Blog
dhh-railsconf2014
We all got some homework to watch this keynote on writing good software. It was enjoyable and thought provoking. Been a while since I’ve done a youtube video - the opportunity to pause (but not too often) makes it a little more relaxing.
Ollie Wells - What has User Experience ever done for us?
Nice examples of product design illustrating user experiences. Also liked the distinction of customer/user experience.
Gavin Davies - Hollywood On Demand
Loved the quote Treat servers like cattle not pets
Craig Marvelly - Gene Simmons and the path to good product design
Working at Bipsync Craig talked us through his process, with some nice ideas and tools including Papertrail, Slack and New Relic
Benjy Stanton - Responsive HTML Email
Benjy gave out some handy links too.
Austin Walters - Finding your web design Niche and Generating Leads there
Enjoyed Austin’s storytelling approach, and the little discussed (for me at least) nitty gritty of the business of web design.
Scott Jenson - The Web is like water
Scott Jenson’s talk was an intriguing introduction to some pretty technical aspects of the ‘Internet of Things’. Scott gave out little hardware beacons to encourage people to vist https://github.com/google/physical-web and get experimenting. Aside from that I also enjoyed his notion of ‘Truck Ideas’ and ‘Road ideas’ illustrated with the story of Malcom Mclean - developer of the shipping container.
Sally Jenkinson - The Web is our responsibility
Sally’s talk reminded us about our responsibilities for what create and the experiences we craft. I’ve managed to make that sound rather dull, but her examples and ideas were far from dull - especially the way the we can keep evolving with the web and push how we make the technology the servant of great experiences.
Robin Christopherson - The Web is turning difficulties into opportunities
I’ve seen Robin talk a few times now, and he never disappoints. Aside from the dextirity with which he uses technology to demonstrate technology - which is hard to do - he also gives a great insight into just how transformative technology can be.
Owen Gregory - The Web is read/write
Owen’s talk was a change of pace with an exploration of the way we write on the web with some observations about styles and their intent. I’ve done him a horrible disservice with my precis, so at least read What screens want by Frank Chimero and watch When we build by Wilson Miner.
Mr Bingo - The Web is taking itself far too seriously
On reflection, a theme seemed to emerge from the whole conference when watching Mr Bingo, which was that of implementing things. It’s not enough to have ideas, but you have to run with them. Mr Bingo does that in spades. Big, Sweary, Delightful spades.
David Hieatt - A Creative Mornings Session
The thing I enjoyed most from the Creative Mornings session from David Hieatt was the obvious enjoyment and stimulation from having ideas, often widly ambitiously, and then running with them. The emphasis on following through on ideas was great.
Brad Frost - The Web is progress
It was a good finish to end with hyper-optimist Brad Frost’s talk sending everyone away with Work Hard. Don’t be an asshole. Share what you have learnt.
Benjamin Hollway - The Web is still young
I think Benjamin Hollway slightly scared everyone over 30 in the audience by being so precocious. He gave a good talk about younger devs and what we can do to help them along. My constructive criticism would be to talk more about himself - the story of coding from age 8 is way more extraordinary than it probably feels to him - I think lots of people would love to hear more about that specifically.
Andy Davies - The Web is too slow, but we can fix that
A really practical talk from Andy with plenty of stuff to go away and do (or ask someone else to do), with really good reasons why you should.
Seb Lee Delisle - The Web is a great big playground
Seb Lee Delisle was a very entertaining and relaxed speaker who likes lasers. He also showcased some fantastic art experiments that were impressive on their own, but made more so by the knowledge of the technical skills and ideas that were involved in their creation.
Phil Hawksworth - The Web is made of links
Phil Hawksworth did a lovely job with a timely reminder of the power of the humble URL. It was good to be reminded that such a simple principle as the hyperlink has been so essential to the medium that we all rely on.
Nathan Ford - The Web is Constant
Nathan Ford did a nice job of reminding us that everything changes - which can be very stressful in an industry that depends so much on keeping up with a fast changing landscape - but also gave some pointers on how we might manage to keep on top of things.
Kier Whitaker - The Web is all consuming
Kier Whitaker set the context for the second half of his talk by doing a lightening quick round of up of his personal history on the web, which had more than a few members of the audience reminiscing about how far we’ve come, and maybe gone backwards in some areas.
Emma Mulqueeny - The Web is in the hands of the 97ers
Emma Mulqueeny was a new name to me, and one of the good things about thi event for me was hearing from new people. Hers was a talk outlining the characteristics of people born after 1997 - (the 97ers of the title) and how the things they’ve grown up with online will shape their and our futures.