Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Hannah Donovan – Designing without the browser

Photo of Hannah DonovanDonovan argues the processes for the future lie in our more material-​​based graphic designer pasts, and our cousin disciplines of industrial design and architecture. After a decade of honing our newfangled browser-​​based skills, learn how to dust off and sharpen the tools of our roots.

Chris Wilson – Keynote: The Convergence of All Things

Photo of Chris WilsonThis keynote will focus on the unique potential offered to web developers — the ability to use the web platform to build compelling applications that reach across different devices, scenarios and environments. In discussing the approaches necessary to deliver great experiences across all these spaces, we will also uncover unique opportunities in a platform that reaches from mobile phones to the biggest display screen in your house.

Daniels Lee(tm) – Designing for the 10 foot UI

Photo of Daniels Lee™This talk outlines the most important best practices to keep in mind when designing web applications for TV. We’ll cover issues like directional pad navigation, user interface design for TV, color issues, and zooming, as well as discussing some unique opportunities for TV applications.

David Gravina – Design thinking and doing

David Gravina PortraitFrom the perspective of the digital domain this session will take a look at what Design Thinking is and it’s potential to amplify creativity so that we may embrace and apply our skills to the messy problems that business, government and society face every day.

Lisa Herrod – The Age of Awareness

Lisa Herrod PortraitSocial innovation, service design and even augmented reality are now presenting real and interesting opportunities for us as traditional web practitioners. Combined with inclusive design practices, this opens up a fantastic world of change for both us and the people for whom we design.

Paula Bray – Connected digital initiatives and strategies

Paula Bray PortraitThe Powerhouse Museum has been working towards making its digital initiatives widely accessible and to a broader audience, online and onsite, to enable a connected digital future. With a blossoming of blogging, significant Flickr and Facebook presences the Museum has been developing great connections with a new audience that has led the institution to rethink access with an emphasis on the importance of community connections and participation. This thinking has had an impact on the Museum’s Strategic Plan and several digital initiatives are now driving change within the organisation.

Daniel Davis – Widgets: Why should I care?

Daniel Davis PortraitWhen I was a young lad, I had the use of a computer for the Christmas holidays so I typed out my thank you letters and felt super cool. Unfortunately there was no printer. I wrote out by hand what was on the screen and got laughed at by my dad. Despite this, I felt I was ahead of the crowd and at the start of something new and exciting. Thirty years later, I feel we’re at the same stage with widgets – at the start of something new and exciting.

Dan Rubin – Creativity, design and interaction with HTML5 and CSS3

Dan Rubin PortraitHTML5 and CSS3 are the newest stars of the web: the cornerstones of progressive enhancement, the future of online video, the easiest way to build web applications for desktop and mobile devices, and a brilliant foundation upon which we can add complex interaction and animation layers with javascript and Canvas; happily — thanks to much-improved browser support — we can now use them. In this session, Dan Rubin will show you who’s already taking advantage of these latest additions to our toolbox, what this means for interface designers, and how you can bring the same techniques to your projects.

Paul Hagon – Enriching large data sets

Paul Hagon PortraitLibraries contain masses of beautifully structured data collected over many years. But these records may have their flaws and might now want to be used in ways, such as location based services, that weren’t imagined 30 years ago. How can we use existing API’s and web services to enrich this data to enable it to be used in a variety of ways. This data also needs to be exposed for others to use and build upon. With the recent release of the Government response to the Web 2.0 taskforce, how can institutions comply with these recommendations by providing their data in usable forms for the public. What’s involved in building an API into our resources and how can our data be given more meaning through semantic linkages like RDFa?

Josh Williams – Keynote: Where are we going?

Josh Williams PortraitDuring this brisk discussion we’ll separate fads from the future, debate native apps versus the mobile web, take an honest look at the hype behind geo-location, then take a step back to ask ourselves where the web—and we ourselves—are going. Hold on, it’s going to be a wild ride!

Andy Clarke — Keynote: Hardboiled Web Design

Andy Clarke PortraitAndy Clarke’s Hardboiled Web Design is an uncompromising look at how to make the most from modern design tools and browsers, up-to-date techniques and processes. In this practical, design focussed talk, Andy will discuss the ‘how’ as well as the ‘why’ and will challenge your preconceptions to help you make better work for the web.

Grant Young – Creating platforms for social innovation

Grant Young PortraitIn this presentation Grant Young will examine how innovative organisations are using social technologies and design methods to create multi-dimensional value — both for the organisational and community — and will explore the themes that underpin the examples with a view to applying them in your context.

James Bridle – Wrangling Time: The Form and Future of the Book

James Bridle PortraitThe internet has been around long enough now that it has a proper history, and it has started to produce media and artefacts that live in and comment on that history. James will be talking about his work with writing, books and wikipedia that hopes to explain and illuminate this temporal depth.

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Web Directions South is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development

Phil Whitehouse General Manager, DT Sydney