Web Directions Unplugged 2011, Seattle, May 12th 1:40pm.
Presentation slides
Session description
Dear app makers,I love the stuff you have been putting out recently. Supercool maps, guides, syncing and such make my day. There’s just one little thing. As a content strategist and writer, I’ve noticed that some of your instructions aren’t as clear as they could be. The experience is not as fulfilling as it might be. I know this might not be your favourite part of the process. In fact, they are probably the bits chucked in to get it out the door. And so I have created a session to help ease the pain.I have a framework for you to build on to make sure that your next app is as pithy as it is pretty and elegant to use as it is coded. I’ll even bring a whole virtual suitcase of apps with fantastic snippets of microcopy to inspire you. It’s a pretty simple concept and it’s a bunch of fun to work on, running alongside your app development.In one sentence: it’s about creating a fulfilling experience, one that puts you ahead of your competition, simply through the power of the written word.About Relly Annett-Baker
Relly Annett-Baker lives in a leafy market town with her husband and two small sons. As a result, she eats far too many cakes from Waitrose and can be guaranteed to stand on Lego at least once a day. As well as being content strategist and content writer for Headscape, she is employed as live-in domestic staff by two cats. She also writes articles and jabbers on about copy to anyone who will listen, creates scrapbooks, and continues to procrastinate over the draft for her book, a guide to creating web content for designers and developers, to be published in Spring 2011 by Five Simple Steps. She better finish this biography before her editor spots she isn’t writing her book again.Follow Relly on Twitter: @RellyAB
In one sentence: it’s about creating a fulfilling experience, one that puts you ahead of your competition, simply through the power of the written word.
Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 24 1.00pm.
Presentation slides
Session description
Humans are drawn to narrative we can engage with and we may have just found the perfect medium for this sort of narrative interaction in the internet. Every site, app or connection is full of the possibility of story – yes, even yours. Especially yours. But is your site making your user the principle character? Or are they just the forgotten redshirt? And who’s writing the script?In this talk, Relly will show you how narrative runs as deep through websites as it does through your favourite TV dramas, video games, comic books or musicals, and explain how you can write decent help for your users, define personality for your site and create documents to support everyone involved in creating that experience. These methods will allow your team to work together to create a site rich in personality and tell the story of your brand, right from the navigational opening set-piece on the homepage to the microcopy that is the closing curtain on a successful transaction.About Really Annett-Baker
Relly Annett-Baker lives in a leafy market town with her husband and two small sons. As a result, she eats far too many cakes from Waitrose and can be guaranteed to stand on Lego at least once a day. As well as being content strategist and content writer for Headscape, she is employed as live-in domestic staff by two cats. She also writes articles and jabbers on about copy to anyone who will listen, creates scrapbooks, and continues to procrastinate over the draft for her book, a guide to creating web content for designers and developers, to be published in Spring 2011 by Five Simple Steps. She better finish this biography before her editor spots she isn't writing her book again.Follow Relly on Twitter: @RellyAB
In this talk, Relly will show you how narrative runs as deep through websites as it does through your favourite TV dramas, video games, comic books or musicals, and explain how you can write decent help for your users, define personality for your site and create documents to support everyone involved in creating that experience.
Web Directions South 2010, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 14 2.40pm.
Presentation slides
Session description
By now we all know that the web is not a publication - that it's a living, evolving thing. But a lot of content I see still appears to be 'published' once and then left alone.This talk is about what happens after content is published. We'll talk about how to:- decide what to create in the first place (and what the best format is)
- identify which content types need to be left alone, and which need to be looked after
- revive existing content and give it a second wind
- check your content is still working for its readers
- put it to sleep when it is time
- put a process in place so you can do this yourself and with distributed content creators
About Donna Spencer
Donna’s a freelance information architect, interaction designer and writer. That’s a fancy way of saying she plans how to present the things you see on your computer screen, so that they’re easy to understand, engaging and compelling. Things like the navigation, forms, categories and words on intranets, websites, web applications and business systems.She’s been doing this professionally since 2002, is a regular speaker at Australian and international events and has just completed her third book.Follow Donna on Twitter: @maadonna
By now we all know that the web is not a publication - that it's a living, evolving thing. But a lot of content I see still appears to be 'published' once and then left alone. This talk is about what happens after content is published.
Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 2.40pm.
Presentation slides
Session description
Even in our day of web videos and podcasts, text is still the king of content on the web. Great typographic sensitivity is one of the hallmarks of sites that exude a professional confidence. From type sizing and coloring to leading, kerning, and measures to proper usage of quotes, dashes, and bullets, to choosing appropriate typefaces, this session will demonstrate using CSS and other modern web technologies to display type on screen with elegance and impact.
About Jeff Croft
Jeff Croft is a web designer and developer at Blue Flavor, an experience and design consultancy in Seattle. Beyond his work for Blue Flavor, Jeff is a blogger, speaker, critic, and industry thought leader. Prior to joining Blue Flavor, Jeff was a Senior Designer at World Online, an online journalism outfit responsible for a host of award-winning websites and the place of origin for Django, the Python-based open-source Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.Jeff has been designing and developing web sites nearly as long as there have been web sites to design and develop. He created his first web page in 1994 and got his first web-related job in 1995. Although Jeff possess many technical skills, his true passion lies in visual design, user interface, communication, and social media.
Jeff has recently co-authored two books, Pro CSS Techniques, published by Apress, and Web Standards Creativity, published by Friends of ED.
" ["post_title"]=> string(35) "Jeff Croft - Elegant web typography" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(680) "Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 2.40pm.
Even in our day of web videos and podcasts, text is still the king of content on the web. Great typographic sensitivity is one of the hallmarks of sites that exude a professional confidence. From type sizing and coloring to leading, kerning, and measures to proper usage of quotes, dashes, and bullets, to choosing appropriate typefaces, this session will demonstrate using CSS and other modern web technologies to display type on screen with elegance and impact.
A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.
Presentation slides
Session description
We all know that great content is a core part of the website user experience. So why is it so hard to find content that isn't dull, lifeless and uninteresting - blah, blah, blah?
Web content can be vibrant, interesting and fun. It can draw you in, fill your head and make you learn without having to think. And it's not really hard to write. Three simple tricks can turn poor content into a great experience - remember that readers care more about themselves than you; write in real words with authentic voice; play show and tell.
This presentation will discuss these principles, with plenty of funny and not-so-funny examples. You'll go away with practical steps to make your writing kick-ass. And you won't even have to think.
About Donna Spencer
Donna Spencer is a freelance information architect, mentor, writer and trainer. She has 8 years experience working in-house and as a consultant doing strategic and tactical design. She has designed large intranets & websites, ecommerce & search systems, business applications, design patterns and a CMS.
Donna is an experienced speaker who has taught workshops and presented sessions at local and international conferences, on information architecture, interaction design and whatever else crosses her mind.
She spends her (little) remaining time on the board of IAI and writing a book on card sorting. Sometimes she even gets time to weave and sew.
A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.
We all know that great content is a core part of the website user experience. So why is it so hard to find content that isn't dull, lifeless and uninteresting - blah, blah, blah?
Web content can be vibrant, interesting and fun. It can draw you in, fill your head and make you learn without having to think. And it's not really hard to write. Three simple tricks can turn poor content into a great experience - remember that readers care more about themselves than you; write in real words with authentic voice; play show and tell.
This presentation will discuss these principles, with plenty of funny and not-so-funny examples. You'll go away with practical steps to make your writing kick-ass. And you won't even have to think.
" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(13) "donna-spencer" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-07-21 01:35:29" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-07-21 06:35:29" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(59) "http://westciv.com/webdirections08/resources/donna-maurer1/" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } } ["post"]=> object(stdClass)#116 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(3255) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "7" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2011-06-04 12:15:43" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2011-06-04 02:15:43" ["post_content"]=> string(2698) "Web Directions Unplugged 2011, Seattle, May 12th 1:40pm.
