October 27, 2016 — There are five rungs to the UX Design Success Ladder, it starts at functional where basic WP templates and development driven plugins reside. If you’ve had a user experience designer work with your site, plugin or template, you’ve likely stepped into the second step, usable. The great UX work starts after that, as we strive to climb the ladder to comfortable, delightful and meaningful. Learn ways to think about elevating design for websites, templates and WordPress products for UX success. We’ll also review real-world examples and open up Q&A around design thinking and execution.

October 27, 2016 — Never let it be said that this flying fat broad has body issues. Oh no. How many times have you needed to tweak a category of posts to make some element fit a little better? Or had a site with some content aimed at fashion-conscious adults – and another set of posts aimed at their kids? You could use all sorts of fancy taxonomy – custom post types or multisite, or some other foolishness. But I just don’t have the patience. But I do have a secret weapon. Body classes. They’ve gotten me out of more styling jams than Janet Jackson’s wardrobe staff. (Wait. That’s not saying much, is it?) Let’s take a look at how a good look through all those classes on your body tags can lead you to a world of styling options – with no malfunctions allowed.

October 27, 2016 — Many members of the WordPress Community use or are a part of a distributed workforce of designers, developers, content creators, and project managers. Having the right tools in place and establishing a good workflow for incoming projects is essential to success. Otherwise you risk dropping tasks, miscommunication, and overall disorganization–all of which can drastically affect your company’s bottom line.

October 25, 2016 — This talk is geared toward web designers who primarily create WordPress websites for small businesses. This presentation will cover the best methods for obtaining detailed discovery information so you can design a site that will target your client’s audience and fulfill their end objective. Detailed topics will include specific discovery methods relating to the client’s competition and marketing goals; how to gather aesthetic information required for design; the best use of style guides; and presenting design drafts for client approval.

October 8, 2016 — The transfer of information is paramount in design. Technology has made it possible to consume a mass of information in minimal time – is your design helping the flow of this information, or hindering it? While accessibility for those with challenges is one end of the spectrum, have you been designing for the other end? Have you been designing for telepathy or those with advanced capabilities? This talk will explore the spectrum of accessibility for both the challenged and the more advanced in today’s design.

Presentation Slides »

October 8, 2016 — Learn the tricks designers use to make websites attractive and effective. We’ll teach you the Most Important Question designers ask their clients, and how you can use it to your advantage when doing it yourself. Then, learn practical ways to apply it to create attractive sites (using good design principles and simple rules for success) and effective sites (through basic exercises that help you develop and showcase your primary call to action).

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October 8, 2016 — Episode 2 recaps the Polyglots announcement of Global WordPress Translation Day, the ZIP file issue with the Plugin Team.

Then the focus is on the Mobile Teams announcement of the WordPress version 6.0 Android app RC 1 and the Design Team request for testers for the Customizers add theme features.

August 17, 2016 — As a website designer, you can drive yourself crazy with the on-again, off-again roller coaster of building websites. The opportunity for you to engage clients beyond the website build exists and can lead to long-term stability.

Here is some of what participants will learn:

How SEO can to turn a one-time website build into a long term opportunity with their clients
The critical point when you must introduce SEO in order to create happier clients and more referrals
SEO secrets you can use right away to wow your clients and keep them coming back for more
How to turn SEO into profits – whether you do it yourself or outsource it to an expert

Presentation Slides »

August 15, 2016 — Heroes? Pricing tables? THE GRID? Why DO all websites look like the same? Starting with a well-organized theme framework and a little SASS, this talk will cover how to identify user experience patterns and stories that guide your visitors where you want them to go, while giving you the freedom to create new designs that stand out from the sea of sameness prevalent in today’s websites. We also cover how curating your own pattern library enables you to hit the cornerstones of successful web design – Accessibility, Responsiveness, Usability, and Conversion.

August 14, 2016 — Tammie Lister works for Automatic and resides in the United Kingdom. She helped organize WordCamp Brighton 2016 and works with the Design Team.
Publish August 15