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webdirections | september 26-29 2006

Web Directions 06 was four days of education, enlightenment, inspiration, knowledge sharing, and networking. Over the coming weeks we'll be making the podcasts available, so make sure you subscribe, and we've already got some of the speaker's notes and slides to hand - more to come soon! You'll find all of these in the WD06 resources section of the site

Web Directions Blog

Discount pricing about to end

We’re now just on a month away from Web Directions ‘06, and discount pricing of just $AUD850 ends this Monday the 4th of September at midnight AEST, so now is the time to get in if you’ve been trying to make up your mind: register now.

Last year’s conference well and truly sold out, and while we’ve added capacity, we can’t guarantee there won’t be more disappointment this year as well. Note too that the registration doesn’t have to be paid for by the 4th, it just needs to be in our system.

Like all great conferences, Web Directions doesn’t just begin and end with world class content and speakers - we also feature plenty of opportunities to meet and get to know others in our industry, with the conference fully catered, and with two great evening events -

• The Web Directions reception, featuring the awarding of the inaugural McFarlane Prize for Excellence in Australian Web Design, and a book signing by a number of our speakers
• The closing night party, brought to you by Sitepoint, featuring Ajax and design expert Cameron “the man in blue” Adams as DJ

Web Directions will be an opportunity to meet people from all over Australia doing what you do - designing and developing for the web. At previous conferences we’ve had people from every state and territory, in local, state and federal government, secondary and post-secondary education, not for profit, small, medium and large enterprises. So whatever your role in the web, you’ll find plenty of people just like you to swap stories and ideas with.

So, come and be informed and inspired by local and world experts, meet your peers and colleagues, and go away ready to build even better web sites and applications.

We look forward to seeing you in Sydney at the end of September.

Posted by Maxine on 31/08/06 at 12:57 pm | 1 Comment »

Calling all usability mavens

World Usability Day promotes the value of usability, user-centred design, and everyone’s desire for things that work better. This year, it will take place on Tuesday 14 November.

Over the course of 36 hours, events will be held around the globe. Last year, Sydney was among 70 cities in 30 countries which played host to free, public events. For each event, usability professionals dedicated a few hours of their time to get out the word that usability counts. Events included panel discussions, workshops, clinics, outdoor ’scavenger hunts’ and more. And the topics went beyond traditional web usability to cover product design, mobile devices, ergonomics and more.

With 75 days to go before the big day, planning is already in place for an event – or a series of events – to take place here in Sydney. Interested in being involved?

Different is looking for assistance in getting things off the ground. That means deciding what the event will be, who will participate, where it will be held, and how it will be publicised. It’s crucial to the success of the event that it’s run by people from across the industry.

If you’re interested in making our local event part of the global success of World Usability Day, come along to a planning session this Friday, 1 September.

The informal get-together will be held at Different’s wharf-side offices in Pyrmont. Things will start at 4pm, and drinks and some delicious barbeque food will be available, as a small incentive for your participation!

If you would like to attend, please RSVP via email no later than COB Thursday 31 August 2006 and we will confirm your invitation.

Please forward this email to any other usability/user research/information architecture/experience design professionals in and around Sydney, who might like to take part.

Make yourself useful on November 14th.

Posted by Maxine on 30/08/06 at 1:58 pm | No Comments »

McFarlane Prize nominations close August 31

With all the other things going on round here in the lead up to Web Directions and more, the closing date for nominations for the McFarlane Prize has almost come by unnoticed. Nominations close this Thursday, August 31.

If you missed the announcement, the Prize is for Excellence in Australian web design, and is open to any Australian designers and developers, for a site completed between September 1 2005 and August 31 2006.

More details are here, and nominations are simply via this form, no cost, no fuss, it will take all of two minutes.

So far we’ve been really overwhelmed by the number and quality of the nominations. So thanks to all who nominated, and if you haven’t yet, you’ve got two days to do so.

Posted by John on 29/08/06 at 7:55 pm | No Comments »

Dan Saffer - Designing for Interaction

Dan Saffer, who will be coming to Sydney for the Oz-IA Conference and Retreat will also be presenting the latest Adaptive Path workshop, Designing for Interaction, for Web Directions on September 26. This exciting new workshop is based on Dan’s recently released book of the same title.

Explore the new design discipline that is behind such products as the iPod and innovative Web sites like Flickr. While other books on this subject are either aimed at more seasoned practitioners or else are too focused on a particular medium like software, this guide will take a more holistic approach to the discipline, looking at interaction design for the Web, software, and devices. It is the only interaction design book that is coming from a designers point of view rather than that of an engineer.

The book will be available for purchase at discount during the workshop and at Web Directions. Dan says:

I’ve been pleased with the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Designing for Interaction. Managers are buying copies for every member of their teams. Universities are adding it to their curriculums. And the reviews have been great! Gino Zanhd of Push Button For just called the book “bold and pioneering work,” so I’m very pleased. I can’t wait to attend Web Directions and hope the workshop I’m teaching there brings the best parts of the book to life, inspiring and educating.

For more on Dan and Designing for Interaction, check out

• interview in BusinessWeek
• podcast interview
• interview at the Adaptive Path site

Places are still available for the all day, fully catered workshop. Sadly in Australia it’s not every day that you get to learn directly from someone with Dan’s level of experience. Don’t miss out on this one-off opportunity.

