Design Track | @media 2010

Design Track

Mark Boulton Designs Grid Systems; Rachel Andrews gets to the Core of CSS3; Christian Crumlish Designs for Play; Bruce Lawson finds Sexiness in HTML5; Relly Annett-Baker looks at All the Small Things and Hannah Donovan Tells Stories Through Design.

Core CSS3

Presenter:

Rachel Andrew

This session will be a solid introduction to CSS3 by way of practical examples that can get you started using CSS3 on your projects today.

Rachel Andrew will take you through some of the core features of CSS3 including advanced selectors, media queries and other features that are being developed and starting to be implemented in browsers.

In addition to discovering how CSS3 will change the way that we develop in the future we will explore current and upcoming browser support. We will also see how it is possible to start using some of CSS3 in your projects now, with the help of a little JavaScript to plug the holes in current browsers.

Designing Grid Systems

Presenter:

Mark Boulton

Grid systems have been used in print design, architecture and interior design for generations. Now, on the web, the same rules of grid system composition and usage no longer apply. Content is viewed in many ways; from RSS feeds to email. Content is viewed on many devices; from mobile phones to laptops. Users can manipulate the browser, they can remove content, resize the canvas, resize the typefaces. A designer is no longer in control of this presentation. So where do grid systems fit in to all that?

HTML5: structure, semantics, styling and sexiness

Presenter:

Bruce Lawson

HTML5 was originally called Web Applications 1.0, but that doesn't mean it's only for scripters - there's plenty for markup monkeys as well as JavaScript junkies.

We'll look at new structural elements in HTML5, and how they can boost accessibility, how to style them (even in IE!). We'll check out how new semantics can reduce the JS you need to write/copy by adding functionality natively to the browser, and how to add sexy open standard video to your pages with no Flash, no JavaScript, just a big hunk o' open-web love.

Warning: includes live coding and outrageous typos.

Designing for Play

Presenter:

Christian Crumlish

Taking ideas from game design, musical instrument design, and play-acting techniques including improv and bodystorming, Christian will address the role of play in digital experiences and how we can design to foster and encourage play rather than squeeze all the joy out of life one pixel at a time.

In game design, you create an arena for play. You establish boundaries and rules and you work to tune game dynamics that yield fun experiences rather than boring, mechanical, or pointless drudgery. Within those boundaries and rules the players create their own unique experience, collaboratively, every time. Again the marriage of strict purposeful constraints with open space and room for human variation creates the best game experiences.

Can an enterprise app, maybe one that looks like a spreadsheet and reports to HR ever actually be fun? That's a stretch but you can absolutely introduce elements of play into the most buttoned-down context. Consider one primitive gesture from games: collecting. Many games offer some form of gather, arranging, and displaying objects. Just so, even an HR portal may offer some opportunity to incorporate a collecting "game" into the workflow.

Christian will share techniques for introducing a sense of play into the experiences we're designing and will exhort the assembled crowd to make life more fun for our users and to thrive while doing so.

All The Small Things: razor sharp copy for sites and applications

Presenter:

Relly Annett-Baker

Microcopy is the ninja of online content. Fast, furious and deadly, it has the power to make or break your online business, to kill or stay your foes. It’s a sentence, a confirmation, a few words. One word, even. It isn't big or flashy. It doesn't leave a calling card. If it does its job your customer may never notice it was there.

In this session, Relly will show you how you can bolster sales and reflect your company and client's values through just a few well-chosen words. Designers? Do you get lumped with the interaction copy? Developers? Do you get left trying to make meaningful error messages? Ecommerce managers? Do you want an easy increase in sales? This session will help. It will be a lot of fun. You should definitely come.

Telling Stories through Design

Presenter:

Hannah Donovan

Hannah Donovan will talk about the designer as a storyteller—especially in terms of the importance of this role within a team. Improve your output as a designer by taking a closer look at influencing the input. As a visual narrator we help to visualise, inspire and curate for the people we work with as well as connecting scenarios around the larger product saga that supports the interfaces we design. By examining your input, make your output more effective with your team and users alike, paving paths for people to tell their own stories as your product evolves over time.

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