July 7, 2019 — As we take our first steps into a block-based editing system within WordPress 5.0 and beyond, designing exceptional WordPress experiences has never been more important.

Let’s take a look at how to level-up our design capabilities and explore strategies to building block experiences within Gutenberg that can be notably complex, yet extraordinarily simple at the same time.

In a world where the lines between design and development are blurred more than ever, we’ll dive into design patterns, user experience, and even a couple programming techniques and ideas — all to understand how to design remarkable user experiences in Gutenberg blocks.

July 7, 2019 — Modern browsers, JavaScript libraries, and CSS3 have made it easier than ever to create exciting, dynamic animated experiences within web interfaces. But we have also seen the unfortunate side effect of trying to do too much: websites that are resource hogs, eating up bandwidth and slowing load times to a crawl, all for effects that are ultimately just there for the “show” factor. This talk will discuss how to use these animation skills for good: to establish context, convey status, give feedback, and yes, even add a little delight. Along the way, we’ll discuss the principles of animation that guide everything from your favorite feature films to the actions of a button on your screen, and learn how deliberate animation choices can improve the experience for your user.

July 7, 2019 — What about those who use screen readers? What really drives them crazy? What do they wish web designers knew? Come learn what the visually impaired want most from your website.

July 7, 2019 — Do you constantly feel like you are hacking code together? Do you find it difficult to maintain, adapt or even read code you’ve written previously? Chances are, you are not taking into consideration some of the basic principles of software architecture. Come learn how some simple habits and changes in perspective can transform you from a 1x developer to a 10x developer!

July 7, 2019 — We’re all humans, right? The primary way we exchange information with each other is by having a conversation and that’s what users expect from websites and apps. Everything from lead forms to error messages are a part of the conversation. And just like a conversation, the flow of information is expected to go both ways.

In this talk, we’ll discuss the art of designing the words people see when they interact with software and how to craft a genuine conversation with your users.

July 7, 2019 — We explain what web accessibility (WCAG 2.1) is and why it is so important we understand it and be compliant.

Then we offer our easy and actionable steps that you can take and incorporate into your design and development process.

We also explain each step so you know exactly what they are and how to implement them.

Finally we offer some links to completely free software that will help you test and remediate your website.

July 6, 2019 — While talks from Bobby and Jenny this year will help get you up to speed with some of the core aspects of SEO, Google makes subtle changes to their constantly. This talk will rapidly cover many of the changes that Google has made in the past year.

July 6, 2019 — I’ll provide an explanation for why WordPress is a great option for a foundation. First, I’ll talk about what a web application is. Then, I’ll cover the difference between a foundation and a framework. I’ll cover how it relates to WordPress (and what we can use out-of-the-box), what we may need to develop on our own, common practices for building such applications, and what a basic project may look like. Some very, very basic object-oriented practices for approaching a project is a help, but not necessary.

July 4, 2019 — Good software engineers can be found anywhere, and embracing remote working enables you to tap into that global pool. But just because you can… does that mean you should? In this talk I’ll go through some dos and don’ts, talk about some pitfalls, and hopefully guide you towards doing remote the right way. I’ll include some stories that draw on my experience working in technical recruitment for clients who have been on both sides of the do/don’t scale, as well as Automattic’s decade-plus experience as a fully-distributed company.

July 4, 2019