Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Dan Saffer – Top Ten Things To Tackle Touchscreens

Photo of Dan SafferThe average size of an adult human’s finger pad is 10-14mm. The average size of a cursor or stylus tip is 1-2mm. That fact alone means that designing native touchscreen apps is an entirely different thing than designing web, desktop, or even traditional mobile apps. This talk outlines the most important concepts, guidelines, and practices to keep in mind when designing with fingers and hands in mind. We’ll cover interaction zones (where it’s easiest for fingers to reach), touch targets (size and distance apart), kinesiology (how fingers can bend, move, and stretch), and signaling (how users can become aware of gestures).

Rachel Hinman – Mobile Prototyping Essentials

Photo of Rachel HinmanWe’ve heard it all before… prototype, prototype, prototype. It’s a standard step in almost any design process — but often the first step skipped in time and budget constrained projects. While prototyping is considered a standard step in any UX design process, it is an *essential* part of the mobile UX process. This talk will outline why prototyping is essential to part of the mobile UX process and how prolific prototyping is a necessary step for designers keen to grow the ruthless editing skills necessary to craft successful mobile experiences.

Nicholas Zakas – Mobile Web Speed Bumps

Photo of Nicholas ZakasAs browsers explode with new capabilities and migrate onto devices users can be left wondering, “what’s taking so long?” Learn how HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and the web itself conspire against a fast-running application and simple tips to create a snappy interface that delight users instead of frustrating them.

Aaron Weyenberg – Realistic UI Design

Photo of Aaron WeyenbergIn this session Aaron will lead you on a tour of current trends and practices, examining the strengths and drawbacks that realism brings. We’ll talk about things like mental models, innovation and usability as they relate to lifelike UI. Finally, Aaron will share some pragmatic guidelines to keep in mind as you build the next wave of mobile and touch apps.

Aaron Parecki – Geolocation

Photo of Aaron PareckiWhile location-based mobile apps are becoming increasingly popular, they are still relatively new. Special considerations need to be made for battery life and handling large data sets of geolocated data. The good news is there are many services and technologies you can use to assist you in building mobile location-based apps.

Jason Grigsby – Keynote: Native is Easy. Mobile Web is Freaking Hard!

Jason Grigsby PortraitNo one who advocates for the mobile web wants to admit it, but it is true. Native is easier. It’s easier to sell to stakeholders. Easier to monetize. And most importantly, easier to implement. So how do we sell mobile web projects? How do we work with the systems we currently have to build compelling mobile web experiences?

Josh Williams – Keynote: Where are we going?

Josh Williams PortraitDuring this brisk discussion we’ll separate fads from the future, debate native apps versus the mobile web, take an honest look at the hype behind geo-location, then take a step back to ask ourselves where the web—and we ourselves—are going. Hold on, it’s going to be a wild ride!

Max Wheeler – Location, location, geolocation

Max Wheeler PortraitThis session will take you through building a location-based mobile app using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Including cross-platform techniques for figuring out where your users are, and providing graceful fallbacks options for devices that don’t have geolocation support (or users that don’t want to tell you exactly). You’ll learn about geocoding to a physical address (and the other way around) and look at how to build a mobile-friendly map with local points of interest.

Gabriel White – Sensing context in mobile design

Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 1.40pm.

Gabriel White PortraitMainstream mobile devices are being loaded with sensors. These devices can be used to create experiences that are tailored, adaptive and responsive to the way people live and work. Location-awareness allows devices to respond to place, networked address books enable socially rich communication experiences, and motion and gestural sensors empower designers to respond to context of use. All these elements are creating a ’sensitive ecosystem’; mobile devices that adapt gracefully to context and use.

This presentation will explore some of the design and technology trends that are shaping design for mobile devices, show examples of devices and services that are starting to take advantage of these trends, then explain how designers need to rethink design problems to take advantage of this technological ground-shift.

Pete Ottery & Tim Lucas – Developing for iPhone

Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 11.45am.

Tim Lucas Portrait Peter Ottery PortraitThe release of Apple’s iPhone brings new opportunities for web sites and web apps on handheld devices, though not without its share of challenges and best practices.

Tim and Pete will look at the best examples out in the wild and share their experience creating iphone.news.com.au – one of Australia’s largest news sites, news.com.au, tailored to the iPhone.

Oliver Weidlich – The mobile web user experience – we’re starting to get it right!

A presentation given at at Web Directions User Experience, Melbourne Town Hall, May 16 2008.

Oliver Wiedlich PortraitHistorically the mobile web has been a terrible experience, but things are starting to change. Really! We are now at the point that the mobile web is becoming easier to access, both on-deck & off-deck, there’s useful & tailored services out there, and killing some time on the train home doesn’t cost more than your weekly train ticket. We’ll check out the latest and greatest in the world of mobile web and what makes them different from the others. We will also cover the important things to keep in mind for making a better mobile web customer experience.

Brian Fling – Mobile web design and development

A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 31 2008.

Brian Fling Portrait

Mobile technology is poised to revolutionize how we gather information. By 2010 half the population of the planet will have access to the internet through a mobile device, making the mobile web an essential part of our lives. Yet the mobile industry has few if any resources to help would-be mobile developers from diving in other than applied experience from within the industry.

Brian Fling dicusses the mobile ecosystem in Canada and abroad, how you go about developing an integrated mobile web strategy, mobile design and development principles and best practices, and most importantly, practical techniques and information to start creating mobile websites today.

John Allsopp & Dave Shea – Where’s Your Web At? Designing for the Web Beyond the Desktop

A presentation given at Web Directions North, Vancouver Canada, January 31 2008.

John Allsopp Portrait Dave Shea Portrait Since the advent of personal computing, we’ve been tied to one place — typically sitting at a desk, with a keyboard and mouse, and in isolation. Even the advent of the web and the wifi-enabled laptop hasn’t much changed this quarter century old paradigm. But with the rise of mobile phones and devices like the Nintendo Wii and PSP featuring first class web browsing, our experience of the web will change dramatically over the coming years. In this context, which design and user experience patterns and techniques we’ve developed over the last 15 years hold up? And… which break?

In this session, Dave Shea and John Allsopp consider the challenges we’ll face as the web devolves onto a myriad devices, and the web is “always on” wherever we are.

Kelly Goto – Designing for Lifestyle

A presentation given at at Web Directions North, Vancouver, February 8, 2007.

Interaction design is no longer limited to the web. The concept of user experience is being redefined as multiple delivery methods of social and business interaction merge into our lifestyles. As design migrates from the web to mobile devices we carry and interact with on a daily basis, our approach must also shift into cycles of design and research centered around the way people actually live.

In this enlightening session, design ethnographer and web veteran Kelly Goto discusses the evolution of Web, handheld, and product interfaces and their cultural impact. Learn how companies are utilizing ethnographic-based research to conduct rapid, immersive studies of people and their lifestyles to inform the usefulness and viability of interfaces both online and offline.

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Web Directions South is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development

Phil Whitehouse General Manager, DT Sydney