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Web Directions » Resources

Web Directions » Resources http://www.webdirections.org Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:03:28 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Aarron Walter — Learning to Love Humans: Emotional Interface Designhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/aarron-walter-learning-to-love-humans-emotional-interface-design/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/aarron-walter-learning-to-love-humans-emotional-interface-design/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:52:44 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2981 In this talk, Aarron Walter will introduce you to the emotional usability principle – a design axiom that identifies a strong connection between human emotion and perceived usability. Through real-world examples, you’ll learn practical interface design techniques that will make your websites and applications more engaging to the humans they serve.]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 23 10.45am.

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Session description

Humans, though cute and cuddly, are not without their flaws, which makes designing for them a challenge. By understanding how the wet, mushy processor works in these hairy little devils, you can design interfaces and web experiences that will have them hopelessly devoted to your brand.

In this talk, Aarron Walter will introduce you to the emotional usability principle – a design axiom that identifies a strong connection between human emotion and perceived usability. Through real-world examples, you’ll learn practical interface design techniques that will make your websites and applications more engaging to the humans they serve.

About Aarron Walter

By day, Aarron Walter is the mild-mannered lead user experience designer for MailChimp, and by night he leads a team of education crusaders in The Web Standards Project who are the magic behind The WaSP InterACT curriculum.

Aarron is the author of Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond, and is a co-author and project manager of the book InterACT With Web Standards: A holistic approach to Web design.

Follow Aarron on Twitter: @aarron.

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/aarron-walter-learning-to-love-humans-emotional-interface-design/feed/ 0 Closing keynote: Hilary Mason — Machine Learning for Web Datahttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/closing-keynote-hilary-mason-machine-learning-for-web-data/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/closing-keynote-hilary-mason-machine-learning-for-web-data/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:49:04 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2978 Many of us create and work with data that lives on the web. This kind of data has similar characteristics that makes it possible to learn successful techniques and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ for analysis.]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 24 3.15pm.

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Many of us create and work with data that lives on the web. This kind of data has similar characteristics that makes it possible to learn successful techniques and avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ for analysis.

In this talk, I’ll give a brief history of the field with a focus on the fundamental math and algorithmic tools that we use to address these kinds of problems, then walk through several descriptive and predictive scenarios. We’ll also discuss the likely future evolution of this type of data and the active research problems that are currently fascinating.

About Hilary Mason

Hilary is the lead scientist at bit.ly, where she is finding sense in vast data sets. She is a former computer science professor with a background in machine learning and data mining, has published numerous academic papers, and regularly releases code on her personal site, hilarymason.com. She has discovered two new species, loves to bake cookies, and asks way too many questions.

Follow Hilary on Twitter: @hmason

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/closing-keynote-hilary-mason-machine-learning-for-web-data/feed/ 0 Relly Annett-Baker — Telling taleshttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/relly-annett-baker-telling-tales/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/relly-annett-baker-telling-tales/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:44:15 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2976 In this talk, Relly will show you how narrative runs as deep through websites as it does through your favourite TV dramas, video games, comic books or musicals, and explain how you can write decent help for your users, define personality for your site and create documents to support everyone involved in creating that experience.]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 24 1.00pm.

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Humans are drawn to narrative we can engage with and we may have just found the perfect medium for this sort of narrative interaction in the internet. Every site, app or connection is full of the possibility of story – yes, even yours. Especially yours. But is your site making your user the principle character? Or are they just the forgotten redshirt? And who’s writing the script?

In this talk, Relly will show you how narrative runs as deep through websites as it does through your favourite TV dramas, video games, comic books or musicals, and explain how you can write decent help for your users, define personality for your site and create documents to support everyone involved in creating that experience. These methods will allow your team to work together to create a site rich in personality and tell the story of your brand, right from the navigational opening set-piece on the homepage to the microcopy that is the closing curtain on a successful transaction.

