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Web Directions North | February 6
Web Directions News
Design and Coding at the Cutting Edge: Part 1
Douglas Bowman was supposed to be in on this presentation but wasn’t able to make it. Tantek Çelik will be pitching in with some microformat discussion. And of course, Cameron Moll will continue to present his portion of this session.
D. Keith Robinson is delivering an introduction.
“The Disciplined Designer”
- a jack of all trades
- has four boys, into sports and design. son tried to cut the hair of another and it’s not quite there. doesn’t have the skill.
- graphic design, human computing and communication = UI design
- means, involvement, meaning, = An experience
- “the most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and to be understood.” ~ Dr Ralph G Nichols.
- designing, be understood.
- “Each time a new technology comes along, new designers make the same horrible mistakes as their predecessors. …” Norman
- Don’t fix the UI if it isn’t broken.
- Natural Mapping
- Using physical, biological, or cultural standards to make something work.
- Firefox Web Developer Extension (early version)
- new version requires multiple menu drops to do what was much simpler before
- browser cam - just a giant menu before
- Facilitate Visual Scanning
- people don’t read web pages, they scan them
- used sprint web site as an example
Minimize Error
- “If an error is possible, someone will make it. The designer must assume that all possible errors will occur and design…”
- picture of floppy drive. Designed in such a way that you can only insert the diskette into it one way.
- Flickr example saying “lots” instead of having an enormous dot.
Prevent
- asked where to add armor; took planes and mapped out where the bullet holes were.
- blinksale as an example; using ajax to check if the domain is taken. prevent the error from occurring
Typography begets knowledge
- “Typography is not an esoteric art form.” ~ Jan V White.
- Client wanted to revive the National Gazette.
- take away the graphics, does the typography do its job?
Write the Interface
- Copywriting is interface design. Great interfaces are written.
- “door with handle says push”
- “other’s clog, our’s doesn’t” with holes filled in, the message is more meaningful.
Draw Inspiration from all things
- hierarchy and contrast. blurring allows us to see where the important stuff is.
- using a chiasmus in design - goes in and then comes back out (like a mirror)
Begin to Embrace Mobile
- mobile still isn’t quite here yet.
- by 2010, 4 billion users worldwide
- 6.8 billion people by then.
- 15% of those with phones actively browsing the web in the US.
Context is King
- Kayak example shows how they take advantage of the context and present information differently.
- Forget WML, Think XHTML
- WAP: protocol for enabling
- WML
- WAP 2.0 Protocol standard supported
- HTML Basic
- XHTML-MP - the preferred markup language of WAP 2.0 (most clinging to)
- Translation - subset of XHTML
Give back as much as you can
Posted by Jonathan on 8/02/07 at 12:36 pm | 1 Comment »
Keynote: Crimes Against Web Standards with Molly Holzschlag
Starting off the first day of the conference, we have Molly presenting the keynote, WSI: Vancouver - Crimes Against Web Standards. (I had to use a point form just to keep up with her quick and fantastic delivery.)
- introduction by Dave Shea
- representatives from Microsoft introducing Molly They were very self-depracating.
Molly starts:
Who came in when on developing for the web?
- 6 people who haven’t built a web site with tables
- huge group who haven’t used frames
- half know what a doctype looks like
Molly will be looking at her own code crimes, other crimes and our own crimes against web standards.
- began in 1993, the web was text based. no GUI-based browser.
- in search of space… (mick garrison) using afor space. Jeremy Keith knew that it validates.
- second example has two’s but nowadays the second was useless.
- next example with plenty of line breaks. in this example, tried to create a two column layout.
- funny video from eric (”In my day, you’d take a blink tag and wrap it in a marquee tag”)
In search of wysiwyg
- showing example from golive with embedded attributes (interestingly, product manager for golive was in audience)
- next example showing code generated from dreamweaver
- another example from Dreamweaver showing all the body attributes like leftmargin and marginwidth
- video from neil ford. “using nesting tables and spacer images. converted text to graphics made it easier. maintenance might be a problem… but why worry about it. problem with accessibility but it loads fine for me. it’s fine…people making me out as a villain.”
Framed
- when netscape 2 came out.
- showing code example from Microsoft.
- andy clarke misses frames (I think I might, too!)
Their Crimes
- first lynx, then mosaic, then Netscape, and IE.
- another amusing video of Eric doing tech support to make up for his crimes.
- quote from tim berners-lee “Anyone who slaps a ‘this page is best viewed with Brwoser X’ label on a web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days”
- IE kicks the butt of Netscape
- “Rise of the alternative browser”
- the lonely years…
- Box model hack, DOCTYPE Swtich, filters
- Dean Edwards used htc and javascript that repaired everything in IE6.
