Fingers, toes, legs on a daddy long legs, syllabi to a haiku and the Jackson’s - lots of important things comes in 5’s and that’s exactly how many weeks left until this year’s NorDevCon. This week we’ve taken a closer look at the conference sessions dedicated to design - it’s Design Time.
Chucking it Over the Fence
Creative/designer/developer relationships in a device agnostic landscape
It often used to be the case that a creative would mock-up every page for a website in Photoshop/Fireworks, working closely with the client to ensure that every word was spelt correctly, all images selected and every eventuality seemingly mapped out. All too often a bloated zip file of psds/pngs would be ‘chucked over the fence’ to a dev team to turn these into a functioning site. If they were lucky, there might be some hand-over notes!
More often than not, this ‘process’ would lead to problems but today’s device-agnostic web landscape has rendered such a relationship all the more inadequate in meeting the needs of our clients and their users/customers.
John Skinner, a designer who leads projects in both the digital and traditional print worlds for organisations of all sizes in both the UK, Europe and Asia, explains how as web technology becomes increasingly agile, how are the traditional roles within web design affected? Who are the ‘designers’ who are the ‘developers’ and what are their new roles?
Design: A Tricky Business
Being a designer can mean many things, so it rarely just involves the act of designing. Whether you are a freelancer, work for an agency or run your own agency there will always be unavoidable tasks that take you away from the core of your job description, as well as issues that seem to actively hinder you.
Hannah will talk about taking a job from start to finish and dealing with the many hurdles along the way, such as clients dragging their heels, rekindling your waning enthusiasm, and handling distractions.
Hannah wear’s many hats, officially, she is the Creative Director and Co-Founder of Tipsy & Tumbler but on any given day she can be found designing a responsive website or a cross-platform app, writing extensive documentation, meeting with clients and solving a myriad of problems.
Rapid Product Design in the Wild
Michele poses the fundamental question - How do you know you’re developing the right product? In this in-depth case study Michele will share how she used Lean UX methods -such as rapid prototyping – to inform product design in the wild, at a trade show.
In August 2012 the Red Gate Oracle team attended Kscope, a conference for Oracle developers. They turned their trade show stand into a live lab and took Agile development processes out of the office and in front of customers. Over 3 days they conducted 25 customer interviews, using a paper prototype to get feedback on designs. By the end of the conference they had developed an interactive HTML/CSS prototype, which potential customers could evaluate. The team went through several rapid learning cycles to discover which customer problems to solve, how to solve them and to validate the market need for the product.
Michele will cover the benefits and pitfalls of doing live design and development in front of potential customers and competitors. Currently working at the University of Cambridge, Michele will also provide insights into the challenges she now faces using Lean UX techniques within a centuries-old institution.
An absolute must for anyone directly involved in product design, development and marketing.
Conference Dinner and Kurasie Wine Reception
Make the most of your time at NorDevCon and join us for a wine reception (free), also at The King’s Centre, generously sponsored by Kurasie. Discuss what you’ve learnt, raise any questions or introduce yourself to other delegates and share insights.
If you’re unable to attend the conference then you’re still very welcome to attend the drinks reception and mingle with conference delegates, speakers, organisers, Norfolk’s tech community and beyond.
The drinks reception will be followed by the conference dinner (£35 + fees for 3 courses and 2 glasses of wine) where you’ll have the chance to sit down and dine with all your favourite speakers in turn and pick the minds of those that are most relevant to you and your business. Places must be booked in advance and, like the drinks reception, invitations extend to those unable to attend the full conference as they also provide invaluable stand-alone networking opportunities.
View the menu here.
Pre-conference special & dinner
You can now RSVP for the pre-conference special and dinner on the evening of Thursday 26th of February(the evening before the conference). If you're able to make it, please do come along to both. The details are below.
Everyone is welcome at both events and you don't need to attend the conference to attend the pre-conference events.
Pre-conference Special with Allan Kelly and Kevlin Henney
Thursday, 26th February 2015 @ 5pm
The Kings Centre, Norwich
The Rule of Three - Kevin Henney
The three-act play, the given–when–then BDD triptych, the three steps of the Feynman problem solving algorithm... a surprising number of things appear to come in threes. This talk walks through — and has some fun with — a number of triples that affect and are found in software development.
Every business is a software business - Allan Kelly
Pre-conference Dinner at All Bar One
Thursday, 26th February 2015 @ 7.30pm
All Bar One, Norwich
This year the pre-conference dinner will be at All Bar One (a short walk from the Kings Centre) at 7.30pm. All are welcome and the fixed price menu is here:
View the menu.
When you RSVP you'll need to pay £11 for the meal and then for your drinks on the night. Please specify a starter, main meal and dessert when you RSVP.
Student & Unemployed Discounts
If you’re a student or are unemployed you can attend NorDevCon for just £25 + fees. If you purchase a discounted ticket you will be required to prove your status when you register on the morning of the conference.
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