July 15, 2018

July 15, 2018 — According to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy, 21 percent of adults in the U.S. read below a 5th grade level. While we are making great strides towards a web that is accessible to everyone, this population still remains largely under-served. How can we modify our understanding of “digital a11y” to include users with literacy challenges? This session will begin with a broad discussion of accessibility, for those who may be new to the topic, and then move into what we can do to meet the needs of specific users, with a focus on those who can’t read, read poorly, or read English as a second language. Participants will engage in a series of exercises designed to illustrate the importance of website accessibility, build empathy and understanding for multiple user communities, and develop skills to make more useful websites.

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July 13, 2018 — This talk is geared towards getting people up to speed with how Modern Javascript works. The bulk of this talk will be used to cover the newer Javascript syntax, since that syntax will be used in the following React Talks. The Modern JS talk will also cover how to navigate the board Javascript ecosystem, and we will be touching on topics such as Node, NPM, and some of the various build tools that exist. Additionally, we will discuss some more advanced Javascript topics like Async Programming, and building modular Javascript applications.

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July 13, 2018 — It can be challenging to be an introvert in a world built for extroverts. A lot of introverts have been told at some point in their career to “be more extroverted”, as though introversion is bad — but it’s not bad, and being an extrovert is certainly not required for success. Learn about the science behind introversion and extroversion and what advantages each has in today’s workplace. Then find out how Aaron has learned to leverage the strengths of his introversion as well as what he does to help him navigate the parts of the WordPress community and his career that are harder for him as an introvert.

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July 13, 2018 — Branding advice for corporations and startups doesn’t work for service-oriented businesses, such as freelancers and agencies. Human centered branding excels where corporate and personal branding both fall short. In this talk, you’ll get practical tips on how to grow a relationship-focused business with an authentic brand that you not only put on during the working hours, but are able to live by 24/7.

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July 12, 2018 — This talk will provide examples and how-tos on the community building in real life. We will go into social media platforms and how it’s a start, but then we’ll dive deeper into IRL engagement; What does this look like? How can one start?

Also, this talk will go into the importance of community & how intentionally building community will directly affect the social trajectory of our neighborhoods all the way up to our nation.

July 12, 2018 — The wp_options database table is the center of all WordPress websites. It stores critical site data and is used on nearly every page in WordPress. However, it’s also very easy for the wp_options table to slow your site to a grinding halt. This talk will review best practices for keeping your wp_options table in check to keep your site performant.

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July 12, 2018 — Our project has 100% test coverage; we have end-to-end tests, unit tests, manual testing scripts—and my colleague can’t get any of it working!?

Poorly-written issues or out-of-date local installation steps can ruin a project, but when we think of testing we forget about the processes that surround our code. So how can we hold our workflows, onboarding steps and communication to the same rigorous standards of quality as our codebases? By applying that mentality to the issue trackers, READMEs and wikis we already have, we can save ourselves and our teams from communication and process errors and get back to making websites!

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July 12, 2018 — First off, what exactly is user generated content (UGC)? This is content that is created by your customers. It can be anything – a blog post, product reviews, photos, videos or comments. Content marketing is currently a top marketing strategy for most businesses. A report by Demand Gen shows that 47% of customers surveyed will read about three to five pieces of content prior before they consider reaching out to a company to get its products or services. In this talk I want to cover the different strengthen of UGC and how to make use of it for your site and buissenes.

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July 12, 2018 — Use of a decoupled CMS is an exciting approach that allows teams to maintain the WordPress admin while embracing frontend experiences that are engaging and flexible. The incorporation of the WordPress REST API into core now makes this possible. But can this be achieved on an enterprise scale?

In 2016, Human Made engaged in a project dedicated to realizing these possibilities. The goal was to create a fully decoupled WordPress admin leveraging a React front end. The technical challenges included API challenges, caching, themeing in PHP & React, and more. This session focuses on the logistical considerations taken to meet the challenge of creating a holistic WordPress/React product.