October 17, 2017 — HTML: for those of us who aren’t comfortable with code, we may have shied away from it in the past. Maybe you’ve seen it when you click the text/HTML tab in the WordPress editor, but quickly clicked back to the visual mode. Whatever your familiarity with HTML, we’ll use this talk to break down some of your fears. You’ll learn what HTML is, how it’s used, and why it’s worth learning. Together, we’ll see that HTML isn’t too bad at all—that it’s actually a powerful tool to help us better our websites. By the end, you’ll be familiar with HTML and know where to go to learn more.

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November 17, 2016 — Traditional web design is all about the mockup, a series of fully designed pages that a developer then turns into templates and a theme. This kind of web design can create websites that are harder to maintain or extend in the future; if it’s not in the original mockup, we have no idea what to do! In recent years, however, a new method has emerged: designing with patterns – small, reusable mini-designs that are combined to create templates of any sort. We’ll learn three connected topics: what pattern libraries are all about; how they make life better for designers, developers, and clients; and how to work with a pattern library when building WordPress themes. By the end of the presentation, you’ll feel comfortable with the idea of designing and developing with patterns, and know how to start improving your work with pattern libraries.

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