March 21, 2019 — With the another round of municipal elections set in Alberta for October 2017, we are about to be bombarded by candidates vying for our votes and attention. But what makes a good Political Campaign Web Site? What makes people take notice of a candidate? And are there lessons about design, branding and functionality that we can learn from campaign web sites to enhance our own business and non-profit web sites. This honest and frank talk will dive into the world of political web design to provide you with ideas on how better tell the story of your organization and get people to buy in to your message.

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March 18, 2019 — As someone trained in both traditional design and web, with experience as a front end developer and as the principal designer at both a freelance company and a high paced start-up, I’ve learned how important it is to bridge the gap between departments. By understanding where all of the people working on your project are coming from you can increase efficiency, decrease workplace tension, and make better sites faster. Using real life examples from a variety of design and development situations, I’ll point out some of the main areas where confusion arises and where increased communication can make everyone’s life easier.

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February 28, 2019 — The basic principles of graphic design are applicable to a lot more than design: in this talk, we’ll explore with Rafaella, how these fundamental concepts can extend into all aspects of your life, personal and professional. From Space to Gestalt, from Unity to Dominance, to Balance the principles that govern design (should) govern our lives as well, as – just like a product – a good, purposeful and worthy life can be designed.

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February 11, 2019 — WordPress is being used in increasingly complex settings, powering everything from websites, to apps to content distribution services. As complexity increases, it becomes more and more important to make sure that we are designing and building the right experience for content creators, editors and end users. This panel will draw on real life examples that range from designing editor workflows through to UI design for public audiences. We’ll look at how to navigate the organisational challenges, including developing the business case for design and managing stakeholders. We’ll also look at how different products come with very different challenges and needs. Finally, we’ll discuss what success (and failure) looks like in the real world. This is not a technical talk.

February 7, 2019 — I will share my experience on the most common UI mistakes that Designers and Bloggers unknowingly make that could turn off the user, customer and readers. We will also cover practical ways fix those mistakes.

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February 1, 2019 — Traditionally, marketing and product design have been thought of as separate roles within many organizations. Often times, a gap is formed between the two, leaving an inconsistent experience from the time a customer is made aware of a product up through the time they’re an actual customer. Whether you’re a freelancer or part of a large company — join me as I dig into the growth funnel (AAARR model—Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral and Revenue) and explore ways in which you can rapidly iterate in your marketing and product to provide a more cohesive experience for your target demographic.

February 1, 2019 — This topic will be an overview to the leg work to do before you jump into the design and development stage. I will give an introductory talk on site maps, user personas, content guides, and other things to consider about how your website will function before you start designing or developing your site.

January 24, 2019 — Gutenberg has been creeping up for a long time and now it’s coming for us all.

Most of the initial discussion in the community has revolved around development and usability issues. As it gets ready to launch we’re going to have to establish how we design for it, both in terms of the practical solutions we need immediately, and what it could mean for how we view our work in the long term.

January 2, 2019 — At this point, most product teams are making a good faith effort to be customer-centered and doing at least some research. Why does it seem like so many decisions are still based on speculation or personal opinion? Why is it still so hard to make a case for qualitative research?

All will be revealed. You’ll walk away better equipped to get the evidence you really need to create products and services people love.

December 30, 2018 — Over the past 10 years, CSS has transformed from a descriptive language for presentation into a Turing-complete, domain-specific, declarative programming language for layout on the web.

Okay…but how does one go from describing presentation to programming in CSS? And what on earth is a “CSS Algorithm”?

This entertaining and personable talk will answer these questions and more, before delving into practical steps for creating CSS algorithms of your own to bridge the gap between design and development.