With Lucas Cherkewski in the Designer track

Speaker notes from the presentation

Design doesn’t have to be something that requires special talent, nor is it something limited to so-called “creative” people. Design is a skill, to be learnt and practiced like any other.

We’ll learn how to apply the principles of problem solving to a real design project to remove the necessity of a “creative” mind, and gain some tips for good design thinking along the way.

(Targeted at anyone interested in design, especially those who feel like it might be unapproachable or impossible for them.)

With Brian Hoke in the Designer track

Link to Reveal.js version

I’ve used Sass, the CSS preprocessor, more and more lately in my work, particularly after authoring an online course on the topic. My presentation would highlight the benefits of using Sass, particularly with WordPress: code organization and reuse, leveraging the power of outside libraries, more-efficient update and redesigns in the future, and more.

My talk would definitely be aimed at coders, but not at the highest technical level. I’d present code examples and highlight both the benefits of effective use of Sass and some pitfalls of using it poorly.

Learning outcomes

• for those who don’t know already, discover Sass, the CSS preprocessor library
• see how Sass can benefit your work: more efficient CSS authoring/maintenance, more robust CSS features
• explore Sass libraries: save time and jumpstart projects with powerful mixin libraries
• avoid mistakes: contrast the benefits of a thoughtful, well-planned use of Sass with a poor use of the tool

with Elida Arrizza in the Designer track

Wireframes. Such a mysterious and elusive term. You may have heard rumours that they exist deep in the depths of waste bins napkins to top secret security compounds. Legend states that wireframes transcend powerful benefits of website creation. But some say could be dangerous to use or almost extinct. Could this be all true?

If blueprints are to a building, what wireframes are to a website, you could be missing out on fundamental knowledge. Let us embark on a LoFi to HiFi journey, discovering wireframe types, tools and much more.

Learning outcomes

• Overall, people will come away with a solid grasp on how and when to use wireframes.
• Better understanding of how wireframes are central to connecting code, design and content during planning and production.
• Expose Wireframes for those who do not have “”inside access””. For example solo freelancers without team experience or official training in wireframing.
• A novice will gain basic wireframe skills (or become more comfortable) using wireframes for as planning and communication tool. Those who do have some experience will gain more confidence of how to approach wireframes when needed.

With James Archer in the A11y track

I’ll explain why empathy and emotion are crap-tons more important to overall user experience design than parallax, front-end frameworks, and even the hamburger icon. I’ll also explain why design is too important to leave to the designers, and why developers, and others should be directly involved in the process.

Learning Outcomes

Attendees (including non-designers) will quickly come to understand the key difference between effective design (that changes peoples behavior) and merely attractive design, and I’ll explain the step-by-step process that gets them there. I’ll provide a number of real-world project examples to illustrate exactly how it’s worked in the past, and why this process gets such good results.

With Jasmine Vesque in the Designer track

This presentation covers typography basics and best practices, examples of typography in web design, trends, personalities of type, an introduction to Google Fonts and different ways to enable fonts on your WordPress website.

The ideal audience is anyone looking to better understand Typography and how it relates to web design. They don’t need to have a coding or design background, but that would be an asset.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the different types of fonts and when to use them
• Recognize the various personalities and tones fonts have and how they can affect your message
• Know what the current trends are in Typography and web design
• Use theme options and/or plugins to modify fonts
• Leverage Google Fonts and integrate them directly into your theme

With David Hickox in the Designer track

In this talk, I’ll go over the method I’ve created for designing websites from the content outward. I’ll cover aspects of designing in code, type choices, line height and typographic scale, creating a proper base style sheet for your child theme, usability best practices, semantic structure, and more. Since the web is fundamentally a text-based, utilitarian medium, making good type choices is arguably the most important aspect of web design. In this presentation, I’ll walk you through the things I’ve learned in my 15 years designing for the web.

The intended audience is designers who use WordPress as their CMS, but it has css and code elements that should resonate with front end developers as well as general typographic and structural principles that are helpful for content creators.

Learning outcomes

• apply time-tested principles of typography and layout to the web
• build out a base “kitchen sink” typography stylesheet
• make better font choices in their designs
• gain an appreciation for content-focused design