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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

The McFarlane Prize for Excellence in Australian Web Design

Named in memory of noted Australian web pioneer Nigel McFarlane, the inaugural McFarlane Prize, aims to recognize and encourage excellence in web design by Australian developers.

The Prize will reward excellence in web design in the broadest sense, from the appropriate use of technology, to design aesthetics, to its impact more broadly on the web.

Open to Australian designers or teams for a site launched or significantly upgraded between August 1 2005 and July 31 2006, the Prize aims to be a showcase of the best in Australian web design, and to inspire other developers in their endeavours.

The McFarlane Prize will be awarded by a jury of Australian experts in various fields of web design and development. The decision process has two stages. In the first stage, entries are assessed for their adherence to best practices in accessibility and standards based coding (correct and valid use of CSS and HTML). These criteria are outlined in detail here.

The top 15 sites from this phase will be individually assessed in four areas by members of the jury who have expertise in a particular area.

These areas are

Accessibility

Usability

Design

Coding

Full details regarding eligibility, as well as the nomination form, are available here.

Based on the two rounds of judging, the McFarlane Prize shortlist will be announced on September 22nd.

The announcement of the winner of the inaugural McFarlane Prize will be made at the Web Directions Conference Reception, September 28 2006, during Australian Web Design Week.

Posted by Maxine on 28/06/06 at 9:06 am | 2 Comments »

Web Directions Event: Lars Rasmussen of Google Maps and Dean Jackson of the W3C

While Web 2.0 is a term that has been done to death, it’s also clear something new and exciting is in fact happening on the web. Ajax, web applications and APIs are giving rise to a new breed of solution. One of the major players in this revolution is Google, and among their stellar applications is Google Maps.

Web Directions brings you the opportunity to hear from Lars Rasmussen, a lead engineer of the team that created Google Maps. These guys were doing Ajax long before it had that name, and revolutionized mapping by opening their API to other web based applications, giving rise to the phenomenon of “mashups”, innovative uses of multiple web based data sources to create novel solutions.

Hear Lars talk about the design and development challenges and solutions involved in complex web based applications, and show off some of the cool things the Google Maps team have been working on.

Also speaking will be Dean Jackson of the W3C, who is among many other things the technical lead for the W3C’s Web APIs Working Group. This group is working to develop standard APIs for client-side Web Application development, which includes both documenting existing APIs such as XMLHttpRequest (the X in “Ajax” ) and developing new APIs in order to enable richer Web Applications. In short, to do for web apps what CSS did for static web 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, and everyone knows there’s nothing good on TV on Thursday nights anymore.

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

You’ll also have the chance to win a ticket to the Web Directions Conference later this year in Sydney, valued at $750, 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 Lars Rasmussen from Google Maps and Dean Jackson from the W3C

When: 6.00pm for 6.30pm June Thursday 29 2006

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

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

Posted by Maxine on 7/06/06 at 11:42 am | 11 Comments »

Additional Workshop - Designing for Interaction

Designers take note: we’ve just added in a fifth workshop to the Web Directions program. Dan Saffer of Adaptive Path is now going to be teaching his new workshop Designing for Interaction - Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices on Tuesday the 26th September.

This broad and deep examination of the discipline of interaction design will feature activities and seminars that take participants from the prehistoric roots of interaction design to its future in transmedia interactions, ubiquitous computing, and digital tools for making digital tools.

This is a day not to be missed for anyone interested in design, focussing as it will not just on design as it applies to the web, but how web design fits into the broader discipline.

Starting with a brief history of interaction design, the workshop will cover the four approaches to interaction design; the elements, principles, and attributes of good interaction design; design research techniques; documentation; designing for multitasking, adaptation, and hacking; and service design.

Designing for Interaction is for new designers and anyone interested in interaction design, as well as more experienced designers who want a deeper view of and new methods for practicing interaction design. Participants will walk away with not only a firm grasp of the underlying principles of interaction design, but also the tools to put those into practice.

Dan Saffer has worked in interactive media since 1995 as a webmaster, information architect, copywriter, developer, producer, creative lead, and interaction designer. Currently, he is an interaction designer at the design firm Adaptive Path and is the author of the book Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices (New Riders, 2006).

