Vancouver, Canada -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/20/2013 -- The 2013 line up of speakers at the Interlink Conference in Vancouver, BC was a terrific mix of professionals recognized for crafting a better web. Among the speakers was David Shea, creator of the Css Zen Garden and founder of Mobify. The event has held at the UBC Robson Square the on June 5th and 6th .Talks and workshops were given on responsive design, workflows, copywritting, project managent, color, web accesibility, and other joys and challenges of web work.
These are the takeaways from the talks from a couple of lucky attendees.
The golden circle
3 Speakers had it in their presentations, so yeah it is something you should understand. This principle applies to any endeavour you can take because it is related to inspiration. Here is the TED talk that promoted this concept a while back and illustrated the huge difference it means for companies.
Get real
I think I am going to do a whole post on this later because it is such a common issue in web marketing. The problem: presenting a business with vague descriptions, uncommon terms and structures. The solution: keep it simple and real. The sales of a business can enormously improve with the right information structure and copy. Stephanie shared a couple of examples from her own experience in her talk. Things Being thankful. Approaching the magical side. Remembering we are the cosmos. These are from Draplin's talk about Things and I believe each one of these can dynamite positive changes for companies and people.
60/30/10
Geri shared the interior design rule she follows when colouring a web page design. 60% of a dominant color 30% of a secondary color 10% of an accent color . I didn't know this was used to decorate rooms! But it makes sense and it reinforces what I learned from my HCI and design classes; to use a visual hierarchy and to use colour with purpose. Thess principles generate designs with the right proportions.
Accessibility
There were 2 speakers on this topic. I have seen the impaired using computers and I have tried screen readers myself; it is hard. Designing and developing for this audience requires extra attention to contrast, sizes, html structure and labels in videos and images. Avoid color coding and test designs with Photoshop's color blindness filters. Go beyond compliying with the accesibility standards and take the time to structure meaningful sentences for screen readers. Educational video of a blind radio spokesperson using Twitter.
Collaboration & conversation
The path to enlightened project management. Open conversations with teams and clients can only lead to better understanding and better results.
Design tiles and comps
Responsive design demands new design work flows. Design tiles and in-browser design techniques are trending and outperform traditional to ways. Just make sure to communicate they show how the site is going to feel and not how the site is going to look to avoid confusions. Also avoid falling into the opposite extreme with totally abstract stuff that people could not see as a potential website.
Document your work
“Document your work to make the complex meaningful.” - Robbie Manson. Getting a site right requires understanding of the project, the technology and the users; it takes time. The most important ingredients of the work are invisible and complex, documenting the process makes it easier to appreciate, share and expand.
This is the third edition of this annual event and it has been sold out each time so make sure to get your tickets on time next year. Read more about the event at the official @nterlikconf.
About Interlink Conference
Interlink Conference is a small hand-crafted event created for all types of creative web professionals. Explore the intersection ofweb design, code, and content during 2 empowering days of curated talks and workshops in Vancouver.
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Maggie Vega
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Vancouver, BC, Canada
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