In college I was told that I would never cut it as a graphic designer.
By. My. College. Professor.
And yet another teacher in college told me in my flash web development class that I would never make it as a web developer. (Yes, flash).
So was I really just THAT bad at both design and development in 2001? Well, maybe. Or was it that they didn’t understand why I couldn’t–and even flat out refused to–focus my studies on a single design medium or specialized skill?
Fast forward to today, and the very thing that I was downgraded on has become the key to my success as a UX lead working on multi million dollar software and platforms. Not to mention teaching UX design and web development at the same university 15 years later.
And flash is dead 🙂
Making websites accessible to people with disabilities has become increasingly important as legal complications from non-accessible sites grow. Despite the rise in lawsuits and in available resources to learn about accessibility, it’s still a topic unfamiliar to many who craft websites. To many unfamiliar with the concept, a dismissive attitude can exist, seeing it as a lawsuit-driven phenomenon. This talk will look at the human side of web accessibility and demonstrate why these often simple changes can make a significant difference in the lives of almost 20% of the population.
We often talk about websites the way we talk about cars. Are you driving a flashy sports car or a stable hatchback? And is yours a lemon, no matter how pretty the paint job? And if you just got one used, what’s going on under the hood? There’s a way to address these questions about your website, and it’s called a technical audit.
The vast majority of site owners live in fear of the day their site “breaks down.” Performing a site audit can ensure you understand the current state of your site, from the back end code level to the front end performance. It can also help you see potential problems when it comes time to add features (like that sweet audio system).
Attendees will learn the basic building blocks of performing a technical audit.
A robust palette can transform a stock theme into a highly-personalized web presence that better reflects an organization’s brand. This talk will introduce theme developers to a palette system/method with these goals: apply a default color palette; use the Theme Customization API (i.e. Theme Customizer) to set theme-level colors; apply the customization options to the block editor swatches and ACF color picker; set the appropriate CSS properties to use the colors throughout the theme. As time allows, other palette systems will be discussed (e.g. Bootstrap Colors; Material Design Color System).
