The first two days of Web Directions North 2008 are done and dusted and here comes a quick summary.
Monday: Transcending CSS (workshop), Andy Clarke
Andy, in his inimitable way, talked us through the topics he also covers in his recent book, Transcending CSS. Even though I heard him speak last year, there were, again, some eye-opening things he mentioned during the workshop. One example would be the way he approaches designing a web site. He does not actually use Photoshop that much, but rather does most of the design in the browser itself. And one thing, that he showed, which should go without saying these days, is, to start with the content. Starting with the pure markup, without thinking about the visual presentation at all. Considering his marvellous design skills, he is then able to magically make some magnificent designs “happen” before you even realize what is going on.
He also used some advanced CSS techniques (including some CSS3 stuff), which is nice, but would require to get the “this page does not have to look the same in every browser” attitude into the mindsets of every person involved in a web project, especially the stakeholders.
Overall, I enjoyed it very much and got a lot of things out of it that I could use for future projects.
Tuesday: Designing Really Usable Websites (workshop), Jared Spool
If you have ever seen Jared Spool speak, you might not want to miss another opportunity to attend a workshop on Web Usability with him. There was so much interesting stuff but one of the key things was that you should consider your content page (the page the information is located the user is looking for) the most important page (in terms of development and design time). Other things were that the 7±2 rule does not apply to web design when it comes to putting together the navigation items and that if users need to scroll, it does not really mean that the site is less usable.
In general, it was enlightening in my ways. On his User Interface Engineering site, Jared and his guys put even more useful stuff online about really usable sites.
Canucks vs. Stars
I am not exactly what you can call a lucky charm when it comes to me going to a Vancouver Canucks game. Last year they lost against the Chicago Blackhawks, this time the game ended with a 3-4 loss against the Dallas Stars. Too bad, but I did enjoy the experience. I don’t get to see an NHL game that often 