Web Directions » web apps http://www.webdirections.org Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:02:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Wendy Chisholm & Charles Pritchard — Universal Access: now for apps as wellhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/wendy-chisholm-charles-pritchard-universal-access-now-for-apps-as-well/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wendy-chisholm-charles-pritchard-universal-access-now-for-apps-as-well/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:49:34 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=3262 Photo of Wendy ChisholmPhoto of Charles PritchardIn this session, Wendy Chisholm will help you understand the challenges to and solutions for creating accessible apps with web technologies. Wendy will cover WAI-ARIA, accessibility and HTML5, as well as some common accessibility pitfalls when designing and developing applications, particularly on mobile and tablet devices.

]]> Web Directions Unplugged 2011, Seattle, May 12th 2:40pm.

Presentation slides

Coming soon.

Session description

Many web designers and developers are motivated to create accessible sites because more people can use the site, more people can find the site, and more devices can access the site. As we migrate to HTML5 and CSS to develop applications, we further the opportunity to create far more inclusive results, no matter the preferences of your audience and no matter why they have those preferences: are they driving? riding in a bumpy bus? accessing content in the sun? or might they be blind?

In this session, Wendy Chisholm, co-editor of WCAG 1.0, author of Universal Design for Web Applications, and one of the leading experts in accessibility and universal access helps you understand the challenges to and solutions for creating accessible apps with web technologies. Wendy will cover WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications), accessibility and HTML5, as well as some common accessibility pitfalls when designing and developing applications, particularly on mobile and tablet devices.

About the presneters

Wendy Chrisholm
Photo of Wendy ChisholmIn this session, Wendy Chisholm, co-editor of WCAG 1.0, author of Universal Design for Web Applications, and one of the leading experts in accessibility and universal access helps you understand the challenges to and solutions for creating accessible apps with web technologies. Wendy will cover WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications), accessibility and HTML5, as well as some common accessibility pitfalls when designing and developing applications, particularly on mobile and tablet devices.Wendy Chisholm is an author, activist and developer. She co-wrote “Universal Design for Web Applications” with Matt May (O’Reilly, 2008), and before that co-edited Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and 2.0–the basis of most web accessibility policies. She has focused on inclusive web design since 1995. Being both a developer (B.S. in Computer Science) and a Human Factors Engineer (M.S. in Industrial Engineering/Human Factors), Wendy bridges communication between developers and designers. As a staff for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for 6 years, she helped synchronize work on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines with developments in internationalization and mobile design.

She is currently a Senior Strategist at Microsoft, where she works to make all web-related applications throughout the company accessible.

Her personal mission is to find elegant solutions that remove barriers that prevent everyone from participating fully in society. “I am an advocate for people with disabilities, people who are injured (especially vets) and people who are aging (i.e., all of us). I want to make inclusion a reality–both online and off”.

Wendy’s photo is courtesy of Matt.

Follow Wendy on Twitter: @wendyabc

Charles Pritchard
Photo of Charles PritchardCharles Pritchard has founded several startups during his fifteen years as a web developer. A web standards advocate and an early adoptee of HTML5, he has produced several canvas implementations enabling web applications to run on a wide variety of virtual machines. His current focus is on creating and maintaining accessible applications as a critical component of software quality.
]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wendy-chisholm-charles-pritchard-universal-access-now-for-apps-as-well/feed/ 0 Dave Orchard — Offline Web Apps with HTML5http://www.webdirections.org/resources/dave-orchard-offline-web-apps-with-html5/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/dave-orchard-offline-web-apps-with-html5/#comments Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:22:52 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=3271 Photo of Dave OrchardThere’s an old expression, that there are only 2 hard problems in computing: naming, cache invalidation and off-by-one errors. Building offline web apps is all about those hard problems. We’ll spend the bulk of our time on these hard problems, which is probably more useful than api description and sample code.

]]> Web Directions Unplugged 2011, Seattle, May 13th 11:30am.

Presentation slides

Session description

There’s an old expression, that there are only 2 hard problems in computing: naming, cache invalidation and off-by-one errors. Building offline web apps is all about those hard problems. There are some different ways of storing stuff — such as html5 caching, html5 storage, sqllite, and even native stores such as contacts and calendars — and we’ll sing their praises. But the really hard problems are knowing what to store, whether the stuff is still good or needs refreshing, how much to store, how to resolve conflicts between the client and server, how to integrate with data-specific stores, all in a bewildering cacophony of network and storage limited devices. We’ll spend the bulk of our time on these hard problems, which is probably more useful than api description and sample code.

