Here are my slides from today's presentation at WordCamp San Francisco! Thanks everyone for coming!
Responsive Web Design - WordCamp San Francisco
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I have have been given the great opportunity to speak this year at WordCamp San Francisco! I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to be amongst the lineup of speakers at that conference. Let me know if you're going and I'll be sure to say hi! My session will be on "Responsive Web Design" and WordPress. Here's a semi-unofficial blurb about the talk.
Your site is about your content. With mobile devices, iPads, phones, gaming consols, etc: people can access your content many different ways and formats. How can we maintain some control over the display of our content and keep our brand consistent? How can we try to provide the best user experience on any platform?
Enter Responsive Web Design. A term coined by Ethan Marcotte. Many experts aren't leaning on one static design anymore, but on structured content that adapts to its given environment.We are going to take a look at responsive web design techniques out there including: progressive enhancement, flexible grids, media queries, flexible images & video, & other methods that you can implement to make your WordPress theme "Responsive".
This talk is particularly important to me, as I will be leading a responsive admin effort in contributing to WordPress core. Follow and Contribute: Make.WordPress.org/UI . Are you going to WordCamp San Francisco this year?
WordCamp Boston has been incredible. I was thrilled to give a talk on "Theming and Mobile" with an emphasis on Responsive Web Design. The presentation is sort of a pre-cursor to my full "Responsive Web Design" talk that I'm thrilled and humbled to be giving at WordCamp San Francisco. Here is the description and slides of the talk that I gave yesterday at WC Boston:
Your site is about your content. How do we optimize for all the different devices out there but still keep our brand? Do we even optimize at all? What are different ways we can look at how our content is handled? We are going to take a look at different techniques out there including: responsive web design, media queries, dealing with video, touch, and other various plugins & CSS tricks to truly display your site and your content in the best possible manner in any given scenario.
from 37 Signals:
For programmers, it’s never been easier [to find a job]. The world of open source software is such an easy way to get into showing off your work — and it makes you feel good in the process.
One of the big advantages if you go to Harvard or Stanford and you want to get into investment banking is that you’ll meet a lot of people that will make it easier for you to get into investment banking. If you want to be a great software developer, you can do all of that without paying $60,000 a year in tuition, just by putting in some sweat equity in improving the comments in the open source world.
Read more here: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2924-for-programmers-its-never-been-easier
WordCamp Reno has been a blast so far. All the people here are really awesome. Here are my slides from the presentation I gave on "Typography on the Web." WCReno also recorded all the sessions, I'll post the video from WordCamp TV whenever it goes up.
Typography on the Web
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I'm thrilled to be speaking at two WordCamps in the next two months. First I'll be on a panel this weekend at WordCamp Reno about the future of web typography. I can not wait for my first time in Reno and to meet all the fabulous WordPressers there. Secondly, in July I'll be making a pilgrimage back to my native Massachusetts to speak at WordCamp Boston. I'll be giving a talk on "Theming & Mobile: Optimizing your WordPress site for Various Devices." I am absolutely thrilled that I have the opportunity to not only attend but speak at these fabulous WordCamps. If you're in those areas, please come and say hi to me!
Here is a post that I wrote over on the Scout Blog, syndicated over here just in case you didn’t catch it over there.
We have recently launched an exciting new site for Christian & Small Attorneys and Counselors. The law firm came to Scout for not only a new website but for help with branding and positioning — both internally and externally. They are a really capable firm, full of amazing people and have a wonderful focus on the community. If you haven't seen the donation website we made for them yet, make sure you check out the post for the NonstopAdvocates.com site.
Simplicity of Design
Christian & Small has close to 50 attorneys with several different practice areas. We designed a website where communicating their expertise is the focus. We organized everything simply and made information readily available and easy to digest, all while keeping the character and integrity of the brand.
Customized WordPress Content Management System
Because Christian & Small has so many attorneys and so much content, we decided that the best fit for them would be a custom tailored WordPress backend. This set up allows designated C&S staff members, with no coding skills to easily add attorneys, edit practice areas and add photos. This ability to edit and add content internally saves money and over time, reduces the total cost of ownership of the website.
We used custom post types to organize the admin as well as create custom meta boxes for special information. This makes adding content easy.
We also added the ability to connect Attorneys to their respective practice areas dynamically, as well as their associated resources. This bridging of content really makes WordPress a true CMS.
Check out the website for yourself: CSAttorneys.com
The awesome Sally Strebel of Page.ly interviewed me as part of their WP Heavy Hitter Series. Read the article on their blog. Let me know what y'all think. I've never done an interview like that before! Also, check out their awesome WordPress hosting as well. Thanks Sally!
We had a great turn out for the Birmingham WordPress Meetup Group evening on Custom Post Types & Taxonomies.
Chris Reding (@creding) not only took us through registering your post type, but why you should use it, and the power and control that you can give the user beyond a post or a page. See his slides below:
Custom post-types & taxonomies
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Next, Bill Robbins (@billrobbins) shared with us the practical application of CPT's on the front end. He took us through how we can display our CPT's and dynamically query from our data using conditional goodness. Check out his slides below:
Custom Post Types--Front End
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Overall, it was a great turn out with enthusiastic WordPresser's. We hope to have more meetings coming up. Sign Up Here if you want to be in the loop and know about upcoming WordPress events in Birmingham!
Sara Cannon is a Design and Digital Strategy Consultant, UX/UI Designer, Creative Director, & Artist.
Have a project I could help you with? Contact me at sara@saracannon.com.