Presentation slides
Session description
Dear app makers,I love the stuff you have been putting out recently. Supercool maps, guides, syncing and such make my day. There’s just one little thing. As a content strategist and writer, I’ve noticed that some of your instructions aren’t as clear as they could be. The experience is not as fulfilling as it might be. I know this might not be your favourite part of the process. In fact, they are probably the bits chucked in to get it out the door. And so I have created a session to help ease the pain.I have a framework for you to build on to make sure that your next app is as pithy as it is pretty and elegant to use as it is coded. I’ll even bring a whole virtual suitcase of apps with fantastic snippets of microcopy to inspire you. It’s a pretty simple concept and it’s a bunch of fun to work on, running alongside your app development.In one sentence: it’s about creating a fulfilling experience, one that puts you ahead of your competition, simply through the power of the written word.About Relly Annett-Baker
Relly Annett-Baker lives in a leafy market town with her husband and two small sons. As a result, she eats far too many cakes from Waitrose and can be guaranteed to stand on Lego at least once a day. As well as being content strategist and content writer for Headscape, she is employed as live-in domestic staff by two cats. She also writes articles and jabbers on about copy to anyone who will listen, creates scrapbooks, and continues to procrastinate over the draft for her book, a guide to creating web content for designers and developers, to be published in Spring 2011 by Five Simple Steps. She better finish this biography before her editor spots she isn’t writing her book again.Follow Relly on Twitter: @RellyAB
In one sentence: it’s about creating a fulfilling experience, one that puts you ahead of your competition, simply through the power of the written word.
Presentations about content
Podcasts, slides, videos and more
Relly Annett-Baker — Content Strategy for Apps
In one sentence: it’s about creating a fulfilling experience, one that puts you ahead of your competition, simply through the power of the written word.
See the slides and hear the podcast »
Relly Annett-Baker — Telling tales
In this talk, Relly will show you how narrative runs as deep through websites as it does through your favourite TV dramas, video games, comic books or musicals, and explain how you can write decent help for your users, define personality for your site and create documents to support everyone involved in creating that experience.
See the slides and hear the podcast »
Donna Spencer — Keeping your content alive from cradle to grave
By now we all know that the web is not a publication — that it’s a living, evolving thing. But a lot of content I see still appears to be ‘published’ once and then left alone. This talk is about what happens after content is published.
See the slides and hear the podcast »
Jeff Croft — Elegant web typography
Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 2.40pm.
Even in our day of web videos and podcasts, text is still the king of content on the web. Great typographic sensitivity is one of the hallmarks of sites that exude a professional confidence. From type sizing and coloring to leading, kerning, and measures to proper usage of quotes, dashes, and bullets, to choosing appropriate typefaces, this session will demonstrate using CSS and other modern web technologies to display type on screen with elegance and impact.
See the slides and hear the podcast »
Donna Spencer — Getting content right
A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.
We all know that great content is a core part of the website user experience. So why is it so hard to find content that isn’t dull, lifeless and uninteresting — blah, blah, blah?
Web content can be vibrant, interesting and fun. It can draw you in, fill your head and make you learn without having to think. And it’s not really hard to write. Three simple tricks can turn poor content into a great experience — remember that readers care more about themselves than you; write in real words with authentic voice; play show and tell.
This presentation will discuss these principles, with plenty of funny and not-so-funny examples. You’ll go away with practical steps to make your writing kick-ass. And you won’t even have to think.
Stay in touch
- Our awesome weekly newsletter:
- Twitter: @webdirections
- Keep up with the latest in HTML5, app development, platforms, devices and more at our blog, the web, unplugged
What do you know?
Live dev and design screencasts
State of Web Development Reports
Flip through our detailed reports focussing on the technologies and techniques used by web professionals around the world.
- State of Mobile Web Development (2011)
- State of Web Development (2010)
- State of Web Development (2008)
Slides and podcasts from previous events
- accessibility
- coding
- css
- data
- design
- development
- html
- innovation
- interaction design
- javascript
- mobile
- strategy
- usability
- user experience
- visual design
- wdn08
- wds07
- wds08
- wds09
- web standards
Jobs from jobs.webdirections.org
Post contract, part-time or full-time job offerings for web professionals of all types for free, or find properly qualified job openings as a web professional.