About Dave Orchard

Photo of Dave OrchardDave Orchard is Mobile Architect at Salesforce.com and located in Vancouver, Canada. This means being involved in many mobile platforms, architectures, tools, technologies and APIs. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of Ayogo Games and focused on iPhone and ruby/merb/mysql based casual social games. Back further in the mists of time, he was the Web standards lead for BEA Systems for 7 years, including being elected three times to 2 year terms on the W3C Technical Architecture Group chaired by Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Follow Dave on Twitter: @DaveO

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/dave-orchard-offline-web-apps-with-html5/feed/ 0 David Peterson — Semantic web for distributed social networkshttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/david-peterson-semantic-web-for-distributed-social-networks/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/david-peterson-semantic-web-for-distributed-social-networks/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:24:39 +0000 jessie http://www.webdirections.org/?p=953 Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 26 2.40pm.

David Peterson PortraitHear how Drupal, Semantic MediaWiki and other bleeding edge tech were enlisted along with pixie dust, FOAF, RDF, OWL, SPARQL, Linked Data (basically all the Semantic Web stuff) to build a distributed social network. The focus will be not on evangelism (I don’t really care about that) but how disparate open source platforms can talk and work together. This stuff actually works and makes development more fluid. These technologies make local development easier, but when it is time to broaden your scope, classic search is still king. How can you leverage this? Newcomers such as Yahoo Searchmonkey can play an important role in the creation of a truly distributed information system.

]]> Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 26 2.40pm.

Presentation slides

Session description

Hear how Drupal, Semantic MediaWiki and other bleeding edge tech were enlisted along with pixie dust, FOAF, RDF, OWL, SPARQL, Linked Data (basically all the Semantic Web stuff) to build a distributed social network. The focus will be not on evangelism (I don’t really care about that) but how disparate open source platforms can talk and work together. This stuff actually works and makes development more fluid. These technologies make local development easier, but when it is time to broaden your scope, classic search is still king. How can you leverage this? Newcomers such as Yahoo Searchmonkey can play an important role in the creation of a truly distributed information system.

About David Peterson

Portrait of David PetersonDavid Peterson has been a web developer since 1995. He works way up north in the tropics of Townsville, about as far from any tech as possible. Currently he is Head of Research at BoaB interactive and is working hard to kickstart the Semantic Web down under. Not only that, but he is an Advisory Committee representative to the W3C. Wow.

His wonderful family, making lovely photographs and searching for the perfect espresso keeps him happy.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/david-peterson-semantic-web-for-distributed-social-networks/feed/ 2 Myles Eftos — Web APIs, Oauth and OpenID: A developer’s guidehttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/myles-eftos-web-apis-oauth-and-openid-a-developers-guide/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/myles-eftos-web-apis-oauth-and-openid-a-developers-guide/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:37:04 +0000 jessie http://www.webdirections.org/?p=943 Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 26 1.40pm.

Myles Eftos PortraitOnline web applications are big business, with many people relying on the cloud for data storage and workflow. These days, an API is an essential part of any online system, but this presents authentication and authorisation issues for the humble web developer. Learn how to create Web APIs, how OpenID and Oauth works and what you need to do to implement them.

]]> Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 26 1.40pm.

Presentation slides

Session description

Online web applications are big business, with many people relying on the cloud for data storage and workflow. These days, an API is an essential part of any online system, but this presents authentication and authorisation issues for the humble web developer. Learn how to create Web APIs, how OpenID and Oauth works and what you need to do to implement them.

About Myles Eftos

Portrait of Myles EftosMyles is a Perth-based Web developer who feels as at home building INNER JOINS as he does calculating the specificity of CSS selectors. He has worked in all the major web languages, with his weapon of choice being Ruby on Rails. He is a big advocate of semantic CSS, and unobtrusive JavaScript. He has a weakness for code double dares, many of which have resulted in crazy experiments, such as @baggygreen: a twitter cricket commentator and a version of Super Mario Bros. written entirely in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

During his 8-years in the industry, working under the moniker of MadPilot Productions, he has worked with pretty much everyone in Perth. He has also been on the committee of the Australian Web Industry Association since it’s inception, currently residing in the role of event coordinator.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/myles-eftos-web-apis-oauth-and-openid-a-developers-guide/feed/ 0 Robert Hoekman Jr — The essential elements of great web applicationshttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/robert-hoekman-jr/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/robert-hoekman-jr/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:20:21 +0000 Maxine http://westciv.com/webdirections08/resources/robert-hoekman-jr/ A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008, and Web Direction Government, Old Parliament House, Canberra, May 19 2008.

