Web Directions North | February 6 - 10, 2007 �

Workshops - February 6th 2007

Choose one of our two full day workshops at the Renaissance Vancouver Hotel Harbourside with experts Andy Clarke and Aaron Gustafson, or Derek Featherstone.

Download this calendar

Tuesday 6th February 9.00am to 5.00pm

Aaron Gustafson and Andy Clarke - CSS + Javascript = Magic

Derek Featherstone - Accessibility 2.0

CSS + Javascript = Magic

Creative web development with CSS and DOM scripting

Traditionally, CSS has been the domain of designers while JavaScript was for programmers, but these technologies can and should work together to improve your visitors’ experiences. After all, you can do amazing things with CSS, but when you start to use CSS in concert with DOM Scripting, there’s almost no limit to what you can achieve.

MOD-ern web designer Andy Clarke and DOM/Ajax developer Aaron Gustafson will take your CSS skills and supercharge them with JavaScript magic, exploring how you can make CSS and JavaScript work together to make beautiful (and functional) results.

In this full day workshop, Aaron and Andy will start by looking at the relationships between CSS and DOM scripting, giving both visual designers and developers the foundations of their approach. They will show you simple ways to add pizazz to your pages using a combination of CSS and DOM scripting techniques before diving into some of the really cool work that’s being done out there on the web.

Along the way, they will examine numerous websites and web applications, looking at the techniques that make them successful and showing you how to replicate and build upon them in your own work. The workshop will include never-seen-before examples of CSS and DOM scripting combinations and you never know, we may even invent something new together!

Who’s this workshop for?

To get the most out of this workshop you will need to be fluent in (X)HTML and CSS; you don’t necessarily need to be a wiz, but you should have a solid foundation. Some familiarity with JavaScript is recommended, but not necessary.

What are the learning outcomes?

After this very full day you will be able to

• understand the close relationship between CSS and DOM Scripting
• dissect DOM Scripting and Ajax techniques seen in the World Wild Web
• truly grasp complete separation of content, presentation, and style
• better understand CSS positioning and other layout techniques
• break complex behavior into easily digestible chunks
• write scripts which are flexible enough to be used in a variety of
  
  situations.

Accessibility 2.0

Build applications the smart way: make them accessible and usable

Web applications are fundamentally different from web sites and their creation demands that we break out of our usual development routines and take a whole new approach. Reputations are built on web apps that excite rather than frustrate users — make sure your apps are as elegant and bulletproof as possible. Mastering relatively simple yet ingenious techniques, discovering creative solutions to frequently encountered challenges, dispelling the myths, and targeting the technologies you really need will all be covered in this energetic, full day workshop with Derek Featherstone.

We won’t just be covering the basics or theoretical situations. We’ll be examining original research conducted by Derek’s company and real-life test cases. We’ll see assistive technologies and prototypes of new techniques in action. During this intensive workshop we’ll even put a selection of existing web apps through their paces — zeroing in on how well they meet the needs of people with a variety of disabilities.

Who’s this workshop for?

To get the most out of this workshop you will have some experience handcoding (X)HTML AND CSS, and understand their basic principles and techniques. You’ll have a handle on at least the basics of Javascript and general web accessibility practices. You’ll have the drive to create top-notch web apps that are inspirational in the standard they set for universal accessibility.

What are the learning outcomes?

After this very full day you will be able to

• grasp the difference between accessibility for web apps and for websites
• build intelligently – plan for accessibility from the outset of a project
• understand the significance of Javascript and how to use it wisely
• implement simple HTML techniques that help ensure accessibility success
• recognize the impact of Ajax and dynamically-generated content on people with disabilities – and know what to do about it
• create an effective strategy for building more accessible applications that work with current assistive technology and anticipate future developments
• see how various assistive technologies interact with modern web development techniques such as DOM Scripting and know how to make developmental decisions based on this first-hand experience
• define best practices for testing the accessibility of your own web applications

The Deal

The only difficulty is choosing which workshop, as they both run Tuesday February 6th. Further information about pricing and what to expect from these workshops is available on the pricing page.

Images:

The images are downsized due to limited space here. The original dimensions may differ.
Click on the image to open it on a new tab.