December 5, 2018 — Most of the battle in building a great software product is understanding your user’s job stories: how will your software be used, and who will be using it? This session will look at best practices in building plugins for eCommerce users, from great code foundations to excellent user experience.

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December 5, 2018 — Color plays a very important role in designing websites. Trying to find a good color scheme can be little scary if we are not sure where to start.

In this talk, we will discuss how color psychology and theory could help us in choosing the right colors for what our site or brand represents, and the do’s and dont’s while choosing colors. We’ll also look at some helpful color creation resources.

December 5, 2018 — The most important points of modern typography boil down to Design, Usability/Accessibility, Cost, and Loading Times. The choice between finding a harmonious balance of serifs, sans, or both shouldn’t be difficult with the vast amount of options. They can be purchased, subscribed, or free. There is something to fit every budget and design decision. Usability is a combination of selected font and size. The size is most important when it comes to the responsive nature of a site. Understanding the probably reading distances of each device helps in judging these choices. This is a big problem. People don’t understand the actual cost of good type, and may feel cheated or overwhelmed.

Good type makes a difference and is worth the investment. If this is not in your budget there are many other options to consider, not forgetting that type can become apart of a good brand and for full brand consistency might look good on a site. A good website loads in a reasonable amount of time, less than 3 seconds. When choosing web fonts, the choices you make can cause some significant load time issues. Sometimes these issue might be okay, sometimes not. Here are some things to keep in mind when making a decision, will it stop the page from loading completely, do you mind having unstyled text for a moment, adding unecessary outside calls (if using a google fonts or Typekit like service.

December 5, 2018 — As a fellow WordPress designer, I know how much time it takes to work with a client and get a website created. It can feel like an eternity with the initial consult, getting the pieces together, creating the rough draft to their requirements, presenting the rough draft, going back and forth with updates, and so on.

While there’s no cure to make all of this automated, there is a way to shave countless hours and throw remedial tasks out the window. In this talk, I’ll go over my approach to streamline the WordPress design process allowing you to be more efficient, build sites quicker, and even handle more clients.

December 5, 2018 — In our early experience with WordPress, as the open source community took hold, we quickly realized the tools and information available to us were a game changer. Where I work, we are designers first. We have a great appreciation for those in the community, developers, users and of course designers, that make WordPress what it is.

WordPress is a platform loaded with design possibilities and surrounded with constantly growing resources that we use when we design. Just some examples are: page builders, online wire framing, and mock-up tools. I’ll discuss some tools that help us to make design decisions regarding typography, color and image editing on the fly, and look at ways to stage and present ideas. WordPress has afforded designers the ability to focus on working with art, color and visual concepts while making full use of functionality in the environment of the browser.

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December 5, 2018 — While email is inexpensive and has a high ROI, it is also the most insecure marketing channel. Learn the best practices to send email securely that will help you protect your customer’s data, your data, your reputation, and ensure more of your emails get read by the right people at the right time.

In this session, you’ll learn what customer data is safe to send via email, how to tell email clients (like gmail) that you are who you say you are, the basics of segmentation and automation, and be able to apply those things immediately in your email marketing efforts.

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December 5, 2018 — Whether you are just getting started with WordPress development or you are an advanced developer, there are always things that we can do to upgrade our workflows. Creating a process for your development workflow can help you save time, better estimate projects and in turn be more profitable.

We will talk about example workflows and things to consider to help you “fall in love with your development workflow.”

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December 5, 2018 — WordPress web design takes a different approach when creating websites for nonprofit organizations rather than a brick and mortar or eCommerce business. It is more than just driving traffic to a site but getting the visitor to buy into the story that the nonprofit is telling. Picture the ASPCA commercials we all have seen on TV, then convert that into pictures and words. Stories that pull at the heartstrings open the wallets for donations. Providing secure portals to accept not only one-time donations but also subscription based, monthly reoccurring is key. By designing a website that creates emotion and engagement as well as a place to share the stories of the nonprofit. In turn donations and exposure will increase for the organization as well as their digital reputation.

In this presentation I will discuss plugins that I have found that work well for donation-based model websites. I will also share ways to create a user experience that increased donations and awareness. Proper theme selection, seo, plugins all enhance the way we not only tell the nonprofits story but also build brand awareness and in turn a sense of comfort with the donor that they are supporting a cause whose story resonates with them. Whether it be animal welfare, orphans, trafficking, no matter the cause a properly designed site can provide donor dollars and exposure that the organization would likely not have otherwise.

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December 5, 2018 — Crossing digital platforms sometimes is not easy, so there must be knowledge of who you’re trying to attract and what content bait you’re using to grab attention. This talk will show how your content will hold your reader’s attention and encourage them to return back to your site. Digital impressions and perceptions are important because they do define our presence in the world.

SEO and Google are not the be all and end all solutions to building followers. Engagement and activism are still key…

December 5, 2018 — You may have started your business because you valued the freedom and independence, but do you find your time is not your own? Clients who don’t meet their deadlines; software, themes and plugins that change the way they work (or break) on their schedule not yours; and generally fighting the fire of the day mean you won’t be as successful as you want.

In this talk learn some tips to make your WordPress design and development projects, and your business in general, run more smoothly so you can pursue what matters to you. The platforms, tools and processes you use and how you structure a project can make a difference. Regain your independence!