March 28, 2019 — The WordPress community has core tenets that naturally mean some of its members want to create tools and platforms for civic good. With WordPress powering nearly 30% of the web, the potential its community has to impact democratic engagement is enormous.

But how much do these members understand the dynamic between citizens and their public bodies in order to build things that are useful and used? How aware are they of the ways in which our institutions work and their cultures in order to be able to affect real change?

I’d like to talk about my decade (and a bit!) working with government, local government, civil society and citizens in Scotland first as a digital engagement agitator and now as a digital engagement specialist.

Using the headlines under WordPress’s philosophy, I want to share stories and give advice about approaching creating civic tech in a way that mirrors the language and ethos of the WordPress community.

The hope is that I can give people some information that means they take a more considered approach to civic tech as opposed to thinking everything can be fixed with an app or a website.

March 27, 2019 — Have you ever launched a website only to return to find some annoying SEO has come after you and destroyed it? Has some obnoxious marketer bugged you for lots of little changes- outside the client’s scope and budget? I’m sorry. That might have been my fault. Let’s work together to help our clients. I’ll share my secrets on setting up a WordPress site for SEO success. While this won’t guarantee SEO results, but it will set up your clients for optimal Google love.

March 27, 2019 — In this talk, I will walk through specific techniques and tools that will increase scores on Google PageSpeed Insights. We’ll discuss caching, plugins that help minify your code, and best practices when building custom themes.

Presentation Slides »

March 27, 2019 — Four key members of the WordPress community discuss what the future of WordPress holds – a panel discussion led by Ana Silva.

March 27, 2019 — It is often noted that the last part of any digital project is usually the hardest and takes the longest as expressed famously by Tom Cargill, Bell Labs:

“The first 90 percent of the code accounts for the first 90 percent of the development time. The remaining 10 percent of the code accounts for the other 90 percent of the development time.”

Why is this? What makes the last part of any digital project this difficult?

Have we become the “Snapchat” generation that can’t focus long-term? What does it means for our projects? It is us, our clients or the projects themselves that fail at this stage?

This talk will aim to focus on common project failings that I have seen again and again in the final stages and provide actionable advice for all team members involved in creating websites to help deliver better projects.

March 27, 2019 — Do you design and develop websites or apps? Are you really proud that you have mastered two distinct disciplines? Or do you feel a bit insecure that neither your design or development skills match those of a ‘specialist’?

If you’re anything like me, you sometimes feel a bit of both and wonder how to pitch yourself for potential work or where your skills fit as part of a wider team.

I’m going to argue that we should not undervalue our skills, I’ll share some ideas about ways of working and make a plea to the wider web world to take us more seriously.

March 27, 2019 — WPML is the tool of choice for many site needing to have content available to users in multiple languages. In this talk I’ll explain how WPML works, go through the interface, and introduce some key insights I’ve discovered in my years with this very capable tool.

March 27, 2019 — What comes to your mind when you think about technical requirements for successful SaaS company? Should it be lean and easy-to-build, but ready for continuous improvement? Should it have wide opportunities for customization but still be reliable and stay under the control? Should it be powerful and scalable, but still really easy to manage? We’ll see how to build such kind of Software-as-a-Service application using WordPress Multisite, from scratch.

March 27, 2019 — As web designers, our clients regularly turn to us for what they consider “traditional” design expertise–things like color and movement on a website. But what often gets overlooked is the critical role that content organization and page structure play on a website. While many people consider design largely aesthetic in nature, it would be naive to ignore or downplay the importance of content. In order to design effectively for end users, designers must consider the implications that content can have on the overall user experience.

A content-driven approach should be used to inform website structure, page layout, and overall design. In this session, I’ll talk about the importance of leading clients through a comprehensive content-driven web design process and how doing so can help exceed their expectations every time.

Presentation Slides »

March 27, 2019 — Colour is an essential design element. When we design for the web, we’re sometimes conditioned in our colour choices by the colour palette of the brand we’re building the site for. However, usability and accessibility must be the first consideration in our choice of colours and their application. This talk gives practical guidance on how to approach and use colour in your web designs, with a few touch points on colour psychology and theory.