Posted by Maxine on 28/08/06 at 8:55 am | No Comments »

So just what are these microformat thingies?

Web Directions organizer, John Allsopp, who’ll also be speaking on microformats at the conference, has just published a detailed introductory article at Think Vitamin.

He’s also just started a blog focussed on microformats, microformatique, for news, events, ideas, articles, interviews and more from the world of microformats.

John’s presentation is “Microformats: an evolutionary revolution” (nod to Ryan King for the title, from a blog post of his. It captures the spirit of microformats very well indeed)

Posted by John on 27/08/06 at 10:31 am | No Comments »

The Future of Web Apps - Sep 13-14, San Francisco

How cool would this be? Would love to be able to do something like this here in Australia, but unfortunately the tyranny of distance still works against us. If you’ve got an interest in web apps (and who hasn’t in 2006?), and you feel like a trip to San Francisco this September, think about the Carson Workshops Future of Web Apps Summit. Whether you’re a developer, business owner or entrepreneur, join

• Kevin Rose - Digg
• Mike Arrington - TechCrunch
• Dick Hardt - Sxip
• Evan Williams - Odeo
• Mike Davidson - Newsvine
• Steve Olechowski - FeedBurner
• Cal Henderson - Flickr
• Tom Coates - Yahoo!
• Matt Mullenweg - WordPress
• Tantek Celik - Technorati
• Ted Rheingold - Catster/Dogster

for this exclusive two-day audience with the biggest names in web development.

For just $US295 over two big days, discover how the web’s most successful sites and applications were built, plus you’ll get expert practical advice from the best in the business on creating your own web app.

Posted by Maxine on 23/08/06 at 2:25 pm | No Comments »

Want to speak on a panel at SXSWi next March?

SXSWi is a celebration of all things web, interactive and digital held in Austin Texas each year in March. Sure, it’s a long way to go from Australia, but you can always tie it in to a couple of weeks in the US, and anyone who has been will vouch for what a great opportunity it is to mix with people from all over the world working in every possible area of the web industry.

It would be great to see a few more Australian faces there this year, but I’ve got a broader agenda with this post: it would be even better to hear some Australian voices speaking on some panels.

SXSWi have a genuinely merit based selection process, and the submission process is simple and free, so if you think you have something to say, please do submit it as a panel proposal. To get some ideas of the kinds of panels that have already been submitted, check out the 2007 SXSW Interactive Panel Proposal Picker. On this page you’ll also find an email address for Hugh Forrest, the incredibly hard working and diligent person who pulls all these panels together: email Hugh to get a copy of the submission guidelines.

Do feel free to email me, maxine@westciv.com, as well, I’m more than happy to help you knock a proposal into shape, or try to hook you up with other potential panelists.

Lastly: do it now! Submissions close on August 31, so you’ve got about 2 weeks, more than enough time. Go go go!

Posted by Maxine on 16/08/06 at 9:54 am | No Comments »

Web Directions Free Event - August 31

Interface design, and the use of ethnographic research in designing for the web: announcing our second free Sydney event for 2006.

On August 31 we’ve got a diverse evening, with Emily Boyd of Remember the Milk speaking about the development of this very successful Australian web app, along with Stephen Cox of Intuity, who’ll be talking us through the use of ethnographic research in the process of innovation and design.

Emily Boyd: Lessons learned from designing the interface of Remember The Milk

Emily will talk about creating rich AJAX interfaces for web-based applications, and her experiences designing popular task management web app Remember The Milk. Learn about the challenges of designing web interfaces that are simple yet powerful, and see concrete examples of ways that AJAX can be used to enhance the user experience.

Emily is an interface designer and developer. As well as Remember the Milk, she is also the founder of MatMice, a website which has been used by more than one million children worldwide to create their own web pages.

Stephen Cox: Corporate ethnography, what the hell is it and why would you care?

Stephen Cox looks at some of the ways he approaches ethnography in the corporate environment (with corporate timeframes) and how it helps in design, decision making and customer experience. Learn all about this fascinating approach to design research, which will be further examined by Kelly Goto at Web Directions in September.

Stephen started his working life as a pre-historian and anthropologist, making the move into web design in 1996 and later working in user-centred design for The Hiser Group. Stephen has since established his own consultancy, Intuity, and has now worked his way through two years of research into modern culture and the needs of users, with a particular focus on how interpretations of culture can help aid in the process of innovation and design.

If you work with the web, you’ll be enthused, inspired, and informed by these knowledgeable and entertaining speakers. It’s also a great opportunity to meet other interesting and talented people who work in your industry.

Web Directions will be providing finger food for the night, and there’ll be a cash bar if you feel like a drink.

Most importantly, you’ll also have the chance to win a ticket to the Web Directions Conference later this year in Sydney, valued at $850, as well as places at our exclusive breakfast with web guru Molly Holzschlag.

Best of all, the event is free, but places are limited, so please RSVP to info@webdirections.org.

Details

What: Web Directions presents Emily Boyd of RTM and Stephen Cox of Intuity

When: 6.00pm for 6.30pm Thursday August 31 2006

Where: Hotel CBD, Jam Bar, Level 4, 52 King Street, Sydney

Cost: Free, but please RSVP info@webdirections.org

Posted by Maxine on 8/08/06 at 10:55 am | 1 Comment »

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