Future of Web Design 2011 Conference – Overview and take aways with Abbey Tosic

Today’s podcast is an overview and the specific take aways from the Future of Web Design 2011 London with Abbey Tosic, Web Designer at 3M.

As you may recall from previous podcast, Abbey participated in the conference that took place in London 16th – 18th May 2011 and has graciously offered to share her thoughts and send back a few interviews of some of the more notable speakers.

In this eleven minute podcast, Abbey shares the following:

Highlights of the sessions Abbey attended:

1) Aaron Walters: Creating a pattern Library:

a. Helps you design and build faster
b. Usability pattern library
c. Mail Chimp’s results: 40% less time spent coding
d. Facebook results: 19% less time spent coding
e. Building consistent brand look and feel- No more reinventing the wheel!

2) Mike Kus: Websites that don’t transcend the brand:

a. Mix your visual design & Functional design evenly (The fight against designers and developers). Make it usable, but still on brand.
b. Don’t confuse clarity of information with getting your “brand” and message across.
c. Give yourself the logo test. If your logo was swapped out, do you have enough visual ques to make people think about your brand, or is it just generic?

3) Sarah Parmenter: When Developing Mobile Apps:

a.Suggests making a ADS (Application Definition Statement) to keep your purpose clear

i. List what is will do
ii. List your Target audience
iii. Always filter what it will do with what you’re main audience’s needs are

4) Ethan Marcotte: Responsive Web Design

a.Tablets and mobile are now fast approaching the norm for how we get online information.
b. Responsive web design has a fluid grid that translates to all platforms.
c. My personal believe is this is the answer for designing the best user experience for tablets and online screens, (all)! No need for a separate version just for tablet.
d. Examples: Simplebits.com, owltatic.com. Boston Globe Magazine will launch this summer.

5) Sarah Nelson: 50% of what makes us successful in this field is our communication skills. It’s something our degrees and previous training has not prepared us for. Suggest joining your local Toastmasters chapter

Stay tuned for additional podcast with Abbey and several well known Web design authors and rock stars. Pleas note: We will batching our interviews for transcription for the hearing and visually impaired. Please bookmark this page and revisit the site for additional detail. Thanks in advance for your understanding and patience.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.