Sessions at Future of Web Design 2011 on Tuesday 17th May

You’ve got ideas swimming in your head about the next website or web app you want to make, but translating abstract thoughts into a usable, successful interface is no easy task. How do you make sure you’re designing something relevant to your audience? Should you wireframe, prototype, or both? How do you build an interface quickly while planning for the future? Aarron will share practical advice from the interface design school of hard knocks that will help you make your ideas a reality.

With every website we design we have the opportunity to communicate important information to our users before they’ve read a single word. In this talk Mike will explain the importance of creating meaningful design and how to apply this to the web.

In this session Steph will provide actionable tips that web specialists can use to write more compelling content that complements their exquisite designs and/or impressive functionality. Never again should Lorem Ipsum — or text-as-an-afterthought — find its way into wireframes, mockups, prototypes, or (eek!) real users’ eyeballs.

As a web designer you may feel happier leaving the complexities of e-commerce, hosting and programming to developers. However, being able to talk confidently about these concepts to clients and the rest of your team can be a real benefit. In addition when designing for web applications – an understanding of the underlying code can ensure that the application works well and data is displayed effectively.

Rachel Andrew, a web developer with over 10 years experience of working alongside designers, will talk about and clarify the main areas where confusion occurs – no coding required!

Are more and more of your web projects WordPress-powered? Want to make sure you’re building your WordPress themes the right way? In a talk stuffed with practical examples you can start using today, Automattic Theme Wrangler and WordPress theme expert, Ian Stewart, will show you how he builds a site on top of a simple set of HTML5 templates. Along the way you’ll be transformed into a WordPress theme expert as you learn the best of the latest features and techniques.

Whether you’re designing for the big screen in the corner, the small screen on your desk, or the tiny screen in your hand, Robin will fill us in on the latest developments in inclusive design – and also what you shouldn’t touch with a big knobbly stick!

Web fonts now give us incredible potential to consider a full range of typeface choices for web design. However, they bring with them a new array of issues to be considered by web designers and typographers alike. We will look at a number of factors that should influence not only which fonts will work best for you, but also how you can then use those fonts effectively. We will look at screen rendering, design features that are best suited for online use, setting text, and working with large type families.

Trust, cooperation, leadership, humility, and some thick skin are all elemental to the alchemy of successful design pairing. Samuel Bowles will explore his successes and failures in design pairing since the late 90s. His observations will be rooted in day-to-day project work and explained through specific stories and experiences building software products in cross-diciplinary teams.

Sarah will be showing you how to design beautiful interfaces for iOS devices. Evolving what you already know as a web designer and creatively using this knowledge to construct iOS specific websites and apps. Stuffed with practical knowledge, you’ll need a large notepad!

Accessibility can often seem like a scary and complex thing. Ian disproves this through simulations and easy fixes, based on the principle that there are only in fact a few types of disability that anyone needs to know about.

Whether you’ve found accessibility daunting in the past or just want to extend your knowledge, this talk offers valuable insights into who your audience really is, what web access feels like for them, and how to allow your content to be enjoyed by as many people as possible.

Our industry has aged into double digits, but much of the language we use to describe what we do and how things work is borrowed or repurposed, sometimes without issue, but often leading to confusion. Having a distinct set of terminology is an important sign of maturity for a line of work, those words and phrases to lead the next generation of practitioners — and it’s high time we set about creating it.

Evolution. It’s a wonderful thing, and something that needs to occur for natural progression and the continuing advancement of ideas. As we see the modern trends, development paradigms and design practices evolve into different areas utilising newer technologies, should we really be saying goodbye to our old ways in favour of the new approach?

Join Matt Gifford as he invites you to partake in a presentation with an emphasis on attendee input (with rewards) in a discussion to help understand what makes the web great, how we communicate in the modern world, and as a result whether or not we should leave the big screen behind entirely in favour of new formats.

In design and development we strive to share information both within our companies and externally with the communities we are a part of. We feel that openness is a good thing. We publicly discuss not only our larger ideas but the nitty gritty; the pixels and the code. If sharing is such a great thing, shouldn’t we be open about all aspects of what we do? In this session, Dan will make a case for opening up the business side of our companies. We’ll look at what can be gained, and what could be lost, from pulling back the curtain on all of the gory business details.

We are the makers of the new everyday things. We design and develop the virtual pens, telephones, newspapers, calendars, and door-handles that people interact with every single day. We are the virtual architects and the products that we design and develop have the power to determine whether people have a good day or a bad day.

In this session, Aral Balkan will outline the important role that experience design plays in the making of virtual products and inspire you to see that it is your job – regardless of whether you make web sites, mobile apps, intranet systems, or ticket machines – to make this new world that we are crafting together not only usable and accessible but beautiful, fun, inspiring, pleasurable, delightful, and – dare I say – magical.