The deal

All Web Directions workshops are $395 all inclusive when purchased with a ticket to WD06, or $495 for workshop only. Read more about Dan’s workshop, or Register Now.

Posted by Maxine on 6/06/06 at 4:21 pm | No Comments »

Web Directions: what’s in a name?

Quite a few people have asked about the name change for the conference. Web Directions is something of a new start, but most importantly, we wanted to capture both the continuity with WE04 and WE05, and something of a change in focus reflecting the change in the web development world since 2003. When we started planning the WE conferences, in very late 2003, they were pretty dark days for standards based development, accessibility, and in many ways the web in general. An aging Internet Explorer 6 (and even 5.5 and 5) really set the “standard” (or lack thereof) for development best practice (after all, these accounted for over 90% off all browsers in user), and alt text was about as far as most sites went toward accessibility.

How times have changed. Developing valid, accessible sites, using CSS for presentation, focussing on usability, all these are becoming accepted best practice, right across the board. The rise of Firefox and Safari, as well as the emerging importance of mobile devices, means that the original dream of a device independent, interoperable web is becoming a reality. “Real world semantics” like microformats, structured blogging and webpatterns all show enormous promise for making a far richer web. The birth of Web 2.0 (a real phenomenon, but vastly overused label to the point of meaninglessness), the explosive growth of RSS (not just for blogging), the rise of wikis, and continuing strong growth of blogging, user generated content and the increasing importance of online communities, are all phenomena which have gone from peripheral to central since 2003.

So rather than just focus on the essentials, wd06 focusses on the directions we are heading, with speakers like IA superstar “Mr Folksonomy” Thomas Vander Wal speaking on Information Architecture for the “Come to Me Web”, renowned designer Kelly Goto on “Designing for lifestyle”, Jeremy Keith on Ajax, Derek Featherstone on webapp accessibility, fantastic britpack designer Andy Clarke on Creating inspired design, as well as wonderful local speakers.

These speakers will help us map out current and new directions for our web endeavours, whether we are designers, front end developers, back end developers, managers, strategists, content developers, whatever our roles on the web.

We are proud of the lineup we’ve put together, humbled that so many wonder wonderful people have agreed to come and speak, and excited to hear what they have to say. WE04 and WE05 both had a profound impact on the way we work and think about the web. I am sure WD06 will do so too.

john

Posted by John on 26/05/06 at 2:20 pm | 5 Comments »

The wait is over

It’s time to head on over to the all new Web Directions site and check out the line up for WD06.

This year we have the conference on September 28 and 29, with an additional two days of workshops on the 26th and 27th: the last week of September 2006 is going to be a very big week indeed in Sydney.

It’s been a long haul organising the speakers and content, and building the site, but we think we’ve gone the extra mile in bringing something pretty special to Australia this year. Let us know what you think.

Posted by Maxine on 21/05/06 at 2:30 pm | 13 Comments »

There will be a web design conference in Sydney this year

As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum.

In the last 12 hours I’ve chatted with three people who expressed concern that there wasn’t going to be a web design conference here in Sydney this year as there has been for the last two years. So, while we were hoping to wait until the paint was dry and the curtains were up, I think it might actually be a good idea to share the good news. Which is….

There will be a conference held in Sydney on September 28 and 29 this year, along with some associated workshops on the 26th and 27th. The conference will focus on

• standards based design and development
• accessibility
• user centred design
• information architecture

with international and local speakers letting us in on all the latest thinking on web design, and in particular, the development of web applications.

And it will be brought to you by myself, Maxine Sherrin, and my business partner John Allsopp, two of the people who brought you WE05 and WE04. An extremely high priority for us will be to maintain and build on the spirit of those previous events, with content which is for developers by developers, in a friendly non-corporate atmosphere.

I don’t want to ruin the surprise by giving away too much more than that, but feel free to speculate to your hearts’ content in the comments, subscribe to the RSS feed so you’ll be the first to know the news, and get in touch if you have any questions at all.

All will be revealed at the beginning of May.

Tags: conference, web, webdirections, wd06

Posted by Maxine on 11/04/06 at 4:42 pm | 50 Comments »

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