Author Archive

  • Ben Dunkle: Designing Dashicons – what I learned about icons and the web

    WordCamp NYC 2014

    November 6, 2014 — Icons have been a integral part of the WordPress admin since 2.7. However, version 3.8 saw a complete overhaul of the design of the icons, from both an aesthetic and technical standpoint. I’ll talk about the shift in aesthetic approach, touch (briefly!) on some of the technical challenges, and demonstrate best practices in designing your own icon icons—either as a plugin developer or as a design contributor— for WordPress.

  • Marko Heijnen: Bootstrapping your plugin

    WordCamp NYC 2014Speaker: Marko Heijnen

    November 6, 2014 — The success of building your own plugin is all depends on how you start. From making the right decisions to finding the right structure and tools to maintain it.

    We will cover during this talk the last part. I will short talk about how to setup your plugin, which things are needed and from there talk about some basic unit tests you should include in every plugin to make your live a bit easier. As last part I will cover grunt which is a task runner which can automate all your processes so you don’t need to even think about most of the things.

  • Andrea Rennick: From Housewife to Hero – Giving Back and Moving Up

    WordCamp NYC 2014Speaker: Andrea Rennick

    November 6, 2014 — Want to be part of the community? Want to learn how you, YES YOU can give back to the WordPress community at large, even if you don’t know how to code?

    Follow my journey from mild mannered homeschooling housewife, to well known community member who now works for a leading company in the WordPress ecosystem. Best part? I’ve done it all in my jammies.

  • Boone Gorges: Free Software, Free Labor, and the Freelancer: The Economics of Contributing

    WordCamp NYC 2014Speaker: Boone Gorges

    November 6, 2014 — In this presentation, I’ll address both the *why* and the *how* of contributing while freelancing. I’ll lay out both an economic and a philosophical argument for why freelancers ought to budget for time on the parent projects. And I’ll talk about some concrete strategies for making the process less painful than it might seem at first glance. I’ll use myself as a case study, and talk about how my yearly earnings have steadily increased at the same time that the proportion of my working week spent on client work has actually gone *down*, to the extent that I spend over 50% of my time on free software work that I’m not paid for directly.

  • Nate Reist: AJAX – using JavaScript in WordPress

    WordCamp Grand Rapids 2014Speaker: Nate Reist

    November 6, 2014 — Using Ajax and JavaScript in WordPress plugins. JavaScript is an incredibly powerful tool to make your website and or web app more powerful and interactive. See the full power of integrating right into your WordPress with wp_ajax and taking advantage of client side scripting.

    Presentation Slides »

  • Michelle Schulp: Design Is In The Details – How Decisions Shape Communication

    WordCamp Grand Rapids 2014Speaker: Michelle Schulp

    November 6, 2014 — People put a lot of effort into putting a website together, but often stumble at the finish line when it comes to making their final design decisions. Learn how seemingly minor design choices have a huge impact on how people interact with and understand the content of your site. In this video, Michelle Schulp goes through specific examples of simple design tweaks that make a big difference.

    Presentation Slides »

  • Luca Sartoni: Growth Tips For Any WordPress Site

    WordCamp Europe 2014Speaker: Luca Sartoni

    November 5, 2014 — Growth is the main goal for any online project but only large companies can invest in growth teams and professional planning. In this presentation Luca explores the frontiers of Growth Engineering, giving practical advice on how to apply the best growth strategies to any WordPress site, from the personal blog to the large publishing site. How to acquire new traffic in an ethical way, how to engage the visitors and turn them into regular readers, how to drive a successful campaign on WordPress.

  • Gloria Antonelli: Be a Lean UX Team Machine

    WordCamp Grand Rapids 2014Speaker: Gloria Antonelli

    November 5, 2014 — The convergence of building native mobile apps, growing WP design agencies and acquiring enterprise projects empowers WordPress to the next level. Now is the time to step up our game with a Lean UX workflow. Lean UX is a fast design process with focus on a sequences of sprints to define, prototype, test, and refine user experience. Team collaboration, customer learning cycles, and design thinking are key. Find out how Lean UX creates the best user outcomes.

    Presentation Slides »

  • Rebecca Gill: 10 Tips for Turning Your WordPress Website Into an Traffic Driving Machine

    WordCamp Grand Rapids 2014Speaker: Rebecca Gill

    November 5, 2014 — Did you build it and no one came? If your website isn’t bringing in visitors like it should, join me for an educational session full of action items. We’ll walk through the ten top changes you can make to your WordPress website to begin driving traffic and converting visitors.

    Presentation Slides »