Track 1

9:45 Christine Cawthorne

How designers and developers can work with content

Users come to websites to get information, so content needs to be high up in the priority of a web build. But how do you get great content?

Whether writing it yourself, coaxing it from the client or working with a digital copywriter, this whistlestop tour of content strategy will show you how to get the best results and why you should work with a writer if you can. They're always lovely, you know.

Bio

Christine is an online copywriter with a background in journalism at the BBC. Having worked as a homepage editor for Yahoo, AOL and BT, she has translated this experience into writing content and managing social media accounts for brands including Pizza Hut, Paul Smith, Nokia, Boots and many smaller companies.

Christine is currently working on the GOV.UK project, training people in government departments and agencies about user needs and how to write for the web. She combines her passion for stories with a keen interest in how people actually use and consume content on the web.

Christine also teaches students at the University of Sheffield and the University of Derby, helping educate the storytellers of tomorrow.

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10:35 Peter Gasston

OK Computer

In recent years there have been incredible advances in artificial intelligence and deep learning. As a result, powerful technology which used to be rare and expensive has very quickly become easily available and cheap. This will have both positive and negative consequences for web developers.

In this talk I will look at how AI will change the development field, and provide techniques that will help designers and developers to work with AI to improve their skills and make better sites and applications for end users.

Bio

Peter is a veteran web developer who now works as a technologist and front-end lead at rehabstudio on projects for clients including Google and Red Bull, and in partnership with some of the world’s biggest creative agencies.

He’s the author of The Book of CSS3 and The Modern Web, and has written for Net Magazine, Smashing Magazine and A List Apart. In his spare time he “relaxes” by reading voraciously, supporting Arsenal, and day trips to castles.

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11:45 Dan Edwards

Finding Your Mojo

More and more recently I’ve seen creative people struggling with motivation feeling like they’re stuck in a rut. It’s easy to lose perspective and become stagnant but the important thing is to spot the signs and make positive changes. In this talk I aim to uncover what your mojo is, how to get it back and how to keep it!

Bio

Dan is a designer, surfer and occasional doodler from the UK. Currently working as Creative Director of No Divide, an agency he co-founded in 2014. Dan is also winner of net magazine’s 2013 Young Designer of the Year and the co-creator of oozled.com.

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14:00 Ruth John

A Journey Through Web API Space & Time

The world of Web (or Browser) API’s is growing. We have familiar ones we’ve all seen and used, such as Geolocation and getUserMedia, but what about all the others. What about gaming API’s, device API's, API’s to interact with the operating system! Don’t panic, after this talk from Ruth, you’ll be well on your way to feeling a lot calmer about what’s on the horizon. We’ll cover a whole range of Web API’s, why we have them, what we can use them for and most important the code to make it all work.

Bio

Ruth has been wireframing, designing and coding for over a decade. She also tweets and blogs a bit too. You can often find her chatting about new mobile & web development techniques. She tends to get excited about making things, whether that’s coding things in the browser or sewing jackets connected to her mobile.

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14:50 Alasdair Monk

Blame Your Tools

We're on the cusp of a new age of interface design and to grow up we need to forget everything we've learnt.

But before we read Photoshop it's last rites, we need to figure out how we're going to design tomorrow...

Bio

Alasdair Monk is a product designer and developer from London. After leading GoCardless' design & product for three years, he now works at Heroku designing a platform for the world to build their apps.

His lowest low was being told by Simon Cowell that he didn't "have the right hair" to be in a boy band. He's avoided pictures of Harry Styles since.

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16:00 Mr Bingo

An Audience with Mr Bingo

Bio

With his unique breed of fine-line drawings, at once delicately rendered and packed with dry humour, Mr Bingo has grown to become one of the industry’s most celebrated illustrators.

His infamous Hate Mail project, where fans paid a small sum for their own hand-drawn postcard of verbal abuse, gained him such popularity that he was forced to limit sales in order to keep up with overwhelming demand and the definitive collection is now available via a kickstarter project.

Alongside all this funny business, Mr Bingo has been commissioned by some serious clients and his illustrations feature regularly in publications such as TIME, Esquire and The New Yorker.