2009 Speakers

Interface designers have a lot of decisions to make. We decide what to include, how to visually structure the screen, and how to turn our ideas into code so they become a working product. Ryan will draw from his experience at 37signals to explain the values that guide us toward better interfaces and better code. We’ll cover the process of choosing which features make the cut, explore visual techniques to make your screens beautiful and clear, and look at the designer-developer relationship so your best design insight survives through the sprint to running code.

Even on the web, the best user experiences don’t always win as businesses. But the best-branded ones usually do. In a world where people learn what you’re about by observation and experience rather than from advertising, user experience design has become the front line for branding on the web. In this workshop, we’ll go way past the easy stuff– logos and colours – to the soul of the user experience. Ten timeless principles for using your brand as a compass for every design decision you make will give participants an edge in creating proprietary spaces that engage people, make them want to come back, and even turn them into passionate advocates.

Users of web applications inevitably say they want them to be faster. Back-end speed is important of course, but what people really mean is that they want applications to _feel responsive_. The best web applications today pay attention to the many small and subtle details that drive the perception of speed. In this workshop we'll look at examples of this principle from both the web and elsewhere, and then we'll dive into how they do it and how we can do it too. We'll talk about decisions designers need to consider, both up front in layout and appearance, and under the hood using the JavaScript-based techniques that drive modern web application interfaces.

In the movies it's possible to build a baseball field in a corn field in Iowa and draw people to it like moths to a flame. In the real world, it's slightly more difficult than that: even if we build a solid web application we still need to promote & share (and allow others to promote & share) the heck out of it.

In this talk Joshua Porter will share design tips for increasing the virality of your web application. He'll talk about writing copy to improve engagement, providing easy handles for sharing, taking advantage of referral programs, choosing the right defaults, and being sure to share in the right way without SPAMming people. He'll provide tons of examples of real-world interfaces that put these tactics in action.

Keeping a design process grounded and evidence-based requires curiosity, flexibility and humility. How can these values animate and underpin the tools and techniques that are often used in information architecture? In this session, we'll look at real-world case studies to see how research insights can be systematically uncovered, turned into models that suggest a way forward, and ultimately incorporated into working, testable prototypes. Along the way, we'll try to de-mystify information architecture, with an eye to making its theory and practices more accessible and ready-to-hand for practitioners and non-practitioners alike.

While still a challenge, today it’s easier than ever to build a profitable business without taking outside investment. Open source software, cheap hosting, productive web frameworks, and the social web mean weekend projects can quickly become serious businesses. In this workshop we’ll take a look at how some successful companies used their brains instead of their bank accounts to make money. Along the way we’ll discuss how to have a successful launch, ideas that definitely don’t work, the importance of being your own customer, and a few secrets learned the hard way. We’ll also discuss the power of contributing and creating open source projects - how opening up parts of your infrastructure may seem crazy, but in reality keeping everything closed is closer to insanity.

A look at the technologies and the architecture behind the emerging real-time web. We will discuss XMPP/Jabber and AMQP protocols and explore the advantages of each over the commonly used HTTP request-response cycle. As part of the workshop we will look at the available tools and libraries and work through simple examples of creating an event driven, real-time service.

Gold rush or mine field? It can be difficult to discuss iPhone development without sounding hyperbolic. Much like the excitement around Ruby on Rails’ success as a web application framework, the iPhone is a quantum leap forward in terms of functionality and user experience on a mobile handset. Creating applications for it is a different story: there is a decided lack of acknowledged "best practices" and the tools can be unintuitive at best. And yet, there is a nine year old building iPhone applications in Singapore!

This talk will give a road map of the current "state of the nation" in iPhone development. Pete will discuss:

• The difference between native applications written in Objective-C and Ajax web apps running in Safari.
• Site Specific Browsers (SSBs) and hybrid native/web applications.
• Submission, pricing, approval, and promotion of applications on iTunes Application Store (ITMS).
• Using helper applications and custom protocols to do things that are "impossible".
• Things Apple doesn’t want you to do.
• A quick overview of iPhone development books, blogs, and other resources.

This talk is targeted at developers, but non-programmers will be able to follow along. General familiarity with the iPhone is assumed.

Let's discuss ways that a more democratic and open approach may benefit your team. We'll touch on processes, how decisions get made, hiring and more. How do we build a team that's worth fighting for? How do we grow a team instead of just building a product?

Hacks and data breaches can spell disaster for both startups and more established companies, which is why both should think about security when starting any project. Leigh will take you through the methods behind real-world incidents, and then demo some of the tools which help you break your apps while you are building them, before outsiders do the breaking for you. Drawing as well on best practices for secure development, Leigh will get you thinking about designing security into your applications from the ground up to protect your users' data and your business model.

Rather than waging pitched battle over a detailed specification, created months in advance of any development, Agile development diverts attention from the detailed ‘spec’, embracing the inevitability of change through a flexible and iterative development cycle. How does the shift to Agile impact the way we estimate projects, and how can we convince clients to take the plunge into the land of blurry deliverables? This will not be a workshop where ‘an expert tells you how it should be’, but will instead be a guided discussion with examples, experiences and best practices taken from the participants and presenter.

Startups generally have two ways to finance themselves: raising external investment or bootstrapping, that is, using the founders savings to get off the ground. In this talk, we will explore how we built a successful business without seeking external funding and how we were acquired by a high profile company. We will also go over the pros and cons of bootstrapping, what I've learned while starting my many startups, what we've done right, what we've done wrong and how to get recognized early by potential users and acquirers. Discussion will be encouraged.

You've heard it before. People make all the difference. You've heard it because it's true. The right – and wrong – team members, especially at the early stages of your venture, will have a huge impact on your eventual success – or failure. Finding people can be bewildering; there are so many tools and sources. And, truthfully, there is no single magic bullet, tool, or practice to guarantee success. Truly talented and unique people require personalized approaches. This interactive session will provide you with a few pragmatic ideas that have worked. You'll walk away with some techniques and approaches to find and keep great people for your team.

A great product and user experience can only take a company so far. With no marketing budget and limited people to get things done, taking a focused approach to going after a market is the only way to grow quickly. But talking about market focus is much easier than actually doing it. How do you assess a market when you can’t afford to buy market data? How do you decide which partnerships to chase after and which aren’t worth your time? Are you fishing where the fish are or shark hunting in a fish bowl?

This session will be a practical overview of how to get started building a market strategy without breaking the bank. The session will give specific examples of how startups can gain real market traction and how you can (and can’t) win against the big guys. The session will include an open discussion where the group can share experiences and discuss specific problems and roadblocks.

So, you’ve come up with a great idea. You’ve invested sleepless nights, caffeine, and adrenaline. You’ve been struck with a thunderbolt of inspiration. Unfortunately, that was probably the easy part.

The reality is that great ideas don’t go anywhere unless you can get others to see the same possibility you do. Whether it’s clients, colleagues, or partners, a crucial part of the creative process is getting people to be as excited as you are about something that doesn’t exist yet.

This session will focus on presenting your ideas to clients and partners, and include examples, stories, and practical tips to help them share your passion and sense of possibility. It may also include a quote from Def Leppard.