December 19, 2015 — This talk brings the focus of web design back to its core subject: How to communicate with people. You’ll learn about user research, empathy in the design process, communication patterns, real-world testing, and designing from the content out. Web design is about empathy for the user, and the users who visit your site are people. This talk will teach you how to prepare, design, and build websites with user experiences that communicate clearly and make the people who visit the site the top priority.

Presentation Slides »

December 19, 2015 — The WordPress REST API is one of the most exciting new features of WordPress, but it is more than just the default routes and endpoints that it adds automatically to your site. It is also an awesome tool for creating your own RESTful API.
In this talk we will look at how powerful this tool is, see some some practical examples of how to extend the REST API and learn how to create custom routes and endpoints. When you leave this talk, you’ll be prepared to create your own custom APIs, the WordPress way.

December 19, 2015 — Every WordPress user—from bloggers to site managers to developers—needs to know how to format text that is accessible to all site visitors regardless of how they use a computer. Come learn what web accessibility is, watch examples of assistive technology in action, and see ways to format text, enter images, and generally improve the accessibility of a WordPress website. WordPress users of all levels will leave with new skills that can immediately improve their websites.

December 19, 2015 — Confused by all the geek speak and jargon? We are going to explain the basic terminology used in the WordPress environment. Whether it’s an explanation of what a widget is or the difference between head, header, and heading, you’ll come away understanding the jargon needed to navigate the WordPress and web design world. We’ll cover the terminology used in websites and themes, such as header, slider, navigation, widget, sidebar, footer; terminology used in WordPress, such as dashboard, permalinks, plugin, theme, widget, custom post type; and any more you can think of.

December 19, 2015 — Finding the right theme for your website can be a true challenge. The Genesis Framework offers a powerful foundation for a WordPress driven web site. In Getting Started with Genesis we’ll cover everything you need to get your web site online with the Genesis Framework. We’ll also dig into the best plugins and resources that will help you make the most of your Genesis powered web site.

Presentation Slides »

December 19, 2015 — This talk is about fundraising on a WordPress site. I will draw on my experience of working with a house of worship and several other nonprofits to help you navigate the waters of taking donations on your WordPress site. I will discuss issues involved and solutions I’ve implemented and recommend. It’s time to move beyond the PayPal Donate button and take donations to the next level!

December 19, 2015 — Freelance Business Panel Discussion with Shane Powers, Andy Stratton, Drew Poland and Bill Gadless

December 18, 2015 — If you’re not already using the customiser to add custom ‘options’ into your themes, then this talk will help you get started! Dave will cover the fundamentals of getting your theme ready for customiser action before showing you how to add settings, controls, sections and panels. Then the talk will touch on more advanced topics such as enabling live updates to preview your changes, exercising control over your website’s colours and finally how to add your own custom controls for more advanced input options.

December 18, 2015 — How can you improve on the default WordPress dashboard; and make the post editing toolbar less cluttered, more intuitive and relevant for your users? All it takes is a bit of forethought and a sprinking of code in functions.php. Why do this? To make life easier for content editors, help them avoid some common mistakes, and put some useful new options on the editing toolbar.

Presentation Slides »

December 18, 2015 — WordPress doesn’t live in isolation but’s sits as part of a stack. From the operating system, to the web server each aspect of the stack should be carefully chosen. In addition WordPress can be enhanced by using other application in tandem. Tim takes a look at the eco-system that WordPress lives in, to help people create a very modern WordPress stack.