June Masterclass workshops
As part of the festivities surrounding FullCodePress 2010, Webstock is delighted to be holding four Masterclass workshops, featuring:
Karen McGrane on Content Strategy
Roger Hudson on WCAG 2.0 in depth
John Ford on Flexing Your WordPress Muscles
Russ Weakley on CSS in depth
The cost for the full-day workshops is $550 (inc GST) and includes lunch, morning and afternoon teas. The cost for the half-day workshop is $325 (inc GST) and includes morning tea and lunch. You can register here for the workshops and Webstock Mini, being held on Thursday 17 June.
Content Strategy: Give Content the Attention It Deserves
Karen McGrane
When: Wednesday 16 June, 9:00-5.00pm
Where: Lion Harbour Lounge, Michael Fowler Centre, 111 Wakefield Street
With: Karen McGrane
About Karen
If the internet is more awesome than it was in 1995, Karen would like to claim a very tiny piece of the credit. For more than 15 years Karen has helped create more usable digital products through the power of user experience design and content strategy. Today, as Senior Partner at Bond Art + Science, she works with clients to create personalized portals that dynamically update based on user behavior, develops data visualizations that make complex quantitative information easy to understand, and consults with publishers on ways to make their sites more appealing to readers and successful for advertisers.
Prior to starting Bond, Karen helped build the User Experience practice at Razorfish, hired as the very first Information Architect and leaving as the VP and National Lead for UX. Over the decade she spent there, she led projects for dozens of clients, overseeing major redesign initiatives for The New York Times, Condé Nast, Disney, and Citibank.
Karen is also on the faculty of the new MFA in Interaction Design program at SVA in New York, where she teaches Interaction Design History, focusing on the key movements and trends that have shaped the field, and Design Management, which aims to give students the skills they need to run successful projects, teams, and businesses.
Content Strategy: Give Content the Attention It Deserves
Web content: it’s the meat in the sandwich, not the icing on the cake. Too often, organizations fail to deliver content that meets user needs and serves their business goals. Even during website redesigns, the editorial process gets short shrift in favor of building new features and creating new designs. Thinking about the content is always left until the last minute, always thought to be “somebody else’s problem.”
Ever wonder why so many websites feature dense, unreadable prose? Force you to navigate through pages of brochure copy and legalese? Look like they backed up a truck full of PDFs and dumped them in the content management system?
No content strategy, that’s why.
When done the wrong way, creating new content and managing the approval process takes longer and is more painful than anyone expects. But planning for useful, usable content is possible—and necessary. It’s time to do it right.
What you'll learn
In this workshop, we'll discuss approaches you can use on projects to:
- Plan for content that aligns with business goals and user needs
- Evaluate existing content and make decisions about what to do with it
- Maintain content over time, with clear ownership and review processes
Who should attend?
- Web writers and editors who want to learn more about the growing field of content strategy
- Producers and project managers who want to know how to fit content strategy activities into the project lifecycle
- User experience designers and information architects who want to ensure useful, usable content gets delivered
- Content reviewers, web developers — anyone whose work is disrupted by poor content planning
What should I bring?
- Pen and paper
- If possible, laptop/notebook computer with USB port
WCAG 2.0 in Depth
Roger Hudson
When: Wednesday 16 June, 9:00—5.00pm
Where: Lion Harbour Lounge, Michael Fowler Centre, 111 Wakefield Street
With: Roger Hudson
About Roger
Roger has provided website usability and accessibility services to corporate, government and not-for-profit organizations for more than a decade. He has conducted many accessibility testing sessions with web users who have different disabilities. He is familiar with the legal requirements in Australia relating to the provision of accessible web content and has a detailed knowledge of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0). He has presented workshops in both Australia and the US and has written numerous articles on different aspects of website usability and accessibility.
WCAG 2.0 in Depth
This advanced accessibility workshop will focus on version 2 of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and provide practical advice for people developing and evaluating websites.
The workshop will examine common accessibility issues with sites today and help you avoid or correct them.
There are many inaccessible sites exposed to the risk of complaints. This workshop will help you make sure your site is not one of them.
You will learn:
- About the four WCAG 2.0 Principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust
- Why appropriate (x)html mark-up is important for accessibility
- Designing for and assessing device independence
- How to ensure sites meet the needs of people with different disabilities
- How to prepare forms and data tables that comply with WCAG 2.0
- About the use of assistive technologies and gain hands-on experience in using a screen reader
- About the accessibility requirements relating to the use of audio and video material on websites
- About the accessibility implications of using JavaScript, HTML 5, AJAX and ARIA
- Accessibility evaluation of PDF and Flash material and determining when it is necessary to provide an alternative
- To evaluate sample web pages for compliance with WCAG 2.0 at Level AA
During the workshop sessions there will be opportunities for participants to raise accessibility issues that concern them.
