This weekend I attended my first WordCamp down in London. I recently started working at Make Do, so I was lucky enough to get sent down with the business too.
Firstly, I was super impressed with our Airbnb, it was a really great base for us over the weekend.
On the first night we had a coding session, I managed to get the first version of my atom syntax theme monokaiii up on apm which has been long overdue. We also watched films and got pizza!
Now, my super lame notes from each of the WCLDN talks I attended.
Dev Ops
- Collaboration - Git (what else?)
- Code sharing - Dependancies (WordPress is actually a good example)
- Automation - Repetition sucks. capistrano?
OOUX
The best way to push UX decisions is to back them up with some kind of “measurement”.
Users first question, can I do this? If so, did I like this action and it’s consequences? (this is basically UX)
Creating the wrong UX can make users feel jarred, this is bad!
How a person feels about a product/experience impacts their choice more than most other factors, price for example. Tone of voice can also come into this.
Without data there’s only opinion.
Method
Crispin Read on the use of his UX planning method.
Clients fear uncertainty
With the client, get as high level as possible with business objectives. Derive the goals from this.
- Two sentences to describe the brief, followed by points to describe what the product needs to do.
- Highlight the nouns and actions.
- Identify contexts, linking and relationships.
- Prioritise everything - Prioritisation is the key to team knowledge.
Also, look up Domain Driven Design
Modern php, old code
- Remove old code
- Refactor
- New functionality
Site wide logging server with critical errors sent to slack.
Being able to run WP independently of other systems. (a CRM for example)
Manage plugins with Composer & Satispress
.env to manage environments.
Information Architecture
What might seem logical to you, may not to another.
Keith Instone’s Navigation stress test, for testing the usability of a sites nav.
Use of organisation schemes
- Am I in the right place?
- Do they have what I am looking for?
- Do they have anything better (if this isn’t what I want)?
- What do I do now?
Accessibility
Colour contrast checker (I found this one for chrome)
- Form boundaries should always have borders ideally.
- Colour should not be used as the only guide for users, there should also be a graphical indicator too. (consideration for colour blindness)
- Justified text is not accessibility friendly.
- Form fields - Use labels and don’t rely on placeholder text
- Good chrome tool Wave (WAVE is a web accessibility evaluation tool developed by WebAIM.org)
Malware
So it turns out there’s quite a lot of scary WordPress hacks knocking about out there.
Basically the takeaway from this:
- Keep software updated (WP, Plugins etc)
- Make sure users have secure passwords
- Install Wordfence
- Use 2FA (two factor authentication)
- You can’t be 100% secure but these things do reduce the risk.
- Cheaper hosts might compromise your site as malware can spread on shared hosting.
. @OwenC is really scaring everyone with some WordPress hacks right now... 😨😣 #wcldn pic.twitter.com/7K024KVzPm
— @Nervewax March 18, 2017
Theming
The Likeness of Web Design
Lots of sites are looking the same.
Old zeitgeist, current and new.
Only break the rules if you have a good reason to do so. Don’t alienate your users!
Great inspirational design talk from @sarahsemark just the kind of thing we need to get the cogs moving in web DESIGN again 🙌 #wcldn
— @Nervewax March 19, 2017
Agile
Agile manifesto principals (not sure if this is what he meant shrugs)
- Productivity frameworks
- Scrum (5-9 people)
- Kanban
- User stories
- Release value sooner
Formatting in WP
Headings are hierarchical, basically don’t use a h3 if you don’t already have a h2, and so on.
AI
- Agents
- Reactive
- Proactive
- Learning Agents
- Autonomous Agents
Regarding “Moor’s Law”, we’re moving on to the second half of the chess board. Basically, this means exponential growth in tech and computing, speeding towards real AI products.
- Adobe Sensei
- Markmaker
- Automated Press
- Botkit
- Google assistant AI api
What now?
- Think about new interfaces
- Message based
- VR
- Voice based
- Sell solutions, not websites
- Universal Basic Income
Roundup
I’m typing this while on the train home, it’ll likely take me some time to digest everything i’ve heard (and eaten for that matter).
Thanks to all the speakers and sponsors, I got so many freebies, my bag is pretty much maxed out.
Hopefully I’ll see you all next year, cheers! 🍻