On Thursday, 21st May 2015, 3 BritWeb developers headed out into the big city to attend Talk Web Design Conference, held at the University of Greenwich.
Meeting other people in our industry, and getting fresh ideas has motivated us to try new things.
4 most thought provoking Speakers:
Charlotte Jackson – Becoming a front-end developer – @Lottejackson
Charlotte spoke about her journey from university, to her job as a developer, and what its like for women in the industry.
I think I related to to the things Charlotte said more than the boys did. Having not been in the industry too long, and as I have only worked in one company, sat at ‘Developer Island’ with the men, I hadn’t met any other female developers before.
Her message was really to ‘Go for it’. Go to those conferences, meet new people, and ask questions.
She mentioned many other upcoming conferences, that we hope to get to in the future!
Ann McMeekin Carrier – Beautiful design for everyone – @pixeldiva
Ann got us to think about new ways of making our websites available for everyone. When considering your new website, you may not think about the people who view the web in the same way we do.
For example, when adding new images, the alt tags and descriptions are not just for Google and your SEO, but for screen readers used by visually impaired people.
She talked about everyday things that have been designed for everyone, but the changes to them that make them more accessible, do not stand out. An OXO ‘good grip peeler’ that was originally designed for women with arthritis. Stairs with a ramp zig-zaging through them. These examples all help give people their independence. Because no-one wants to rely on other people to do basic things.
‘Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it’
– Aimee Mullins: My 12 pairs of legs
Trine Falbe – Designing web interfaces for kids – @trinefalbe
Trinie helped us see the internet through kids eyes. The stages of their brain development. How they read a website.
Children now have grown up their whole lives with the internet. From a young age they know how to use a phone to find games or use YouTube. They can recognise basic icons like a play, or sound. They can entertain themselves while waiting for things to load, and don’t get frustrated like we do, at that buffering wheel, spinning round and round. From before they can even draw a straight line they can swipe on an iPad.
Trinie showed us how you can make sites available for a wide age range of children, with icons, voice-over sounds, and pictures. Keep things simple. Advertising on the web distracts children from where they are trying to get, and how its aimed to trick them into downloading viruses.
Good think we’ve all taken pages and pages of notes, because we are sure we will refer back to all her points when building the next site aimed at children.
Dan Edwards – Finding your mojo – @DE
Dan’s story of how he lost his motivation, and journey to finding it again made us take a step back and think about why we’re doing what we’re doing. His talk was probably the most inspiring (and not just because his slides were pretty). He made us want to go set up our own portfolio’s and blog’s, learn everything, and win at life.
It’s easy to lose your drive when everyone else around you looks like they are doing so much better. Especially with everyone else’s ‘life highlights’ you see on social media.
Dan showed us this clip by a man called Elvis:
Other Speakers:
Adam Onishi – Best viewed with… – @onishiweb
Christopher Murphy – Life 2.0 – @fehler
Bruce Lawson – Bruce’s tour of the sausage factory – @brucel
Ben Foxall – Internet of browsers – @benjaminbenben
Trafalgar Tavern
Of course afterwards, everyone headed over to the pub for a cider, and a chance to chat to the speakers and other developers.
Jamie, Laura, Julio, Daniel