About Really Annett-Baker

Relly Annett-Baker lives in a leafy market town with her husband and two small sons. As a result, she eats far too many cakes from Waitrose and can be guaranteed to stand on Lego at least once a day. As well as being content strategist and content writer for Headscape, she is employed as live-in domestic staff by two cats. She also writes articles and jabbers on about copy to anyone who will listen, creates scrapbooks, and continues to procrastinate over the draft for her book, a guide to creating web content for designers and developers, to be published in Spring 2011 by Five Simple Steps. She better finish this biography before her editor spots she isn't writing her book again.

Follow Relly on Twitter: @RellyAB

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/relly-annett-baker-telling-tales/feed/ 0 Esther Derby — Agile meets UIhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/esther-derby-agile-meets-ui/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/esther-derby-agile-meets-ui/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:33:59 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2974 Esther will share strategies for evolving UI design as the software grows, keeping UI designers in the loop and helping everyone on the team be a better designer (cause they think already are).]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 24 1.55pm.

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Agile teams work in short iterations and deliver working software—that means coded, tested, documented, and if the customer decides the time is right, ready to go out the door. Teams work on features in tiny slices based on prioritized user stories, avoiding big up front design. But without a design phase, where does UX and UI fit?

Esther will share strategies for evolving UI design as the software grows, keeping UI designers in the loop and helping everyone on the team be a better designer (cause they think already are).

About Esther Derby

Esther Derby works with individuals, teams, and organizations to improve their ability to deliver valuable software. Esther is recognized as a leader in the human-side of software development, including management, organizational change, collaboration, building teams, and retrospectives.

She’s been a programmer, systems manager, project manager, and internal consultant. She currently runs her own consulting firm, Esther Derby Associates, Inc., in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Esther has an MA in Organizational Leadership, is the author of over 100 articles and co-author of Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great and Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management. At the moment, she’s working on a book about managing in team-based organizations.

She’s a founder of the AYE Conference and is serving her second term as a board member for the Agile Alliance.

Follow Esther on Twitter: @estherderby

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/esther-derby-agile-meets-ui/feed/ 0 Zoe Mickley Gillenwater — Effective and efficient design with CSS3http://www.webdirections.org/resources/zoe-mickley-gillenwater-effective-and-efficient-design-with-css3/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/zoe-mickley-gillenwater-effective-and-efficient-design-with-css3/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:23:49 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2970 CSS3 is changing how we design and develop web sites, allowing us to quickly and easily create and maintain highly efficient and adaptable sites that are a pleasure to use. You’ll learn practical yet progressive examples of the most beneficial CSS3 techniques to put to use in your pages today.]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 23 11.45am.

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Since many pieces of CSS3 are now supported in the majority of browsers, web sites are popping up all over the place that feature rounded corners (ooh), drop shadows (ahh), and unique embedded fonts (hooray!). But CSS3 can do more than add visual richness to your sites (though it’s quite good at that). Using robust, forward-thinking CSS3 techniques in place of the old standbys can have tangible benefits for your business and users. Powerful new selectors and image-free visual effects can streamline your sites and improve their speed. Media queries can make your sites more adaptable and usable on the wide variety of browser configurations and user agents in use today, including mobile devices like iPhone, Android, and iPad. CSS3 is changing how we design and develop web sites, allowing us to quickly and easily create and maintain highly efficient and adaptable sites that are a pleasure to use. You’ll learn practical yet progressive examples of the most beneficial CSS3 techniques to put to use in your pages today.

About Zoe Mickley Gillenwater

Zoe Mickley Gillenwater is a freelance graphic and web designer, developer and consultant. She is the author of the book Flexible Web Design: Creating Liquid and Elastic Layouts with CSS and the video training title Web Accessibility Principles for lynda.com, and is working on the upcoming book Stunning CSS3: A Project-based Guide to the Latest in CSS. Zoe is currently a member of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) Adobe Task Force and was previously a moderator of the popular css-discuss mailing list. Find out more about Zoe on her blog and portfolio site.