- WaSP got to sit down with Microsoft.
- Finally, IE7.
- some think we shouldn’t have to be cops of the browsers but we have to fight for it.
- another video from Eric, “in time, I can find closure, I can do more good in the world than I’ve done harm. That’s really what I hope for.”
Your Crimes
- first Scott from Adobe, works on Dreamweaver
- representative from Opera
- Marcus from Microsoft
- Dave Orchard from W3C - hasn’t done enough advocacy
- John Alsopp gave his history
- Dan Sauvé used ActiveX.
There were a few more interesting stories from the audience. All in all, a really engaging start to the day.
Posted by Jonathan on 8/02/07 at 12:28 pm | 2 Comments »
Renting gear? Act now.
Just a quick note to anyone coming to Whistler who hasn’t booked their gear yet - we’d suggest you hop on it now. As in today.
It appears Whistler’s rental service has begun blocking off dates leading up to our trip, so it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be out of luck. If you miss your chance, there might still be options to find gear in town, but it’s best to act quickly.
Posted by Dave Shea on 5/02/07 at 10:18 pm | No Comments »
Official Program, Evening Events
While all of you attending Web Directions North will get the official program booklet when you grab your conference pass on Wednesday, we thought you might want to take a peek early and see how everything came together. There are full details about what to expect for daytime sessions, evening events, and of course our thank-yous to everyone who will be a part of making WDN the amazing event it’s shaping up to be.
You can grab the 5MB PDF file, which is a much-condensed copy of the PDF that went to the printer last week. (Pardon the blurry low-resolution images within this preview, rest assured the printed program is muuuuch higher quality.)
Also, we’ve just confirmed final details for our Media Temple closing party and wanted to reiterate that everyone attending the conference is welcome to show up, and bring along a friend or significant other. Here’s what you need to know:
Media Temple Web Directions North Closing Party
Library Square Public House
300 W Georgia St., Vancouver
Thursday, February 8th
7:30pm - late
Open Bar, Ergonomic finger foods, Fantastic DJ, Good Times.
Posted by Dave Shea on 3/02/07 at 5:45 pm | No Comments »
Speaker Adrian Holovaty profiled in the American Journalism Review
One of the speakers I am really looking forward to hearing is Adrian Holovaty. One of the things which interests me most about the web is how it really changes all kinds of professions, businesses, services and the like. We are very privileged, I feel, to be here at the beginning f some many revolutonary things. Adrian, by more or less inventing the whole concept of mashups, and his work for the Wahington Post, and before that other newspapers online is considered by many to be reinventing the practice of journalism. We are really honored to have him speak, and if you have a moment, take a look at his site, and some of the articles he’s written to familairise yourself with just where he things the newspaper industry is heading. And take a look at his recent profile in the American Journalism Review
Posted by John on 31/01/07 at 7:25 pm | No Comments »
Whistler Ski/Board Rentals
If you’re planning to join us at Whistler after Web Directions (only a week away!), you might be wondering how to go about renting gear.
If you want to pick up gear or rent in town, you could make a short trip to the Kitsilano area, specifically around the West 4th/Burrard intersection. There’s a selection of skiing and boarding stores that provide rentals and skiwear and all the sort of stuff you’ll need up on the hill.
But, we highly recommend using Whistler’s own rental service to pre-book what you need online. The service checks all the stores up at the hill for gear, allowing you to go and pick up what you rent upon arriving. Couldn’t be easier.
The locations closest to our official lodge are the Solomon Store, Carleton Rentals, and G1 Rentals, otherwise known as numbers 1, 2, and 3 on this map. During the day, the Garibaldi Lift Co. bar/restaurant that Microsoft has so generously reserved and opened up to all conference attendees will serve as the WDN lodge and hangout spot. It’s #6 on this map, and conveniently located at the base of Whistler itself.
Can you tell we’re excited yet?
Posted by Dave Shea on 30/01/07 at 6:13 pm | 7 Comments »
Douglas Bowman interview in Digital Web Magazine
One of my very favourite web designers, in fact thinkers, writers, and speakers about the Web is Douglas Bowman. Web Directions actually owes a lot to Douglas. He, Joe Clark and Dave Shea were all speakers at the first conference that Maxine and I helped organize, WE04, way back in 2004. We enjoyed all their company so much that we knew we had to do more conferences. So here, some years later, we have united the original contingent of international speakers, with many others, for Web Directions North.