Robert Hoekman, Jr PortraitMost great web applications have a few key things in common. But can you name them? Better yet — can you achieve them consistently in your own projects?

In this closing keynote, Robert Hoekman, Jr., author of the Amazon bestseller Designing the Obvious (New Riders) describes the seven qualities of great web-based software and how to achieve each and every one of them by learning to communicate through design. See why it's important to build only what's absolutely essential, apply instructive design, create error-proof interactions, surface commonly-used features, and more in this informative session that will change the way you work and enable your users to walk away from your software feeling productive, respected, and smart.

]]> A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008, and Web Direction Government, Old Parliament House, Canberra, May 19 2008.

Presentation slides

Session description

Most great web applications have a few key things in common. But can you name them? Better yet — can you achieve them consistently in your own projects?

In this closing keynote, Robert Hoekman, Jr., author of the Amazon bestseller Designing the Obvious (New Riders) describes the seven qualities of great web-based software and how to achieve each and every one of them by learning to communicate through design. See why it’s important to build only what’s absolutely essential, apply instructive design, create error-proof interactions, surface commonly-used features, and more in this informative session that will change the way you work and enable your users to walk away from your software feeling productive, respected, and smart.

About Robert Hoekman

Robert Hoekman, Jr PortraitRobert Hoekman, Jr., is the founder of Miskeeto, a product development and web design consultancy focused on socially-conscious projects that improve the world.

He’s a passionate and outspoken interaction designer, writer, and user-experience evangelist who has written dozens of articles and has worked with Adobe, Automattic, United Airlines, DoTheRightThing.com, Go Daddy Software, and countless others to create superior user experiences for a wide range of audiences. He also gives in-house training sessions and speaks regularly at industry events like Adobe MAX, Flashforward, SxSW, Future of Web Design, and others.

Robert is the author of the Amazon bestseller Designing the Obvious, which focuses on seven guiding principles of great web-based software and how to leverage them in any real-world project. Learn more about Robert through his blog at rhjr.net.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/robert-hoekman-jr/feed/ 1 Jenny Telford — Opening up government datahttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/jenny-telford/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jenny-telford/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:28:50 +0000 Maxine http://westciv.com/webdirections08/resources/jenny-telford/ A presentation given at Web Directions Government, Old Parliament House, Canberra, May 19 2008.

Jenny Telford PortraitMapping and other mashups have taken the web world by storm - driving innovation in business and government alike. While much of the focus has been on the actual mashup applications, without the data to mashup, we have no mashups. Government, from local to Federal level, collect and manage a significant amount of data, across a very broad range of areas. But giving access to this data to web application developers has technical, policy and legal challenges. In this presentation, Jenny Telford of the ABS looks at these issues from their experience of opening up data from the Australian Census.

]]> A presentation given at Web Directions Government, Old Parliament House, Canberra, May 19 2008.

Presentation slides

Session description

Mapping and other mashups have taken the web world by storm — driving innovation in business and government alike. While much of the focus has been on the actual mashup applications, without the data to mashup, we have no mashups. Government, from local to Federal level, collect and manage a significant amount of data, across a very broad range of areas. But giving access to this data to web application developers has technical, policy and legal challenges. In this presentation, Jenny Telford of the ABS looks at these issues from their experience of opening up data from the Australian Census.

About Jenny Telford

Jenny Telford PortraitJenny Telford is currently the Director of Census Products and Services at the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Jenny has worked in the government sector for over ten years in roles focused on the delivery of data and information through the internet and other channels. The ABS is one of the largest information providers in the country and freely provides data through the website on a range of social, economic and environmental issues.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jenny-telford/feed/ 0 Andy Budd — Designing the experience curvehttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/andy-budd/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/andy-budd/#comments Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:02:35 +0000 Maxine http://westciv.com/webdirections08/resources/andy-budd/ A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.

Andy Budd PortraitThese days people expect more from a website than a handy set of tools and a pretty interface — they want an experience. From the moment somebody enters your site they'll be judging you on everything from the way the site looks to the tone of your error messages. And they won't just be judging you against other sites. They will be judging you on every customer experience they have ever had, from the rude man at the train station to the lovely hotel clerk that checked them in on holiday. So in order to compete, we need to up our game and look at experiences both on and off-line.

In this session Andy Budd will look at the 9 key factors that go into designing the perfect customer experience. By taking examples from the world around us, Andy will discuss how we can turn utilitarian experiences into something wonderful.