Follow Zoe on Twitter: @zomigi

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/zoe-mickley-gillenwater-effective-and-efficient-design-with-css3/feed/ 0 Jason Cranford Teague — 2010: The Year of Web Typographyhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/jason-cranford-teague-2010-the-year-of-web-typography/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jason-cranford-teague-2010-the-year-of-web-typography/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:13:57 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2968 Web typography expert Jason Cranford Teague shows you how to apply the principles of fluid typography, to choose, find and use Webfonts and create your unique typographic voice. Come and find out why 2010 is going to be the year of Web typography.]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 24 11.10am.

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For almost 15 years, Web designers have had a list of 10 “Core Web fonts” to choose from. Many ask, “Why can’t I just download a font file from my Web server the same way I can an image?” Well, actually, you can. The verbiage for font linking is a little different than images, but the syntax for Webfont linking has been around for over 10 years as a part of the CSS standard. Web typography expert Jason Cranford Teague shows you how to apply the principles of fluid typography, to choose, find and use Webfonts and create your unique typographic voice. Come and find out why 2010 is going to be the year of Web typography.

About Jason Cranford Teague

Jason recently took over as the Managing Director of UX & Design for Forum One, an interactive agency that helps people apply technology in creative ways to build a positive future. He has been at the for front of Web design for over 16 years as a designer, writer and teacher. His many books include CSS3 Visual Quickstart, Fluid Web Typography and Speaking in Styles: The Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers.

Jason has also worked with the W3C CSS Workgroup, Yuri's Night: The World Space Party, and was the Director of Web Design Standards for AOL. He recently served as the Sr. Design Manager for Marriott International eCommerce, where he helped relaunch marriott.com, the 7th largest transaction site on the Web.

Read more about Jason on his blog jasonspeaking.com.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonspeaking

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jason-cranford-teague-2010-the-year-of-web-typography/feed/ 0 Nicholas Zakas — High Performance JavaScripthttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/nicholas-zakas-high-performance-javascript/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/nicholas-zakas-high-performance-javascript/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:03:49 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2965 In this talk, you’ll learn what’s going on inside the browser that can slow JavaScript down and how that can end up creating a “slow page”. You’ll also learn how to overcome the conspiracy against your code by eliminating performance bottlenecks.]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 23 11.45am.

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Ever wonder why the page appears frozen or why you get a dialog saying, “this script is taking too long”? Inside of the browser, JavaScript and the page’s UI are very intertwined, which means they can affect each other and, in turn, affect overall page performance. Ensuring the fastest execution time of JavaScript code isn’t about geek cred, it’s about ensuring that the user experience is as fast and responsive as possible. In a world where an extra second can cost you a visitor, sluggishness due to poor JavaScript code is a big problem. In this talk, you’ll learn what’s going on inside the browser that can slow JavaScript down and how that can end up creating a “slow page”. You’ll also learn how to overcome the conspiracy against your code by eliminating performance bottlenecks.

About Nicholas Zakas

Nicholas C. Zakas is principal front-end engineer for the Yahoo! homepage, a contributor to YUI, and an author. Nicholas has written Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, Professional Ajax, and High Performance JavaScript. He has also contributed a chapter to Steve Souders’ Even Faster Web Sites. Nicholas posts regularly at his blog as well as on YUI Blog.

Follow Nicholas on Twitter: @slicknet

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/nicholas-zakas-high-performance-javascript/feed/ 0 Ryan Freitas — Balancing data-driven & “genius” designhttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/ryan-freitas-balancing-data-driven-genius-design/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/ryan-freitas-balancing-data-driven-genius-design/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:57:42 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2961 What is the appropriate role of quantitative and quantitative data when designing for interaction? What are the most effective ways to gather and interpret data that effectively improves the quality of the consumer experience?]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 23 2.40pm.