Who should attend?
- Designers, developers and project managers with a basic knowledge of accessibility who want to learn about WCAG 2.0
- Designers and developers who want to improve their ability to make modern, accessible sites
- Designers and developers of interactive multi-media sites and applications who are concerned about the accessibility of their content
- Quality Assurance teams responsible for evaluating websites for compliance with WCAG 2.0
What should I bring?
- Pen and paper
- If possible, laptop/notebook computer with DVD/CD drive or USB port and headphones.
- If you bring a computer, please download an accessibility evaluation tool in advance (Roger will be using the “AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar)
- During the workshop Roger will be using JAWS 9.0 and NVDA screen readers. (Participants will be provided with information about screen readers prior to the workshop)
Flexing Your WordPress Muscles
John Ford
When: Thursday 17 June, 9:00—12.30pm
Where: Lion Harbour Lounge, Michael Fowler Centre, 111 Wakefield Street
With: John Ford
About John
John Ford started programming full-time in 1998, threw in a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics for good measure, and in 2004 went into business for himself.
John's emphasis on writing beautiful and usable code has garnered him client relationships around the globe, and his development savvy can be experienced on a variety of national brand websites, including the Food Network, HGTV, and DIY Network. Presently, John works for Automattic, the company behind WordPress, and he is currently focusing on VaultPress, a realtime backup service for WordPress.org users.
In addition to his programming work, John loves giving back, as well, and he co-organizes a local group that gives free web-related presentations monthly; he was a presenter at WordCamp San Francisco 2010, and is frequently asked to speak on a variety of web-related topics. Empowering others with knowledge to demystify the web motivates John to continue sharing his passion with as many as will listen.
Flexing Your WordPress Muscles
WordPress has become the most powerful and widely used open source publishing platform in the world. I guarantee you've run across dozens of WordPress-driven sites as you surf the web, and if you're a developer, you've likely built and customized sites using WordPress.
Through the flexibility of WordPress you can build almost any type of site you want, and allow you, or your clients, to update the site content at any time. But how do you take your skill set to the next level? There are a number of advanced features of WordPress and customizations available to make your sites shine.
There's nothing like learning by doing, so how about a walkthrough of real code? We will build real example code using the amazing features of WordPress so you can take away new skills to use on your own sites.
What You'll Learn
- How to install WordPress using Subversion
- How to use the new features of WordPress 3.0 such as Custom Post Types, Menu Management in Themes, Custom Taxonomies, and Multi-Site Integration
- How to hook into nearly every part of WordPress through actions and filters without changing the core code
- How to keep your site and code secure
- The proper way to use AJAX in your theme
- How to make your theme more powerful by integrating plugin-style code
- How to tailor the WordPress admin to your client's needs
Who should attend?
- Web developers who want to get an intricate look at WordPress theme and plugin development
- WordPress developers who want to use the more advanced features of WordPress
- Developers looking to customize their clients' experience within WordPress admin
What should I bring?
- A laptop/notebook computer, if available. Source code will be provided if you'd like to follow along and know how to run WordPress locally on your computer
CSS in Depth
Russ Weakley
When: Thursday 17 June, 9:00—5.00pm
Where: Lion Harbour Lounge, Michael Fowler Centre, 111 Wakefield Street
With: Russ Weakley
About Russ
Russ has worked in the graphic design arena for over 20 years with extensive experience in real world CSS. He has also produced a series of widely acclaimed CSS-based tutorials. He is also internationally recognised for his presentations and workshops on web development, standards and accessibility.
CSS in Depth
You will use the basic building blocks of CSS to solve real-world problems. You will also learn how to style complex page layouts, create elegant CSS-based forms, and get a solid grounding in aspects of CSS3.
The focus will be on giving you practical experience in adding polish and functionality to web sites. You will gain the confidence to progress with CSS on your own.
This workshop will also explore how to deal with CSS for large websites where maintenance and site speed are critical.
You will learn:
- How to style page layouts from start to finish
- How to style forms — one of the hardest aspects of CSS
- How to write efficient CSS
- How to use CSS sprites and sliding door techniques
- How to deal with Internet Explorer browsers (IE5, IE6 and IE7)
- How to create CSS for print
- How to create CSS for mobile devices
- An overview of vendor specific CSS
- An overview of CSS3 including Border Radius, Multiple Backgrounds, @font-face, Box Shadow, Text Shadow, RGBa and more
Who should attend?
- Web designers and developers who are familiar with CSS and want to pick up some more in-depth knowledge of CSS
What should I bring?
- A laptop with a CD drive
- A browser
- Some sort of text editor (Notepad, BBEdit, SkEdit, TextMate, Dreamweaver etc)