Im particularly pleased that we have lured Douglas out of his self imposed retirement from speaking. In fact, the other organizers thought we had zero chance of getting him to speak - but through my charm, and threat to release previously unseen photos of Douglas snowboarding in New Zealand, he relented. I should have taken a side bet on whether he’d agree or not.
Douglas also very generously agreed to do an interview with me, that Digital Web Magazine is running this week. So head on over to Digital Web and hear what one of the web’s most influential designers has to say about the present and future of the web.
Posted by John on 23/01/07 at 7:48 pm | No Comments »
Microsoft parties at Whistler
Let’s face it, we tech folk tend to often be indoors types, and social side of conferences is often indoor-focused parties.
That’s one of the main reasons with Web Directions North we decided to add some adventure - trips to Blackcomb Whistler after the formal part of the conference is over.
The response has been pretty amazing, so much so that we’ll be adding
extra coaches for the trip up. Don’t be afraid if you have never skied or boarded before, there’ll be plenty of people just like you, and lots of people to lend you all kind of encouragement and support.
But if you are still not convinced, how’s this?
Microsoft’s browser and web development tool teams are sponsors of Web Directions North, and in addition to all their other great support, are sponsoring the Whistler Trip. On both Friday and Saturday, the fantastic GLC bar at the base of the main ski lift will be open to WDN attendees for free food and drinks from 12 noon all the way to 6pm, when the coach will pick you up to whisk you back to Vancouver.
Most of our speakers, all of the organizers, and many of your peers will be heading up the hill. So, why not take an extra day or two and join us?
We’re doing the trip at cost, $CDN120 gets you the return coach, plus lift tickets, plus an open bar and food in one of Whistler’s best bars. The trip is only open to conference goers, just another reason to get on up to Vancouver for Web Directions North
Thanks to the Microsoft browser and dev tools teams for all your support!
Posted by John on 22/01/07 at 10:19 pm | 2 Comments »
Pricing now staying at $895 (and check out the closing night party from Media Temple)
As record snow falls continue in Whistler, Web Directions North is really heating up. We had planned to raise the price to $CDN995 this week, but because we have had some great support from sponsors (more news on that soon) and because interest has been so strong, we’ve decided to keep the price at $895 until tickets sell out. If there are any left, we’ll have walk in pricing of $995.
So if you are keen to come and see one heck of a lineup, at one heck of a price, in fantastic Vancouver, you might like to get a move on.
But wait! If you don’t think that two fully catered days of some of the best web design and development experts sharing their know how in extended sessions (each speaker gets an hour, giving them plenty of time to really get detailed), along with a fully catered conference reception is quite enough, how about a closing night party at a special secret location, organized by Media Temple. Media Temple really know how to throw a party, if you have ever been to South by Southwest, their now legendary closing night parties are simply sensational. They also know how to host web sites, and their upcoming gridserver looks simply revolutionary (and I thought that before they so generously offered to sponsor us).
Thanks guys for giving us such great support!
john, for the web directions north team
Posted by John on 16/01/07 at 7:23 pm | 3 Comments »
WDN Student Scholarships
As conference organizers, speakers and attendees, Dave, Derek, Maxine and John have long been aware that while a good conference can be an unbeatable benefit for your career, they are definitely out of the price range of those in our industry who might benefit most — students. We strongly believe that today’s students will have an important role in the future of the web.
Throughout the planning of the conference, we’ve been working on a way to make attending more affordable for full time students in fields related to web design and development. Initially we had hoped to get a sponsor on board for this, and we had some encouraging discussions to that end, but in the time we had this just didn’t prove possible.
We all feel this is an important goal for the conference and our industry, so today we introduce scholarship pricing for students. We have set aside 30 conference seats at $195 (CDN) each for qualifying students. This covers our direct costs per person but not the overall conference costs. If your company would like to sponsor the program, please drop us a line.
To qualify you must be a full-time student in a related field (design, computer science, or a specific web development course, for example) and not currently in professional employment. We are limiting the program to 30 students, and we want to ensure that those who benefit from it are those who need it the most. Please note — when you pick up your conference badge you will be required to show valid identification with an expiry date after February 10th 2007 that verifies you are a full time student.
This special scholarship pricing of $195 gives you two days of the conference, fully-catered lunch and breaks, and two receptions - one each night of the conference. This is your chance to meet with peers, industry leaders, and many potential employers, including some of the very biggest names on the web.
To take advantage, if you qualify please use our regular registration page and enter the following code to receive your special discount:
WDNSCH
We really look forward to bringing Web Directions North to the next generation of leaders on the web. See you in February.
Dave, Derek, Maxine and John
Posted by Dave Shea on 11/01/07 at 8:47 pm | 18 Comments »
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