Add an eventWeb Directions @media 2011 schedule
Thursday 26th May 2011
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A New Network
by Tom Coates
The work we’re collectively doing—opening up gradually all of human information and media, making it recombinable, helping people create and share their work—is a huge unspoken, sexy, world-redefining mission.
It’s a mission that many of us have become blasé about, almost unaware of. It’s a project so large that it’s hard to get a grasp on. And the next few years are going to get even more interesting as the network pervades physical objects and environments, sensing and manifesting information in the real world.
It’s time to recognise the scale of the project we have in front of us, the breadth of the material we have to work with, and the possibilities of design within it. All of human knowledge, creativity—even the planet itself—is our canvas.
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Mastering CSS3 gradients
by Lea Verou
With most browsers adding increasing support, and the simplicity of providing fallbacks for those that don’t, CSS3 gradients are something we can start to use right now. They benefit our users with faster websites and ourselves with more time in our hands to spend in other things, since they are easy to create, edit and update. A very powerful feature that can also be utilized for a surprising number of design effects, even ones that don’t resemble gradients at all. In this talk, Lea will explore CSS3 gradients in great depth and it’s almost guaranteed that no matter your expertise level, you will walk out having learned new things.
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Server Side JavaScript
by Douglas Crockford
We first got server side JavaScript in 1996. This time, we’re going to get it right.
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Six rules to designing amazing mobile apps
by Brian Fling
Building a mobile app isn’t easy. Regardless of chosen platform or technology creating a memorable mobile experience has some pretty intense challenges throughout. However if you can get it right it can have some incredible rewards and propel your brand in more ways than one. After spending ten years building mobile apps for some of the biggest companies in the world, author and mobile designer Brian Fling shares his six rules for building amazing apps that will either you get you started or improve upon your next release.
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Tools For jQuery Application Architecture (Extended)
by Addy Osmani
Modern JavaScript development often has to address a number of different concerns ranging from the use of architectural patterns such as MVC to improve code organisation, through to JavaScript templating, cross-browser storage, routing/bookmarking, script loading, feature detection and more. In this talk, JavaScript developer and jQuery Core Bug Triage & Docs team member Addy Osmani discusses tools that can simplify your development process significantly.
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IE: the story so far (Lunchtime presentation)
by Martin Beeby
There is no getting around the fact that, due to an intriguing history, when it comes to Web standards IE’s name is mud with many web developers. The legacy of IE6, leading edge in its day, still lingers nearly 10 years after its release and the nightmare of browser incompatibilities and CSS hacks still has web developers waking in cold sweats.
The good news is that IE6 usage is down to 3.5% in the UK and the better news is that over the past few years Microsoft has made a concerted effort to make that challenging history, well, history, and the outcome is IE9. The new browser illustrates Microsoft’s focus on standards and speed and has resulted in a browser that has surprised even our fiercest critics. It’s been a long journey and in this talk Martin Beeby will discuss how the community helped us build our best Internet Explorer yet and the amazing things that it’s capable of. Well also take a look into the future of IE and Microsoft plan to maintain the momentum.
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Native multimedia with HTML5
by Bruce Lawson
A much-hyped feature of HTML5 is native multimedia. In this session we’ll look at embedding <audio> and <video> into your pages, and how to make it work cross-browser and degrade gracefully in older browsers. Sound too good to be true? It’s not!
We’ll look at the pros and the cons of HTML5 multimedia and see how to write simple controls with JavaScript. Most excitingly, we’ll also look at how HTML5 builds in support for subtitles and captions for multimedia accessibility. And you might pick up a Turkish dancing tip on the way.
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Visualising Data
by Brian Suda
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is estimated to produce 15 petabytes of data per year. This is difficult to store let alone understand!
With connected devices quickly out numbering connected people, we are soon going to be swamped with data. Visualising the constant stream of information we are collecting so that it can be better understood is going to be a critical task.
In this presentation, I’ll walk you through a quick overview of some basic chart and graph design, then look at how easy it is to write some quick scripts in your favourite language to produce beautiful graphics. SVG is an under-rated technology, but it can be created programmatically and quickly to visualise data.
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The mobile frameworks landscape
There’s little hotter in the world of web development right now than creating optimized web experiences and applications for mobile web enabled devices like iPhone, Android, iPad and webOS. Luckily, there’s a number of excellent HTML/CSS/Javascript frameworks to help developers create native-like experiences for these devices.
In this session, Jonathan Stark takes an in depth look at several of these, including JQTouch, JQuery Mobile and SenchaTouch, comparing and contrasting their approaches, and most appropriate uses. As a developer looking to tailor experiences and applications for the mobile web, this will be an invaluable session.
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What people want from mobile content
Ladies and gentlemen for your enjoyment, education and edification, may I present “The Rollercoaster Vaudeville Tour of Content Through The Ages!” Why should you join my session you ask? Because how we have treated content in the past is the key to understanding what people want from mobile content now. Mobile content has been a trending topic since 3150BC, you know.
Come on a whirlwind tour of the story and see what we can learn about the future of content from the ancient wisdom of ages past, manuscripts that represent a life’s work, the power of a printing press, banned books and penny dreadfuls. I defy any of you to walk away thinking that no-one likes to read stuff on the web.
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Day one closing keynote, TBA
Friday 27th May 2011
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Ballpoint, Penn, or Bust
by Andy Clarke
Animation on the web has traditionally been low-fidelity and shares much common ground with the work of early animators. Web animations have always been the domain of Flash because equivalents couldn’t easily be created using open standards. That is until now, with ever increasing support for CSS3 Animations. Learn about the latest CSS animation techniques and how to create effective, accessible fallbacks for all browsers, including those with limited capabilities.