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Presentation slides are available to download (PDF).

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Building compelling consumer experiences is often described as being more art than science. Increasingly, those who build them are under pressure to validate their design decisions with data. What is the appropriate role of quantitative and quantitative data when designing for interaction? What are the most effective ways to gather and interpret data that effectively improves the quality of the consumer experience? Ryan Freitas will tackle these and other issues while discussing the importance of integrating data-based iteration into your heuristics-driven design process.

About Ryan Freitas

Ryan Freitas is the founder and principal strategist at Second Verse, an experience design consultancy in San Francisco, California. Second Verse specializes in combining superior interaction design with compelling product strategy for technology startups and global media companies. Ryan enthusiastically pursues the opportunity to work on emerging user experience principles, and he has a strong interest in informatics, empathic design, and democratizing access to technology. He lives in San Francisco with his wife Kristen.

Follow Ryan on Twitter: @ryanchris

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/ryan-freitas-balancing-data-driven-genius-design/feed/ 0 Juliette Melton — Remote research: Running effective remote studieshttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/juliette-melton-remote-research-running-effective-remote-studies/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/juliette-melton-remote-research-running-effective-remote-studies/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:34:20 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2959 In this workshop-style talk, Juliette Melton will cover recruiting sources, technology tools, and caveats you might not have thought of, including managing time zones and participant distraction. We will also address pros and cons of increasingly popular non-scripted research services.]]> Web Directions USA 2010, Loews Atlanta Hotel, September 24 10.10am.

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Remote research can raise the quality and lower the costs of your user research efforts; using a combination of surveys, video, screensharing, and phone, you can connect with a much broader range of users than you could using traditional lab-based usability tests, while using resources more efficiently than you would doing contextual research. In this workshop-style talk, Juliette Melton will cover recruiting sources, technology tools, and caveats you might not have thought of, including managing time zones and participant distraction. We will also address pros and cons of increasingly popular non-scripted research services.

About Juliette Melton

Juliette Melton is a user experience researcher and design strategist based in San Francisco. Her background in web development and product management gives her a practical perspective on how to conduct effective user experience research. She advocates building products that delight users while supporting organizational realities.

Juliette holds a master’s in education from the Technology, Innovation, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she focused on developing models for innovative networked learning applications. She runs Deluxify, a boutique UX consultancy, writes about her various projects at juliemelton.com, and makes lots of terrariums.

Follow Juliette on Twitter: @j

]]> http://www.webdirections.org/resources/juliette-melton-remote-research-running-effective-remote-studies/feed/ 0 David Gravina — Design thinking and doinghttp://www.webdirections.org/resources/david-gravina-design-thinking-and-doing/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/david-gravina-design-thinking-and-doing/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:51:00 +0000 Guy Leech http://www.webdirections.org/?p=2951 From the perspective of the digital domain this session will take a look at what Design Thinking is and it’s potential to amplify creativity so that we may embrace and apply our skills to the messy problems that business, government and society face every day.]]> Web Directions South 2010, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, October 14 11.45am.

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Many web professionals practice creative, collaborative and inclusive approaches to our work. As UX designers, information architects, strategists, or programmers — we are all designers, and we are ready equipped with a way of problem solving that can be applied to challenges that are not tradi­tionally those of web practitioners.

From the perspective of the digital domain this session will take a look at what Design Thinking is and it’s potential to amplify creativity so that we may embrace and apply our skills to the messy problems that business, government and society face every day.

About David Gravina

David Gravina is the company principal and founder of Digital Eskimo, a design consultancy that applies the transformational power of design and technology to issues of social and environmental change. He is a founding member of greenUps, the Sydney green networking group, a director of the live local Foundation and was co-​​founder of the ‘Raise the Bar’ campaign which, as a former Melbourne boy, he’s pleased to say is slowly bringing Melbourne style small bars to Sydney.

Follow David on Twitter: @Deskimo

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