]]> A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.

Presentation slides

Session description

These days people expect more from a website than a handy set of tools and a pretty interface — they want an experience. From the moment somebody enters your site they’ll be judging you on everything from the way the site looks to the tone of your error messages. And they won’t just be judging you against other sites. They will be judging you on every customer experience they have ever had, from the rude man at the train station to the lovely hotel clerk that checked them in on holiday. So in order to compete, we need to up our game and look at experiences both on and off-line.

In this session Andy Budd will look at the 9 key factors that go into designing the perfect customer experience. By taking examples from the world around us, Andy will discuss how we can turn utilitarian experiences into something wonderful.

About Andy Budd

Andy Budd PortraitAndy Budd is an interaction designer and web standards developer from Brighton, England. As the user experience lead at Clearleft, Andy spends his time helping clients improve their customers online experience.

Andy is a regular speaker at international design events such as SXSW, An Event Apart and Web Design World. He also runs the popular dConstruct conference, which takes place in Brighton every year. Andy has helped judge several international design awards and currently sits on the advisory board for .Net magazine. Andy wrote the best selling book, CSS Mastery and blogs at andybudd.com.

Never happier than when he’s diving some remote tropical atoll, Andy is a qualified PADI dive instructor and retired shark wrangler.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/andy-budd/feed/ 5 Gina Trapani — Better Gmail: How Google Opened Gmail’s Web Interface to Any Developer Who Cares (And Why You Should)http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-gina-trapani/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-gina-trapani/#comments Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:47:53 +0000 jessie http://www.webdirections.org/resources/gina-trapani-better-gmail-how-google-opened-gmail%e2%80%99s-web-interface-to-any-developer-who-cares-and-why-you-should/ A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 30 2008.

Gina Trapani PortraitLast 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.

]]> A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 30 2008.

Presentation slides

Session description

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.

About Gina Trapani

Gina Trapani Portrait

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.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-gina-trapani/feed/ 0 Brian Oberkirch – “Plays Well With Others”: Simple Things to Make the Social Parts of your Service More Socialhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-brian-oberkirch/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-brian-oberkirch/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 06:22:55 +0000 jessie http://www.webdirections.org/resources/brian-oberkirch-%e2%80%93-%e2%80%9cplays-well-with-others%e2%80%9d-simple-things-to-make-the-social-parts-of-your-service-more-social/ A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 30 2008.

Brian Oberkirch Portrait Not only are most Web applications going to have (or utilize) social components — they’re also going to have start sharing social information like profiles, contact lists and such with other services. The ’social network fatigue’ users feel and the inefficiencies of keeping this information in multiple spots will drive us to play better with other social apps. This session will focus on using simple building blocks and emerging design patterns to keep it simple for users, for you and for the open social Web at large.

]]> A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 30 2008.

We’re sorry, the podcast for this presentation is unfortunately not available.

Presentation slides

Session description

Not only are most Web applications going to have (or utilize) social components — they’re also going to have start sharing social information like profiles, contact lists and such with other services. The ’social network fatigue’ users feel and the inefficiencies of keeping this information in multiple spots will drive us to play better with other social apps. This session will focus on using simple building blocks and emerging design patterns to keep it simple for users, for you and for the open social Web at large.

About Brian Oberkirch

Brian Oberkirch Portrait

Brian is a marketing consultant focused on social media and product/service development. He does social media consulting and projects for companies and marketing agencies of all sizes, helping them use these new tools to have better conversations with those who matter to their business.

In his past lives, Brian was a marketing consultant and writer for hire, managed national brand accounts at large and small advertising and PR shops, started a social media consultancy called Weblogs Work and helped build a suite of applications for those clients, taught literature and creative writing, wrote newspaper articles, did the morning news at a radio station, and many other things.

Brian writes frequently on these and related issues at ‘like it matters‘.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-brian-oberkirch/feed/ 0 Andre Charland & Walter Smith – Developing With Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlighthttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-charland-smith/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-charland-smith/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2008 05:31:00 +0000 jessie http://www.webdirections.org/resources/wdn08-charland-smith/ A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 31 2008.

Crash Course in Adobe AIR

Andre Charlan Portrait 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

Walter Smith PortraitSeattle-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.

]]> A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 31 2008.

Presentation slides — Crash Course in Adobe AIR

Presentation slides — A real world overview of Silverlight

Session description

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.

About Andre Charland

Andre Charlan Portrait

Andre 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:)

About Walter Smith

Walter Smith Portrait

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.

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