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HTML5 offline for fun and performance
With HTML5, we can now cache our applications and the data that goes with them. This means our favourite programming platform can now be used to build apps that work offline, survive intermittent downtimes, and gain in performance from cached content. In this session we’ll get hands-on with the application cache to make the app run when it’s not online. We’ll check out the techniques for client-side persistence: web storage and indexed database. Finally, we’ll look at the latest techniques for file access — reading and writing files on the user’s hard drive from a web app is being defined by web standards and implemented in today’s modern browsers.
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Sustaining Passionate Users
Yes, business applications can be made fun and gamelike. No, points, levels and badges are not the way to create sustained interest.
While many sites have added superficial gaming elements to make interactions more engaging, the companies that “get it” have a better understanding of the psychology behind motivation. They know how to design sites that keep people coming back again and again.
So what are the secrets? What actually motivates people online? How do you create sustained interest in your product or service? Speaker Stephen P. Anderson will share common patterns from game design, learning theories, and neuroscience to reveal what motivates—and demotivates—people over the long haul.
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Designing without the browser
Innovation is intensifying off the browser — the things we use everyday are increasingly controlled by touch, gesture and voice. And we, as interaction designers, are faced with a challenge that’s the opposite of our browser-based one-man-shop: there’s suddenly a gulf of production between our concept and the final product; the means of production is as tricky to navigate as a roster of Tolstoy characters; mistakes are expensive; and everyone speaks a different language. Sound dangerous? Sound exciting?
Donovan argues the processes for the future lie in our more material-based graphic designer pasts, and our cousin disciplines of industrial design and architecture. After a decade of honing our newfangled browser-based skills, learn how to dust off and sharpen the tools of our roots.
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Rockstar graphics with HTML5
by Dave Balmer
In this session Dave will cover high-performance presentation and animation using HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3 and Canvas. Examples will include mobile-friendly techniques you can use today for creating game effects and “flashy” user experiences across a range of browsers and devices.
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Alpha.gov.uk
by Paul Annett, James Stewart, Gov UK (dev team) and James Weiner
Alpha.gov.uk is an experimental prototype of a new, single website for UK Government, developed in line with the recommendations of Martha Lane Fox’s review of UK Government online. When the site is finished, it is anticipated to save 50% of the £128 million per year that the Government currently spends on web publishing. If it can tempt more people into doing just one of their (typical) 4 or 5 monthly Government transactions online, then that would save the Government — and hence taxpayers — about £1 billion each year. The site’s been built in three months by a small team of contractors working at the Cabinet Office.
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Designing the first fifteen minutes
by Daniel Burka
That user who just signed up is about to bail. And a thousand other people just stopped in but didn’t even bother to register. Your product is great, but your users don’t stay long enough to find that out. The first fifteen minutes of your product are the most important and they’re so often squandered. But! We’re starting to figure out what works and what does not. There’s no longer any excuse to give your visitors a poor initial experience. Learn how great user interfaces entice people right out of the gate, then help newcomers get people over the threshold. Then! Great interfaces delightfully provide new users to learn complex systems and become engaged, passionate contributors. Onwards and upwards, friends.
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Performance of CSS3 & HTML5
How do you choose efficient selectors? How do you avoid unnecessary repaints and reflows? What about reducing the load on the servers by reducing the size of our code? You want to make use of the latest tools for animation and decoration, but large scale sites can’t afford to be on the wrong side of bleeding edge. Google now takes performance into account in determining search results ranking. In this talk Nicole will discuss practical strategies for improving your performance.
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Lessons from a coding veteran
What does one learn after 15 years of development?
I’ve built web sites and applications for Tesco, NASA, Channel 4, Three telecom. I even worked on the world’s #1 site. You might expect to hear about performance or some language I like or framework. I don’t think any of those are the answer. You can always pick better or worse tools for the right job, but there are some fundamental things that experience teaches you. I’d like to share my experiences with you. Here are Tom’s rules of development:
- Complexity is the enemy
- Don’t optimise too soon
- All rules are made to be broken
I’ll discuss these rules and how they can make you a better developer. Less blood and sweat, more tears. Tears of joy that is.
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Move it! CSS3 Animations and Transitions
Since the early days of the web, the only reliable way to get movement on your site was through Flash, or more recently, Javascript. But now, with WebKit and Mozilla leading the way, transformations and transitions can be done with pure CSS, even on mobile devices. And for those in need of even more movement, CSS3 provides for keyframe-based animations. In this session, we’ll take a look at all of the possibilities and explore what works and where — from the simplest effects, to creative usability enhancements including the combination of CSS with mobile Javascript frameworks.
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Don’t play games with me with me
In 1960, Milton Bradley published “The Game of Life”: a capitalist wet dream of a board game, won by the lucky one who retired richest. Today, “gamification” vendors still take Milton Bradley seriously. From losing weight to saving Africa, from watching TV to matching DNA sequences: there’s nothing that couldn’t be made more fun by adding points, badges, and other elements from video games. At least that’s the selling proposition.
Yet the debate on gamification is deeply split. On the one hand, marketers dream of customer mind control, on the other game designers warn of digital snake oil sellers and shallow ‘pointsification’. How to design a playful experience that is truly meaningful to users – instead of just creating shallow novelty effects? Which lessons do games really hold for other products and services? What criticism is valid? And how can designers interested in “gameifying” an application steer clear of the worst pitfalls?
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Hot Topics Panel
by Brian Suda, Bruce Lawson, Relly Annett-Baker, Jeremy Keith and Douglas Crockford
A popular @media tradition, hosted by Jeremy Keith, the final session for day one will feature a selection of speakers discussing questions posed by conference attendees. A lively conversation and some passionate debate will occur, so bring along your questions and enjoy the robust discussion. As Ghandi once said “honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress”.
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