make AIR development easier and faster. We’ll finish up with a few important usability guidelines and real world case studies of AIR projects. A real world overview of Silverlight Seattle-based Jackson Fish Market helped deliver the Silverlight based search engine Tafiti, one of the earliest commercial Silverlight applications. In this presentation, Jackson Fish Market co-founder Walter Smith will give us a detailed overview of Microsoft’s RIA technology Silverlight. We’ll learn from Walter’s first hand experience the strengths and weaknesses of the platform, and see real world examples of what Silverlight can be used to achieve. If you are looking to evaluate RIA frameworks, or just get a sense of the emerging RIA landscape, this session will prove invaluable. Andre Charland ndre Charland is the co-founder and CEO at Nitobi Inc. He’s been involved in Internet software development for almost a decade. As an advocate for usability and user experience, he speaks regularly on Ajax and web usability. Most recently Andre presented at MAX, the Adobe AIR Bus Tour, and the Ajax Experience. Andre is the co-author of "Enterprise Ajax", published by Prentice Hall this summer, and maintains his own blog. Andre also plays with a ski blog in his spare time and will be buying beers for anyone who can keep up at Whistler during the ski trip :) Walter Smith Currently co-founder of Jackson Fish Market, Walter spent over a decade at Microsoft as a developer, architect, and development manager on a wide variety of projects, including Internet Explorer. Prior to his time at Microsoft, Walter spent 8 years at Apple working on the groundbreaking Newton project. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#charland-smith Software How-To 205C1804-3872-4318-A8FF-3D27BD0C2E27 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:00:24 +1000 Developing with Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight - Andre Charland and Walter Smith Crash Course in Adobe AIR There comes a time when web developers need to reach beyond the browser to allow users to go offline, use local files or get rid of the hideous browser chrome. The Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) is an up an coming runtime technology that allows desktop applications to be developed with HTML, JavaScript, Flash or Flex. The AIR runtime and SDK are completely free so anyone can get started immediately. Andre Charland will will give an overview or AIR, the APIs you get access to and how to build a simple Flex and HTML application with it. From there we will explore some of the tools available to make AIR development easier and faster. We’ll finish up with a few important usability guidelines and real world case studies of AIR projects. A real world overview of Silverlight Seattle-based Jackson Fish Market helped deliver the Silverlight based search engine Tafiti, one of the earliest commercial Silverlight applications. In this presentation, Jackson Fish Market co-founder Walter Smith will give us a detailed overview of Microsoft’s RIA technology Silverlight. We’ll learn from Walter’s first hand experience the strengths and weaknesses of the platform, and see real world examples of what Silverlight can be used to achieve. If you are looking to evaluate RIA frameworks, or just get a sense of the emerging RIA landscape, this session will prove invaluable. Andre Charland ndre Charland is the co-founder and CEO at Nitobi Inc. He’s been involved in Internet software development for almost a decade. As an advocate for usability and user experience, he speaks regularly on Ajax and web usability. Most recently Andre presented at MAX, the Adobe AIR Bus Tour, and the Ajax Experience. Andre is the co-author of "Enterprise Ajax", published by Prentice Hall this summer, and maintains his own blog. Andre also plays with a ski blog in his spare time and will be buying beers for anyone who can keep up at Whistler during the ski trip :) Walter Smith Currently co-founder of Jackson Fish Market, Walter spent over a decade at Microsoft as a developer, architect, and development manager on a wide variety of projects, including Internet Explorer. Prior to his time at Microsoft, Walter spent 8 years at Apple working on the groundbreaking Newton project. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 56:56 Andre Charland and Walter Smith Adobe AIR, RIA, rich internet application, Silverlight, Microsoft Silverlight, AIR, wdn08 no no Since the advent of personal computing, we’ve been tied to one place - typically sitting at a desk, with a keyboard and mouse, and in isolation. Even the advent of the web and the wifi-enabled laptop hasn’t much changed this quarter century old paradigm. But with the rise of mobile phones and devices like the Nintendo Wii and PSP featuring first class web browsing, our experience of the web will change dramatically over the coming years. In this context, which design and user experience patterns and techniques we’ve developed over the last 15 years hold up? And... which break? In this session, Dave Shea and John Allsopp consider the challenges we’ll face as the web devolves onto a myriad devices, and the web is "always on" wherever we are. Successful software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and expert, John has spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web. As the head developer of the leading cross platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based development, John is widely recognized as a leader in these fields. As a presenter and educator, John speaks frequently at conferences around Australia and the world. His idiosyncratic blog Dog or Higher covers a broad range of subjects, particularly in technology and innovation, and is widely read and referenced. John Allsopp Successful software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and expert, John has spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web. As the head developer of the leading cross platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based development, John is widely recognized as a leader in these fields. As a presenter and educator, John speaks frequently at conferences around Australia and the world. His idiosyncratic blog Dog or Higher covers a broad range of subjects, particularly in technology and innovation, and is widely read and referenced. Dave Shea Dave Shea is the creator and cultivator of the highly influential web site csszengarden.com, and co-author of the recently-published Zen of CSS Design (New Riders, 2005). The founder and design lead of Bright Creative in Vancouver, BC, Dave also writes for a large global audience of web designers and developers on his popular weblog, mezzoblue.com. His sites have won multiple awards, including Best of Show 2004 at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX. He speaks internationally at design and technology industry conferences, on top of being an organizer of Web Directions. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#allsopp-shea Software How-To 2CF2B465-2D9A-4606-84DC-AE4460FBF3D1 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:53:09 +1000 Where’s Your Web At? Designing for the Web Beyond the Desktop - John Allsopp and Dave Shea Since the advent of personal computing, we’ve been tied to one place - typically sitting at a desk, with a keyboard and mouse, and in isolation. Even the advent of the web and the wifi-enabled laptop hasn’t much changed this quarter century old paradigm. But with the rise of mobile phones and devices like the Nintendo Wii and PSP featuring first class web browsing, our experience of the web will change dramatically over the coming years. In this context, which design and user experience patterns and techniques we’ve developed over the last 15 years hold up? And... which break? In this session, Dave Shea and John Allsopp consider the challenges we’ll face as the web devolves onto a myriad devices, and the web is "always on" wherever we are. Successful software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and expert, John has spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web. As the head developer of the leading cross platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based development, John is widely recognized as a leader in these fields. As a presenter and educator, John speaks frequently at conferences around Australia and the world. His idiosyncratic blog Dog or Higher covers a broad range of subjects, particularly in technology and innovation, and is widely read and referenced. John Allsopp Successful software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and expert, John has spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web. As the head developer of the leading cross platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based development, John is widely recognized as a leader in these fields. As a presenter and educator, John speaks frequently at conferences around Australia and the world. His idiosyncratic blog Dog or Higher covers a broad range of subjects, particularly in technology and innovation, and is widely read and referenced. Dave Shea Dave Shea is the creator and cultivator of the highly influential web site csszengarden.com, and co-author of the recently-published Zen of CSS Design (New Riders, 2005). The founder and design lead of Bright Creative in Vancouver, BC, Dave also writes for a large global audience of web designers and developers on his popular weblog, mezzoblue.com. His sites have won multiple awards, including Best of Show 2004 at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX. He speaks internationally at design and technology industry conferences, on top of being an organizer of Web Directions. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 57:57 John Allsopp and Dave Shea mobile web, browsing devices, future of the web, wdn08 no no Content management systems have all but replaced the former art of publishing static HTML pages. From letting clients edit and add content, to content like calendars and forums that defy the "page" convention, dynamic interactive websites keep visitors coming back. At some point your website goes beyond just a site filled with HTML pages and actually becomes a full-fledged web application. From these features, we extract three stages of content management - simple content management, beyond the blog, and building your own web application. We’ll cover some of the products and approaches appropriate for each stage - Wordpress, MovableType, Expression Engine, Drupal, and Ruby on Rails will all be familiar terms when we’re done. As well, we’ll explore the following concepts: - the challenges of designing for dynamic systems: the need to think about template and interaction design - choosing open source: can you afford to choose an open platform? - the wild world of plugins and modules: get new functionality "for free" and what that actually means - frameworks vs. products: the build or buy decision Whether you have some experience with content management systems and are simply looking for new tools you can add to your repertoire, or if you’re trying to decide on the software you’ll implement when building new sites, this session will provide a solid grounding in the options available to suit your needs, budget, and level of technical expertise. A bona fide infovore, Boris co-founded Bryght in 2004 after convincing two of the world’s best Drupal developers to help build Bryght’s solution for turnkey online communities. Boris is one of the founding organizers of Northern Voice, one of the first North American blogging conferences, now heading into its 4th year. He also is active in many developer communities, helping put on BarCamps and the Open Source CMS Summit on multiple continents. Although Boris does all that CEO stuff at Bryght, his knowledge of user communities and the intricacies of online publishing also keeps him knee-deep in development and design architecture. He’s inspired by the team of people he works with and is driven by a passion to create "web tools everyone can use". Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#mann Software How-To DC27D794-13FE-4C61-9591-C4A0F4B06F93 Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:48:03 +1000 The 3 Stages of Dynamic Systems - Boris Mann Content management systems have all but replaced the former art of publishing static HTML pages. From letting clients edit and add content, to content like calendars and forums that defy the "page" convention, dynamic interactive websites keep visitors coming back. At some point your website goes beyond just a site filled with HTML pages and actually becomes a full-fledged web application. From these features, we extract three stages of content management - simple content management, beyond the blog, and building your own web application. We’ll cover some of the products and approaches appropriate for each stage - Wordpress, MovableType, Expression Engine, Drupal, and Ruby on Rails will all be familiar terms when we’re done. As well, we’ll explore the following concepts: - the challenges of designing for dynamic systems: the need to think about template and interaction design - choosing open source: can you afford to choose an open platform? - the wild world of plugins and modules: get new functionality "for free" and what that actually means - frameworks vs. products: the build or buy decision Whether you have some experience with content management systems and are simply looking for new tools you can add to your repertoire, or if you’re trying to decide on the software you’ll implement when building new sites, this session will provide a solid grounding in the options available to suit your needs, budget, and level of technical expertise. A bona fide infovore, Boris co-founded Bryght in 2004 after convincing two of the world’s best Drupal developers to help build Bryght’s solution for turnkey online communities. Boris is one of the founding organizers of Northern Voice, one of the first North American blogging conferences, now heading into its 4th year. He also is active in many developer communities, helping put on BarCamps and the Open Source CMS Summit on multiple continents. Although Boris does all that CEO stuff at Bryght, his knowledge of user communities and the intricacies of online publishing also keeps him knee-deep in development and design architecture. He’s inspired by the team of people he works with and is driven by a passion to create "web tools everyone can use". Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 58:45 Boris Mann CMS, content managment system, dynamic interactive websites, web applications, blogs, open source, plugins, modules, frameworks, wdn08 no no You know what blogs and wikis are, and you know your YouTube from your Facebook. But do you know how to make a compelling business case for these technologies? Social media and social networking tools are poised to have as much of an impact on business as they’ve had on the way we communicate with our friends and family online. Anil Dash, a blogger since 1999 who’s helped thousands of businesses make use of social media through his work at Six Apart, shares real-world examples of how companies are using social media to build their business. Six Apart is the world’s biggest blogging company, behind such platforms as Movable Type, LiveJournal, Vox, and TypePad. And even more important than where technology has been is where it’s going: Learn about cutting-edge technological initiatives like OpenID and OpenSocial, and how these aren’t just about new ways to poke your Facebook friends - they’re business opportunities. Finally, no change this big happens without thinking about the social and political realities of the business world. What works in convincing your company, your coworkers, or your boss to spend their time and money trying new things? This session will lead a conversation to find out. Anil Dash is Chief Evangelist at Six Apart, Ltd, the world’s leading independent blogging company. Dash is a recognized expert on blogs and web technology, having founded one of the earliest and most popular weblogs on the Internet, and been named as one of MSNBC’s Best of Blogs. A frequent keynote speaker, Dash has given presentations around the world about the future of social communication online, the relationship between blogs and traditional media, and business blogging. Dash’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, and on television, radio, print and blogs around the world. He has also had his work showcased in museums including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and lectured at universities including UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Columbia University’s School of Journalism, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Prior to joining Six Apart as its first employee, Dash worked in online communications and technology development for the publishing and music industries. When he’s not traveling, Dash lives in New York City with his favorite dog, cat, and human. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#dash Software How-To 5951CBA5-983E-4741-8420-72CDA239E01E Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:43:45 +1000 Serious Business: Putting Social Media to Work - Anil Dash You know what blogs and wikis are, and you know your YouTube from your Facebook. But do you know how to make a compelling business case for these technologies? Social media and social networking tools are poised to have as much of an impact on business as they’ve had on the way we communicate with our friends and family online. Anil Dash, a blogger since 1999 who’s helped thousands of businesses make use of social media through his work at Six Apart, shares real-world examples of how companies are using social media to build their business. Six Apart is the world’s biggest blogging company, behind such platforms as Movable Type, LiveJournal, Vox, and TypePad. And even more important than where technology has been is where it’s going: Learn about cutting-edge technological initiatives like OpenID and OpenSocial, and how these aren’t just about new ways to poke your Facebook friends - they’re business opportunities. Finally, no change this big happens without thinking about the social and political realities of the business world. What works in convincing your company, your coworkers, or your boss to spend their time and money trying new things? This session will lead a conversation to find out. Anil Dash is Chief Evangelist at Six Apart, Ltd, the world’s leading independent blogging company. Dash is a recognized expert on blogs and web technology, having founded one of the earliest and most popular weblogs on the Internet, and been named as one of MSNBC’s Best of Blogs. A frequent keynote speaker, Dash has given presentations around the world about the future of social communication online, the relationship between blogs and traditional media, and business blogging. Dash’s work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, MSNBC, CNN, ABC News, and on television, radio, print and blogs around the world. He has also had his work showcased in museums including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and lectured at universities including UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Columbia University’s School of Journalism, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Prior to joining Six Apart as its first employee, Dash worked in online communications and technology development for the publishing and music industries. When he’s not traveling, Dash lives in New York City with his favorite dog, cat, and human. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 1:00:13 Anil Dash social media, nocial networking, e-commerce, online business, OpenID, OpenSocial, wdn08 no no Mobile technology is poised to revolutionize how we gather information. By 2010 half the population of the planet will have access to the internet through a mobile device, making the mobile web an essential part of our lives. Yet the mobile industry has few if any resources to help would-be mobile developers from diving in other than applied experience from within the industry. Brian Fling is here to discuss the mobile ecosystem in Canada and abroad, how you go about developing an integrated mobile web strategy, mobile design and development principles and best practices, and most importantly, practical techniques and information to start creating mobile websites today. Brian Fling is a leader in interactive strategy and both the web and mobile fields. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies to help design and develop their web and mobile experiences. Brian is a frequent speaker and author on the issues on mobile design, the mobile web and mobile user experience. He has authored the dotMobi Mobile Web Developers Guide, the first free publication to cover mobile web design and development from start to finish. Brian also runs one of the largest online communities focused on mobile design. When he isn’t discussing mobile, Brian serves as co-founder and Director of Strategy of Blue Flavor, an interactive agency based in Seattle USA. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#fling Software How-To 95BD12D8-A1C3-4462-BE43-AA43C9425D8E Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:44:21 +1100 Mobile Web Design & Development - Brian Fling Mobile technology is poised to revolutionize how we gather information. By 2010 half the population of the planet will have access to the internet through a mobile device, making the mobile web an essential part of our lives. Yet the mobile industry has few if any resources to help would-be mobile developers from diving in other than applied experience from within the industry. Brian Fling is here to discuss the mobile ecosystem in Canada and abroad, how you go about developing an integrated mobile web strategy, mobile design and development principles and best practices, and most importantly, practical techniques and information to start creating mobile websites today. Brian Fling is a leader in interactive strategy and both the web and mobile fields. He has worked with several Fortune 500 companies to help design and develop their web and mobile experiences. Brian is a frequent speaker and author on the issues on mobile design, the mobile web and mobile user experience. He has authored the dotMobi Mobile Web Developers Guide, the first free publication to cover mobile web design and development from start to finish. Brian also runs one of the largest online communities focused on mobile design. When he isn’t discussing mobile, Brian serves as co-founder and Director of Strategy of Blue Flavor, an interactive agency based in Seattle USA. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 1:01:32 Brian Fling mobile web design, mobile web development, mobile web, wdn08 no no User interface design is an iterative process - the design of Digg and Pownce have been a study in evolution and adaptation. This talk will inspect the why and how of these iterations by looking at specific case studies from the two projects as well as previous client work Daniel has tackled. The case studies will examine specific user interface challenges that have arisen and will chop them up into their various bits. How do I identify a challenge? What is the best approach for getting started? How do I solve the problem conceptually and technically? How will I know if I solved the challenge successfully? Case studies have been selected that are especially pertinent outside of their specific contexts to help you in your everyday UI design. The presentation will focus on design inspiration, decision-making processes, technical solutions, and learning from missteps as part of a designer’s iterative process. Daniel is the creative director at Digg, a founder of Pownce, and a founder of the Canadian web firm silverorange. At silverorange, Daniel worked with a wide range of clients including Mozilla, Ning, Revision3, and Sloan. He’s since been lured to San Francisco after Kevin Rose dangled the prospect of In ‘N Out burgers and the opportunity to develop the user experience for the social news website Digg. As Digg’s creative director, Daniel has helped the site grow from a niche technology news site into one of the leading media services on the web with a massive and passionate community. Recently, along with Leah Culver and Kevin, Daniel helped found Pownce - a social network that lets you share files, events, messages, and links with your friends. Daniel works on feature development and the user interface of Pownce. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#burka Software How-To BE2943F0-3C31-42B5-9736-C6F703B91474 Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:38:48 +1100 The Why and How: UI Case Studies - Daniel Burka User interface design is an iterative process - the design of Digg and Pownce have been a study in evolution and adaptation. This talk will inspect the why and how of these iterations by looking at specific case studies from the two projects as well as previous client work Daniel has tackled. The case studies will examine specific user interface challenges that have arisen and will chop them up into their various bits. How do I identify a challenge? What is the best approach for getting started? How do I solve the problem conceptually and technically? How will I know if I solved the challenge successfully? Case studies have been selected that are especially pertinent outside of their specific contexts to help you in your everyday UI design. The presentation will focus on design inspiration, decision-making processes, technical solutions, and learning from missteps as part of a designer’s iterative process. Daniel is the creative director at Digg, a founder of Pownce, and a founder of the Canadian web firm silverorange. At silverorange, Daniel worked with a wide range of clients including Mozilla, Ning, Revision3, and Sloan. He’s since been lured to San Francisco after Kevin Rose dangled the prospect of In ‘N Out burgers and the opportunity to develop the user experience for the social news website Digg. As Digg’s creative director, Daniel has helped the site grow from a niche technology news site into one of the leading media services on the web with a massive and passionate community. Recently, along with Leah Culver and Kevin, Daniel helped found Pownce - a social network that lets you share files, events, messages, and links with your friends. Daniel works on feature development and the user interface of Pownce. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 49:31 Daniel Burka user interface design, iterative design, wdn08 no no What does Web 2.0 mean and, specifically, what does it mean for the future of governments? Tara Hunt has been speaking all over the world, talking to government audiences on this subject. She believes that Web 2.0 has very little to do with the technology and everything to do with people. Her talk will cover the main tenets of Web 2.0: openness, collaboration and community and what it means for government. "Miss Rogue" defines herself as a customer first, marketer second. In 2005, Tara became the marketing director at Riya, where her community marketing theories resulted in huge gains, such as national news mentions before launch and over one million photos uploaded within 24 hours of launch. She doesn’t believe in PR, only in the power of building relationships with a community. She co-founded Citizen Agency in 2006 with the mission of teaching her clients how to work more effectively with the communities they serve. Tara has over seven years experience in non-traditional marketing planning. She maintains a successful blog over at HorsePigCow. Speaking of community, Tara is a community-based movement evangelist, spending all of her free time on Barcamp, Coworking and Winecamp. She is also a supporter of the Open Source movement, the EFF, Creative Commons and the Intelligrid. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#hunt Software How-To 1223A8E2-FBEE-4B76-A37D-E1FCA1869C28 Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:35:24 +1100 Government 2.0: Architecting for Collaboration - Tara Hunt What does Web 2.0 mean and, specifically, what does it mean for the future of governments? Tara Hunt has been speaking all over the world, talking to government audiences on this subject. She believes that Web 2.0 has very little to do with the technology and everything to do with people. Her talk will cover the main tenets of Web 2.0: openness, collaboration and community and what it means for government. "Miss Rogue" defines herself as a customer first, marketer second. In 2005, Tara became the marketing director at Riya, where her community marketing theories resulted in huge gains, such as national news mentions before launch and over one million photos uploaded within 24 hours of launch. She doesn’t believe in PR, only in the power of building relationships with a community. She co-founded Citizen Agency in 2006 with the mission of teaching her clients how to work more effectively with the communities they serve. Tara has over seven years experience in non-traditional marketing planning. She maintains a successful blog over at HorsePigCow. Speaking of community, Tara is a community-based movement evangelist, spending all of her free time on Barcamp, Coworking and Winecamp. She is also a supporter of the Open Source movement, the EFF, Creative Commons and the Intelligrid. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 59:25 Tara Hunt web 2.0, e-government, government 2.0, wdn08 no no Security design is an important, but often neglected, component of system design. In this session, Douglas Crockford, creator of Javascript Object Notation, will outline the security issues that must be considered in the architecture of Ajax applications. The design of the browser did not anticipate the needs of multiparty applications. The browser’s security model frustrates useful activities and allows some very dangerous activities. This talk will look at the small set of options before us that will determine the future of the Web. During this session, attendees will: - Learn why effective security is an inherent feature of good design; - Experience a real-time demo of a Ajax client/server system based on sound security principles -See how to apply secure design to rich web applications. Douglas Crockford is a product of the US public school system. A registered voter, he owns his own car. He has developed office automation systems. He did research in games and music at Atari. He was Director of Technology at Lucasfilm. He was Director of New Media at Paramount. He was the founder and CEO of Electric Communities/Communities.com. He was founder and CTO of State Software, where he discovered JSON. He is now an architect at Yahoo!. He is the world’s foremost living authority on JavaScript. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#crockford Software How-To 731D0E7E-31A9-4ECF-8F6D-180FC3B7B05A Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:29:27 +1100 AJAX security - Douglas Crockford Security design is an important, but often neglected, component of system design. In this session, Douglas Crockford, creator of Javascript Object Notation, will outline the security issues that must be considered in the architecture of Ajax applications. The design of the browser did not anticipate the needs of multiparty applications. The browser’s security model frustrates useful activities and allows some very dangerous activities. This talk will look at the small set of options before us that will determine the future of the Web. During this session, attendees will: - Learn why effective security is an inherent feature of good design; - Experience a real-time demo of a Ajax client/server system based on sound security principles -See how to apply secure design to rich web applications. Douglas Crockford is a product of the US public school system. A registered voter, he owns his own car. He has developed office automation systems. He did research in games and music at Atari. He was Director of Technology at Lucasfilm. He was Director of New Media at Paramount. He was the founder and CEO of Electric Communities/Communities.com. He was founder and CTO of State Software, where he discovered JSON. He is now an architect at Yahoo!. He is the world’s foremost living authority on JavaScript. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 51:30 Douglas Crockford security design, system design, AJAX, securtiy, JavaScript, wdn08 no no Information visualization is becoming more than a set of tools and technologies and techniques to understand large data sets. It is emerging as a medium in its own right, with a wide range of expressive potential. Stamen’s work in visualization and mapping is among the most high profile online today, with the live dynamic displays at Digg Labs and Cabspotting being just two of many examples. The studio’s approach is deeply pragmatic, always starting with real data and aiming to work with graphics on screen as soon as possible. Though all analysis is a work in progress, a project is usually finished when it shows something nobody has seen before, or builds a vocabulary for describing a system, or offers more questions than answers. And then the process begins again. Rodenbeck will provide an overview of the studio’s recent projects, and insight into the studio’s working process. Eric Rodenbeck is founder and creative director of Stamen Design. He is a 10-year veteran of the interactive design field, and has spent this time working to extend the boundaries of online media and live information visualization. Eric led the interactive storytelling and data-driven narrative effort at Quokka Sports, illustrated and designed at Wired and Wired Books, and was a co-founder of the design collective Umwow. He has lectured and spoken at Yale University, the University of Southern California, numerous O’Reilly technology conferences, Esther Dyson’s PC Forum, and South by Southwest, among others. Eric studied architecture at Cooper Union in New York City and received a B.A. in the History and Philosophy of Technology from The New School for Social Research. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#rodenbeck Software How-To F48DA7E5-7273-44D2-973B-0F9625FA5BC3 Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:25:06 +1100 Information visualization as a medium - Eric Rodenbeck Information visualization is becoming more than a set of tools and technologies and techniques to understand large data sets. It is emerging as a medium in its own right, with a wide range of expressive potential. Stamen’s work in visualization and mapping is among the most high profile online today, with the live dynamic displays at Digg Labs and Cabspotting being just two of many examples. The studio’s approach is deeply pragmatic, always starting with real data and aiming to work with graphics on screen as soon as possible. Though all analysis is a work in progress, a project is usually finished when it shows something nobody has seen before, or builds a vocabulary for describing a system, or offers more questions than answers. And then the process begins again. Rodenbeck will provide an overview of the studio’s recent projects, and insight into the studio’s working process. Eric Rodenbeck is founder and creative director of Stamen Design. He is a 10-year veteran of the interactive design field, and has spent this time working to extend the boundaries of online media and live information visualization. Eric led the interactive storytelling and data-driven narrative effort at Quokka Sports, illustrated and designed at Wired and Wired Books, and was a co-founder of the design collective Umwow. He has lectured and spoken at Yale University, the University of Southern California, numerous O’Reilly technology conferences, Esther Dyson’s PC Forum, and South by Southwest, among others. Eric studied architecture at Cooper Union in New York City and received a B.A. in the History and Philosophy of Technology from The New School for Social Research. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 50:31 Eric Rodenbeck information visualization, wdn08 no no We’re at an exciting time in the development of web-based interfaces - along with a maturing front-end toolkit (CSS & JavaScript), there are so many technologies, trends and exciting ideas emerging that are enabling us to push the boundaries of interface design. Author, designer and code cowboy Cameron Adams will explore some of these areas and how they will apply to our development of online interfaces, including: the possibilities of front-end customisation, application interfaces, browser-native vector graphics, and the general duty of all web developers to make things interesting. Cameron Adams (The Man in Blue) melds a background in Computer Science with over eight years experience in graphic design to create a unique approach to interface design. Using the latest technologies, he likes to play in the intersection between design and code to produce innovative but usable sites and applications. In addition to the projects he’s currently tinkering with, Cameron writes about the Internet and design in general on his well respected weblog, and has written several books ranging in topics from JavaScript, to CSS, and design. His latest publication "Simply JavaScript" takes a bottom-up, quirky-down approach to the basics of JavaScript coding. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://north08.webdirections.org/schedule/#adams Software How-To 85966B54-7CF5-465C-83DC-D47145513D26 Fri, 4 Apr 2008 11:14:22 +1100 The future of web interfaces - Cameron Adams We’re at an exciting time in the development of web-based interfaces - along with a maturing front-end toolkit (CSS & JavaScript), there are so many technologies, trends and exciting ideas emerging that are enabling us to push the boundaries of interface design. Author, designer and code cowboy Cameron Adams will explore some of these areas and how they will apply to our development of online interfaces, including: the possibilities of front-end customisation, application interfaces, browser-native vector graphics, and the general duty of all web developers to make things interesting. Cameron Adams (The Man in Blue) melds a background in Computer Science with over eight years experience in graphic design to create a unique approach to interface design. Using the latest technologies, he likes to play in the intersection between design and code to produce innovative but usable sites and applications. In addition to the projects he’s currently tinkering with, Cameron writes about the Internet and design in general on his well respected weblog, and has written several books ranging in topics from JavaScript, to CSS, and design. His latest publication "Simply JavaScript" takes a bottom-up, quirky-down approach to the basics of JavaScript coding. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 51:00 Cameron Adams interface design, CSS, JavaScript, application interfaces, vector graphics, wdn08 no no Once seen as unsophisticated, childish and of low artistic value, comic-book art and culture has inspired artists and designers for generations and are now are often untapped resource for web design inspiration. In this session, designer and author of Transcending CSS, Andy Clarke will examine comic book layout, conventions and colour in the context of making inspirational designs for today’s web. Andy Clarke has been working on the web for almost ten years. He is a visual web designer based in the UK and started his design consultancy Stuff and Nonsense in 1998. As lead designer and creative director, his clients include national and international businesses, charities and government bodies. Andy is a member of the Web Standards Project where he redesigned the organization’s web site in 2006. He is also an invited expert to the W3C’s CSS Working Group. Andy regularly educates web designers on how to create beautiful, accessible web sites and he speaks at workshops and conference events worldwide. He writes about design and popular culture on his blog, All That Malarkey and is the author of Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa-nc/3.0/). Software How-To http://webdirections.org/podcasts/WD07/Andy_Clark.mp3 Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:59:11 +1100 In this session, designer and author of Transcending CSS, Andy Clarke will examine comic book layout, conventions and colour in the context of making inspirational designs for today’s web. Once seen as unsophisticated, childish and of low artistic value, comic-book art and culture has inspired artists and designers for generations and are now are often untapped resource for web design inspiration. In this session, designer and author of Transcending CSS, Andy Clarke will examine comic book layout, conventions and colour in the context of making inspirational designs for today’s web. About Andy Clarke http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/ Andy Clarke has been working on the web for almost ten years. He is a visual web designer based in the UK and started his design consultancy Stuff and Nonsense in 1998. As lead designer and creative director, his clients include national and international businesses, charities and government bodies. Andy is a member of the Web Standards Project where he redesigned the organization’s web site in 2006. He is also an invited expert to the W3C’s CSS Working Group. Andy regularly educates web designers on how to create beautiful, accessible web sites and he speaks at workshops and conference events worldwide. He writes about design and popular culture on his blog, All That Malarkey and is the author of Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa-nc/3.0/). 57:06 WebDirections 2007 web development, web design, web 2.0, CSS, HTML, XHTML, AJAX, user centered design, mobile web, usability, future of the web, API no no CSS level 2 became a standard in 1998. The last revision of HTML4 dates from 1999. That’s long time ago in Web years, but they aren’t forgotten: after several years of work, CSS is close to a revision and browser support is better than ever. It’s necessary, because CSS needs to grow: vertical text, columns, print support, complex layouts and much more is increasingly demanded. Likewise, there is a big effort to revise HTML. Interest is so high, the W3C is trying a new process, to let more people participate in the editing work. There are also new forms, standards for combining SVG and HTML and new work on the security of forms. Bert’s here to tell us: we haven’t seen the end of the Web page yet. Bert Bos was, in 1994, one of the original authors of CSS. He joined W3C in 1995 to set up W3C’s internationalization activity and was part of the groups that created HTML and XML. He is now coordinator for W3C’s style sheet and math activities. Bert studied mathematics in Groningen, The Netherlands, and holds a PhD from that university. He is co-author with Håkon Wium Lie of the book "Cascading Style Sheets: designing for the Web" (3rd ed., Addison-Wesley, 2005). Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa-nc/3.0/). http://www.webdirections.org/resources/bert-bos/ Software How-To 3DB9DB5D-5634-4B89-BD4D-262D92F2BAB6 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:16:07 +1100 A new life for old standards - revisions to HTML, CSS and others - Bert Bos. CSS level 2 became a standard in 1998. The last revision of HTML4 dates from 1999. That’s long time ago in Web years, but they aren’t forgotten: after several years of work, CSS is close to a revision and browser support is better than ever. It’s necessary, because CSS needs to grow: vertical text, columns, print support, complex layouts and much more is increasingly demanded. Likewise, there is a big effort to revise HTML. Interest is so high, the W3C is trying a new process, to let more people participate in the editing work. There are also new forms, standards for combining SVG and HTML and new work on the security of forms. Bert’s here to tell us: we haven’t seen the end of the Web page yet. Bert Bos was, in 1994, one of the original authors of CSS. He joined W3C in 1995 to set up W3C’s internationalization activity and was part of the groups that created HTML and XML. He is now coordinator for W3C’s style sheet and math activities. Bert studied mathematics in Groningen, The Netherlands, and holds a PhD from that university. He is co-author with Håkon Wium Lie of the book "Cascading Style Sheets: designing for the Web" (3rd ed., Addison-Wesley, 2005). Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa-nc/3.0/). 40:37 Bert Bos web standards, web standards revisions, wds07 no no In 1998 the American Dialect Society voted "e-" (as in electronic) as the "word of the year". This signified how important the internet had become in our world. Almost 10 years later we’re undergoing an even larger change. Only this time the "e-" prefix stands for "everywhere". Mobile content, services and commerce are changing the way we communicate, work and do business. And these changes are building upon the already massive revolutions brought about by the internet - only faster and made more pervasive. This presentation will look at the strategic issues facing managers and developers as they strive to adapt to this literally "moving" target. The session will be highly interactive in nature so make sure you bring your mobile device! Alex Young has been involved in online for over a decade, moving from instructional design, visual and interaction design through to project and people management within the education, training, TV and telecommunications fields. This journey has instilled a sense of purpose to strive for an optimal user experience for every solution or challenge that presents itself. As part of Mobile Online Business, Alex is focused on how to help companies communicate better with their customers by understanding the pervasiveness of emerging technologies and the ways to best utilise these to communicate with their customers. Rob has been modeling Information Architectures and IA driven business models since 1989. As the technology landscape evolved he moved from digital pre-press, to interactive media, to network applications and finally to pervasive computing. Now he has joined Mobile Online Business (MOB) and is focused upon exploring life after Convergence - a place where objects and their interfaces Diverge allowing you to control them anywhere, anytime. His primary goal is to provide MOB’s clients with hands on, real world experience with this intangible new world. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://www.slideshare.net/robman/e-is-for-everywhere-interactive-mobile-web-presentation Software How-To A67FC51D-B9DB-4C1B-8C2F-3131AB1A39B5 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:32:28 +1000 E is for everywhere: mobile content, services and commerce strategies in Australia - Alex Young and Rob Manson. In 1998 the American Dialect Society voted "e-" (as in electronic) as the "word of the year". This signified how important the internet had become in our world. Almost 10 years later we’re undergoing an even larger change. Only this time the "e-" prefix stands for "everywhere". Mobile content, services and commerce are changing the way we communicate, work and do business. And these changes are building upon the already massive revolutions brought about by the internet - only faster and made more pervasive. This presentation will look at the strategic issues facing managers and developers as they strive to adapt to this literally "moving" target. The session will be highly interactive in nature so make sure you bring your mobile device! Alex Young has been involved in online for over a decade, moving from instructional design, visual and interaction design through to project and people management within the education, training, TV and telecommunications fields. This journey has instilled a sense of purpose to strive for an optimal user experience for every solution or challenge that presents itself. As part of Mobile Online Business, Alex is focused on how to help companies communicate better with their customers by understanding the pervasiveness of emerging technologies and the ways to best utilise these to communicate with their customers. Rob has been modeling Information Architectures and IA driven business models since 1989. As the technology landscape evolved he moved from digital pre-press, to interactive media, to network applications and finally to pervasive computing. Now he has joined Mobile Online Business (MOB) and is focused upon exploring life after Convergence - a place where objects and their interfaces Diverge allowing you to control them anywhere, anytime. His primary goal is to provide MOB’s clients with hands on, real world experience with this intangible new world. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 48:43 Alex Young and Rob Manson mobile web, mobile content, management, wds07 no no There can be a feeling in the web development community that "SEO is evil" - Scott Gledhill cuts through the hype to focus on how developing accessible, standards compliant websites is the first step in creating search engine friendly websites - and also talks about what is being done in the industry to make websites more findable, sometimes at the cost of making them less usable. SEO is big business and it’s attracting a whole new breed of web practitioners into our industry. Learn the advantages that we have as web standards developers when it comes to the practice of search engine optimisation, as well as some of the disadvantages, and how to overcome them. We will discuss how to handle overzealous search engine marketers, how to find your way through the hype and buzzwords of the industry and, most importantly, how not to compromise your websites’ integrity, best practice development and usability when being confronted by SEO. Scott Gledhill is Web Technology Strategist at News Digital Media (NDM) in Sydney. He has lead several major redesigns of NDM websites, converting them from legacy table based layouts to standards compliant, accessible and search engine friendly websites. His current role involves strategy and education on search engine optimisation, accessibility and best practice web development across the broad network of NDM websites. Scott believes and practices a holistic approach of usability, design, development and findability, and communicates the end result across all areas of the business. Scott also moonlights as co-founder for molt:n digital, a Sydney based web consultancy. In his spare time he finds time to blog about SEO, accessibility and all things web standards on his website, standardzilla.com Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://www.slideshare.net/gleddy/is-seo-evil-web-directions-2007 Software How-To BDD5ED64-1382-434C-A9C1-A58AFD817354 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:43:58 +1000 Is SEO evil? - Scott Gledhill. There can be a feeling in the web development community that "SEO is evil" - Scott Gledhill cuts through the hype to focus on how developing accessible, standards compliant websites is the first step in creating search engine friendly websites - and also talks about what is being done in the industry to make websites more findable, sometimes at the cost of making them less usable. SEO is big business and it’s attracting a whole new breed of web practitioners into our industry. Learn the advantages that we have as web standards developers when it comes to the practice of search engine optimisation, as well as some of the disadvantages, and how to overcome them. We will discuss how to handle overzealous search engine marketers, how to find your way through the hype and buzzwords of the industry and, most importantly, how not to compromise your websites’ integrity, best practice development and usability when being confronted by SEO. Scott Gledhill is Web Technology Strategist at News Digital Media (NDM) in Sydney. He has lead several major redesigns of NDM websites, converting them from legacy table based layouts to standards compliant, accessible and search engine friendly websites. His current role involves strategy and education on search engine optimisation, accessibility and best practice web development across the broad network of NDM websites. Scott believes and practices a holistic approach of usability, design, development and findability, and communicates the end result across all areas of the business. Scott also moonlights as co-founder for molt:n digital, a Sydney based web consultancy. In his spare time he finds time to blog about SEO, accessibility and all things web standards on his website, standardzilla.com Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 1:01:02 Scott Gledhill SEO, search engines, marketing, SEO best practice, wds07 no no Hear all about the exciting possibilities created by these technologies from Google Australia. Raul has been involved in digital-media technology (video animation, graphics, image processing, printing) for over 25 years, as software developer, architect, entrepreneur, and team leader. He recently joined Google Australia where he is helping to build and manage the growing Engineering team. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://wds07talk.googlepages.com/slides.html Software How-To 9CDCCC70-0522-4CD0-9B4B-19E081E9B6E8 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:40:32 +1000 Mashups, web apps and APIs - Raul Vera. Hear all about the exciting possibilities created by these technologies from Google Australia. Raul has been involved in digital-media technology (video animation, graphics, image processing, printing) for over 25 years, as software developer, architect, entrepreneur, and team leader. He recently joined Google Australia where he is helping to build and manage the growing Engineering team. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 54:10 Raul Vera google, web apps, web applications, API, APIs, mashup, mashups, wds07 no no Forms. We all have to make ‘em, but few of us love ‘em. Aaron Gustafson believes that this is because we don’t understand them. In this session, we will explore forms from top to bottom, examining how they work and how their components can be incorporated with other elements to maximize accessibility, improve semantics, and allow for more flexible styling. You’ll get to see the complete picture with forms, including error, warning and formatting messages, styling and its implications, as well as best practices for manipulation with Javascript and Ajax. After getting hooked on the web in 1996 and spending several years pushing pixels and bits for the likes of IBM and Konica Minolta, Aaron Gustafson decided to focus full-time on his own web consultancy, Easy! Designs LLC. Aaron is a member of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) and the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS). He also serves as Technical Editor for A List Apart, is a contributing writer for Digital Web Magazine, and is quickly building a library of writing and editing credits in meatspace. He has graced the stage at numerous conferences including An Event Apart, COMDEX, SXSW, and The Ajax Experience and is frequently called on to provide web standards training in both the public and private sector. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/). http://www.slideshare.net/AaronGustafson/learning-to-love-forms-web-directions-south-07 Software How-To D1CBD4E0-E0C7-4FFD-AAB7-CA96C34B3CF4 Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:33:48 +1000 Learning to love forms - Aaron Gustafson. Forms. We all have to make ‘em, but few of us love ‘em. Aaron Gustafson believes that this is because we don’t understand them. In this session, we will explore forms from top to bottom, examining how they work and how their components can be incorporated with other elements to maximize accessibility, improve semantics, and allow for more flexible styling. You’ll get to see the complete picture with forms, including error, warning and formatting messages, styling and its implications, as well as best practices for manipulation with Javascript and Ajax. After getting hooked on the web in 1996 and spending several years pushing pixels and bits for the likes of IBM and Konica Minolta, Aaron Gustafson decided to focus full-time on his own web consultancy, Easy! Designs LLC. Aaron is a member of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) and the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS). He also serves as Technical Editor for A List Apart, is a contributing writer for Digital Web Magazine, and is quickly building a library of writing and editing credits in meatspace. He has graced the stage at numerous conferences including An Event Apart, COMDEX, SXSW, and The Ajax Experience and is frequently called on to provide web standards training in both the public and private sector. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/). 57:31 Aaron Gustafson form, forms, accessibility, semantics, style, styling, javascript, JS, ajax, wds07 no no Web designers and developers are a very practical bunch, often too busy with today’s challenges and workloads to find time to keep up with developments over the horizon. In this session John Allsopp looks at what trends that are important for web designers and developers and innovators generally - what future versions of browsers have in store, what devices people will be using to access the web, and more. A perfect complement to Bert Bos’s focus on coming web standard technologies. Successful software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and expert, John has spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web. As the head developer of the leading cross platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based development, John is widely recognized as a leader in these fields. As a presenter and educator, John speaks frequently at conferences around Australia and the world. His idiosyncratic blog Dog or Higher (http://blogs.westciv.com/dog_or_higher/) covers a broad range of subjects, particularly in technology and innovation, and is widely read and referenced. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://slideshare.net/johnallsopp/wheres-your-web-at Software How-To D6A2188C-DA24-46AD-B9B0-57A464E2C196 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:38:43 +1000 Trends and predictions in web technology - John Allsopp. Web designers and developers are a very practical bunch, often too busy with today’s challenges and workloads to find time to keep up with developments over the horizon. In this session John Allsopp looks at what trends that are important for web designers and developers and innovators generally - what future versions of browsers have in store, what devices people will be using to access the web, and more. A perfect complement to Bert Bos’s focus on coming web standard technologies. Successful software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and expert, John has spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web. As the head developer of the leading cross platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based development, John is widely recognized as a leader in these fields. As a presenter and educator, John speaks frequently at conferences around Australia and the world. His idiosyncratic blog Dog or Higher (http://blogs.westciv.com/dog_or_higher/) covers a broad range of subjects, particularly in technology and innovation, and is widely read and referenced. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 52:09 John Allsop future of the web, mobile web, web devices, wds07 no no Sometime shortly after Web Directions South concludes, somebody (probably a somebody in the "developing" world) will become the three billionth mobile phone subscriber. Good for the providers, of course - but the effects of the network on human social organization are far more profound. From the dhows of Kerala to the cities of China to the beaches of Cronulla, we’re all coming into contact with - and learning how to master - the subtle skills of spontaneous self-organization which are the essential fact of life on the network. We can get in front of this spree of self-organization - or get run over by it. Either way, mob rules are the new laws of business, politics, and culture. Known internationally as the man who fused virtual reality with the World Wide Web to invent VRML, Mark Pesce has been exploring the frontiers of media and technology for a quarter of a century. The author of five books and numerous articles, Pesce has written for WIRED, Feed, Salon, PC Magazine, and The Age. For the last three seasons, Pesce has been a panelist on the hit ABC show The New Inventors. From 2003 to 2006, Pesce chaired the Emerging Media and Interactive Design Program at the world-renowned Australian Film Television and Radio School. In February he received an appointment as an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney, and has gone on to found FutureSt, a Sydney media and technology consultancy. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=39 Software How-To 3F2812E1-31FD-45ED-8CB1-2B56C4670D9D Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:37:54 +1000 Mob rules - Mark Pesce. Sometime shortly after Web Directions South concludes, somebody (probably a somebody in the "developing" world) will become the three billionth mobile phone subscriber. Good for the providers, of course - but the effects of the network on human social organization are far more profound. From the dhows of Kerala to the cities of China to the beaches of Cronulla, we’re all coming into contact with - and learning how to master - the subtle skills of spontaneous self-organization which are the essential fact of life on the network. We can get in front of this spree of self-organization - or get run over by it. Either way, mob rules are the new laws of business, politics, and culture. Known internationally as the man who fused virtual reality with the World Wide Web to invent VRML, Mark Pesce has been exploring the frontiers of media and technology for a quarter of a century. The author of five books and numerous articles, Pesce has written for WIRED, Feed, Salon, PC Magazine, and The Age. For the last three seasons, Pesce has been a panelist on the hit ABC show The New Inventors. From 2003 to 2006, Pesce chaired the Emerging Media and Interactive Design Program at the world-renowned Australian Film Television and Radio School. In February he received an appointment as an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney, and has gone on to found FutureSt, a Sydney media and technology consultancy. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 55:12 Mark Pesce future of the web, networks, networking, hierarchy, wds07 no no You’re a great web designer. You craft beautiful interfaces, you’ve nailed standards based design, and you’re at the top of your game. So now what? Based on real world experiences, this presentation encourages you, the modern web designer, to ignore the title on your business card and to start thinking about your real role in the development process - what you have to offer, what your team really needs, and what you could do to dramatically increase your value on a daily basis. Justin French is a graphic-designer-turned-web-application-developer currently enjoying life working with the Ruby on Rails framework on a daily basis as a Senior Developer at Melbourne startup RedBubble, following a few years with US host TextDrive and many years contracting both locally and internationally. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://www.slideshare.net/justinfrench/justin-french-web-directions07 Software How-To F1243B5C-9219-4DFB-9C94-C2947619AEB1 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:20:18 +1000 Pushing beyond design - Justin French. You’re a great web designer. You craft beautiful interfaces, you’ve nailed standards based design, and you’re at the top of your game. So now what? Based on real world experiences, this presentation encourages you, the modern web designer, to ignore the title on your business card and to start thinking about your real role in the development process - what you have to offer, what your team really needs, and what you could do to dramatically increase your value on a daily basis. Justin French is a graphic-designer-turned-web-application-developer currently enjoying life working with the Ruby on Rails framework on a daily basis as a Senior Developer at Melbourne startup RedBubble, following a few years with US host TextDrive and many years contracting both locally and internationally. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 59:03 Justin French web design, web development, web development process, wds07 no no If there’s one thing about Web 2.0, it’s that we’re realising that there are actually people using the internet. It’s no longer about Human to Computer interaction, but rather Human to Human. Discover some of the user experience ideas and strategies behind the design of flickr.com, one of the richest Human to Human places on the web today. George Oates joined a company called Ludicorp back in the middle of 2003, having moved from Australia, where she had enjoyed a successful career in the web industry. At the time, Ludicorp was making a hilarious online game called Game Neverending and George jumped in, helping design game elements, the GNE universe, and how players interacted. It wasn’t long before Ludicorp shifted gears somewhat and decided to enter the photo-sharing space. The entire team were torn between wanting to keep doing fun game things and the need for money. So, they managed to find a way to blend the two, and Flickr was born! Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://webdirections.org/slides/OATES_web_directions_south.pdf Software How-To 62192B7E-B337-4C0B-AFF1-06204A85761A Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:16:43 +1000 Human Traffic - George Oates. If there’s one thing about Web 2.0, it’s that we’re realising that there are actually people using the internet. It’s no longer about Human to Computer interaction, but rather Human to Human. Discover some of the user experience ideas and strategies behind the design of flickr.com, one of the richest Human to Human places on the web today. George Oates joined a company called Ludicorp back in the middle of 2003, having moved from Australia, where she had enjoyed a successful career in the web industry. At the time, Ludicorp was making a hilarious online game called Game Neverending and George jumped in, helping design game elements, the GNE universe, and how players interacted. It wasn’t long before Ludicorp shifted gears somewhat and decided to enter the photo-sharing space. The entire team were torn between wanting to keep doing fun game things and the need for money. So, they managed to find a way to blend the two, and Flickr was born! Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 58:57 George Oates web 2.0, user centerd design, web design, user experience, wds07 no no Working in usability and user experience can give you some great insights into the product design process. Yet few organisations know how to take advantage of this information silo. As a user experience expert do you sometimes wish you could have more input into product ideas handed down from above? Ever wanted to have the ear of business strategists? Even be best friends with marketers and sales people? Stephen Cox explores some of the exciting things that can happen when the disciplines of usability and user experience are allowed to seep out into the realms of strategic and tactical design innovation. He approaches the field of ethnographic design research in practical terms illustrating how News Digital Media has come to embrace the idea of extensive customer research, and the benefits that this has brought to different levels of the organisation. You’ll see real world examples of what the team has achieved and learn how to connect some of the more esoteric and theoretical findings of research with tangible real world design solutions. Stephen Cox is the Design Research Lead at News Digital Media (NDM) in Sydney. His job involves working with the business to help extend the work of the user experience team from the reactive day-to-day project work into the areas of strategy and innovation. The design research team utilises a range of techniques and theories from the social sciences to help capture and understand the motivations of real people. Working with the user experience team, business units and business strategists, the design research team helps create practical, effective and innovative design solutions. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/). http://www.slideshare.net/stephen.cox/building-ethnography-into-the-design-process Software How-To 2E6D24E9-C553-4AD7-9010-B7AD7AF4110F Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:19:04 +1000 Making useful things no one knew they needed: building ethnography into the design process. - Stephen Cox, Working in usability and user experience can give you some great insights into the product design process. Yet few organisations know how to take advantage of this information silo. As a user experience expert do you sometimes wish you could have more input into product ideas handed down from above? Ever wanted to have the ear of business strategists? Even be best friends with marketers and sales people? Stephen Cox explores some of the exciting things that can happen when the disciplines of usability and user experience are allowed to seep out into the realms of strategic and tactical design innovation. He approaches the field of ethnographic design research in practical terms illustrating how News Digital Media has come to embrace the idea of extensive customer research, and the benefits that this has brought to different levels of the organisation. You’ll see real world examples of what the team has achieved and learn how to connect some of the more esoteric and theoretical findings of research with tangible real world design solutions. Stephen Cox is the Design Research Lead at News Digital Media (NDM) in Sydney. His job involves working with the business to help extend the work of the user experience team from the reactive day-to-day project work into the areas of strategy and innovation. The design research team utilises a range of techniques and theories from the social sciences to help capture and understand the motivations of real people. Working with the user experience team, business units and business strategists, the design research team helps create practical, effective and innovative design solutions. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/). 57:33 Stephen Cox usability, user experience, ethnography, wds07 no no Ajax brought about a host of new possibilities in online interfaces, but where are we going next? Cameron Adams will look at the evolution of dynamic interfaces; interfaces that truly meet the needs of all their users. Through the careful use of Web Standards, client-side scripting, and server-side intelligence, it’s possible to create interfaces that shape, adapt to, and predict a user’s needs. Cameron will also be examining how the emergence of browser-based technologies such as Canvas and SVG will change the way we think about interaction on the Web. Cameron Adams - The Man in Blue - melds a background in Computer Science with over eight years experience in graphic design to create a unique approach to interface design. Using the latest technologies, he likes to play in the intersection between design and code to produce innovative but usable sites and applications. In addition to the projects he’s currently tinkering with, Cameron writes about the Internet - and design in general - on his well respected weblog (http://www.themaninblue.com/), and has written several books ranging in topics from JavaScript, to CSS, and design. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://www.webdirections.org/resources/cameron-adams/ Software How-To 1FFFB34B-0472-422E-9BFF-39FD634A120E Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:11:22 +1000 The future of web based interfaces - Cameron Adams. Ajax brought about a host of new possibilities in online interfaces, but where are we going next? Cameron Adams will look at the evolution of dynamic interfaces; interfaces that truly meet the needs of all their users. Through the careful use of Web Standards, client-side scripting, and server-side intelligence, it’s possible to create interfaces that shape, adapt to, and predict a user’s needs. Cameron will also be examining how the emergence of browser-based technologies such as Canvas and SVG will change the way we think about interaction on the Web. Cameron Adams - The Man in Blue - melds a background in Computer Science with over eight years experience in graphic design to create a unique approach to interface design. Using the latest technologies, he likes to play in the intersection between design and code to produce innovative but usable sites and applications. In addition to the projects he’s currently tinkering with, Cameron writes about the Internet - and design in general - on his well respected weblog (http://www.themaninblue.com/), and has written several books ranging in topics from JavaScript, to CSS, and design. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). 59:04 Cameron Adams AJAX, interfaces, interface design, dynamic interfaces, web standards, Canvas, SVG, wds07 no no Web Usability is far more complex than User Testing and Interaction Design alone. And while interface design is an important consideration, there’s more to a usable site than what’s on the surface. We all know the importance of accessibility and web standards, so let’s take that knowledge one step further and into the realm of usability. In this session Lisa Herrod will redefine the common definition of usability by introducing a greater focus on accessibility and web standards. By taking a more holistic approach you will soon see why usability is more than skin deep. Lisa Herrod is the Principal Usability Consultant at Scenario Seven. The primary focus of her work is web usability, which she believes incorporates much more than just user testing. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, Lisa takes an holistic approach to web usability incorporating user research, accessibility, interaction design and web standards development. Having started in the web during the last century, Lisa is occasionally caught making jokes about font tags, layout tables and shims. Nobody ever laughs. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/). http://www.slideshare.net/LisaHerrod/usability-more-than-skin-deep Software How-To 0D2FE200-4EB5-4E5D-AD9F-E91BE60A17D1 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:21:56 +1000 Usability: more than skin deep - Lisa Herrod. Web Usability is far more complex than User Testing and Interaction Design alone. And while interface design is an important consideration, there’s more to a usable site than what’s on the surface. We all know the importance of accessibility and web standards, so let’s take that knowledge one step further and into the realm of usability. In this session Lisa Herrod will redefine the common definition of usability by introducing a greater focus on accessibility and web standards. By taking a more holistic approach you will soon see why usability is more than skin deep. Lisa Herrod is the Principal Usability Consultant at Scenario Seven. The primary focus of her work is web usability, which she believes incorporates much more than just user testing. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, Lisa takes an holistic approach to web usability incorporating user research, accessibility, interaction design and web standards development. Having started in the web during the last century, Lisa is occasionally caught making jokes about font tags, layout tables and shims. Nobody ever laughs. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/). 58:55 Lisa Herrod usablitiy, user testing, roles, accessibility, web standards, wds07 no no So you work at enterprise level. Lots of stake holders, lots of competition for time, need to deliver to multiple demands that ...POP up. All projects incur change over time, that’s the way of the world. Using a benefits driven approach to delivery rather than a process driven or methodology governed approach frees the team to think laterally, and be responsive to client demands. Agility is more than a project management approach, it’s a way of operation and culture that enables and manages rather than constrains change. Ben will unpick how a fluid agile team can be established and run within a constrained environment, AND deliver quality responsive services to a large organisation. Ben will present real world case studies and examples of how he has used agility cultured teams to deliver creative solutions to complex problems, without burning out the fun in our work. He will also demonstrate techniques on rapid modeling which can save you hours of labor over low yield tasks. All of which will give you the freedom to work more creatively and dynamically while meeting the highly regimented needs of your enterprise or Government clients. Ben Winter-Giles is a Consultant with SMS, is currently engaged at the Programme Management level of a whole of Government initiative with the Department of Treasury. Ben has over 10 years experience in Web, Design and Programme Management in the Government ICT sector. Ben also has specialties in enterprise level Human Factors Integration and user centered design for software. Recently Ben has focussed his efforts on the development of integrated management and tactical solutions. Aiming to free creativity and promote responsiveness and flexibility as a way forward for delivering effective design and development solutions within the highly contained Federal Government environment. Ben’s previous clients include, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Medicare Australia, Australian Taxation Office, and a large number of local government and Private sector clients. He is currently developing a Human Factors Integration assessment and blueprinting toolset. Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/). http://www.slideshare.net/benwintergiles/naturalprojectmanagement Software How-To 99EBE210-21AB-4CB3-BBAF-D1D90229DB43 Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:16:07 +1000 Managing agile projects within large organisations - Ben Winter-Giles. So you work at enterprise level. Lots of stake holders, lots of competition for time, need to deliver to multiple demands that ...POP up. All projects incur change over time, that’s the way of the world. Using a benefits driven approach to delivery rather than a process driven or methodology governed approach frees the team to think laterally, and be responsive to client demands. Agility is more than a project management approach, it’s a way of operation and culture that enables and manages rather than constrains change. Ben will unpick how a fluid agile team can be established and run within a constrained environment, AND deliver quality responsive services to a large organisation. Ben will present real world case studies and examples of how he has used agility cultured teams to deliver creative solutions to complex problems, without burning out the fun in our work. He will also demonstrate techniques on rapid modeling which can save you hours of labor over low yield tasks. All of which will give you the freedom to work more creatively and dynamically while meeting the highly regimented needs of your enterprise or Government clients. Ben Winter-Giles is a Consultant with SMS, is currently engaged at the Programme Management level of a whole of Government initiative with the Department of Treasury. Ben has over 10 years experience in Web, Design and Programme Management in the Government ICT sector. Ben also has sp