Thoughts on web development and technologies by Peter Gasston
What I saw at @media 2008
As is customary (or as customary as ‘twice’ can be), here is a quick round-up of the sessions I attended at @media this year, with links to slides where available (which, as I type this, is pretty much unavailable).
Sessions which I found particularly interesting should be covered in more detail later, and I’ll update here as I find more presentations.
Designing our way through data (Jeff Veen)
How good design can make sense of data (and how bad design can complicate it too much), and using user feedback to make data findable.
For example: BBC and Edenbee (Tom Cartwright & Clare Roberts, and James Box)
On the challenges posed by redesigning on of the most visible homepages in the world, and on how to build a social community.
Getting your hands dirty with HTML5 (James Graham & Lachlan Hunt)
Introducing the new structural elements (which I will definitely write more about later), and what HTML5 you can use right now.
Underpants over my trousers (Andy Clarke)
What inspiration we can take from the narrative devices of comics? Andy Clarke is always an entertaining speaker, and this was no exception - although I’d seen some of it before.
Details make the difference (Dan Rubin)
One of the best and most practical of the sessions I saw; tips on how to make compelling designs and details.
Professional front end engineering (Nate Koechley)
A call for professionalism in the web development community. Very interesting, although recapped some of the points from last year’s talk.
Building on the shoulders of giants (Jonathan Snook)
How to make practical use of frameworks, libraries and APIs in your work. Revealed some new tools which I will check out.
For example: The Guardian and Dopplr (Marc Pacheco and Matt Biddulph)
Similar to the earlier ‘For example’ session; a look at the practicalities of building a large content portal and a social community. The latter displayed how to take advantage of the many APIs that exist.
WAI-ARIA – it’s easy (Steve Faulkner)
I didn’t know what WAI-ARIA was before this session, but this was a comprehensive and practical introduction.
Global design: characters, language, and more (Richard Ishida)
Another very practical session, which I really wish I’d taken more notes on. Why character encoding matters and how you can use it.