Sessions
@media is all about web design best practices, and is well known for informative, inspiring, educational sessions. Covering areas such as design, usability, CSS, and JavaScript, the in-depth presentations will explain how to improve your web sites with the latest cutting-edge techniques.
- The Broken World: Solving the Browser Problem Once and For All
- Bulletproof DHTML Snow
- Designing for Communication
- Dynamic Interfaces
- Five Simple Steps to Better Typography
- Hot Topics Panel
- How to be a Creative Sponge
- Interface Design Juggling
- Royale with Cheese
The Broken World: Solving the Browser Problem Once and For All
The Web was meant to be interoperable, but as every web designer and developer knows, interoperability is the very thing we lack. As we build standards-based, flexible, accessible, well-designed sites, we find it’s the browser that gives us most of our headaches. In this session, you’ll learn to take better control not through hacks and filters, but through an understanding of why browsers work the way they do. You’ll learn the differences in layout engines, see visual models of the DOM and learn about the process of developing a Web browser. Finally, you’ll see how their flaws and features play into our daily work, and how we can all make our lives easier by advocating for better software and implementation.
The Broken World: Solving the Browser Problem Once and For All will be presented by Molly E. Holzschlag
Bulletproof DHTML Snow
In a light-hearted demonstration of the capabilities of JavaScript and Ajax, Jeremy Keith will reveal some tips and techniques through the use of that most notorious of JavaScript effects - DHTML snow. Just what can we do the make quaint little snowflakes slowly falling down a web page, gently wafting in a make believe breeze that little bit more interesting?
We can slim down the code, and get that unobtrusive groove going on, but how about clickable flakes? Screw that boring navigation bar! What about a dab of Ajax to pull in Flickr photos and superimpose them on snowflakes when they are rolled over? vCards anyone? Each flake that piles up at the bottom of the page could be a contact added to your address book with the help of a simple little browser plugin. JavaScript opens up a whole plethora or possibilities for the adventurous web developer!
Bulletproof DHTML Snow will be presented by Jeremy Keith
Designing for Communication
When interfaces transcend pixel and prose to become conduits of communication rather than self-serving forms of artistic expression, the result is a rewarding user experience. In this session, Cameron hopes to exploit design as communication. Discover new ways to blend human computing principles, typography, markup, and visual aesthetics to produce meaningful web interfaces.
Designing for Communication will be presented by Cameron Moll
Dynamic Interfaces
Just when we thought that the HTML-based Web was destined to become a static library of documents, JavaScript was re-discovered by a new breed of interface designers who recognised its potential to take web page interaction to a new level.
This presentation will take a look at how design is intersecting with client-side scripting to produce some truly innovative interfaces. Interfaces that are not only just fun to play with, but ones that actually help the user to navigate, manipulate, and elevate their Web experience.
Dynamic Interfaces will be presented by Cameron Adams
Five Simple Steps to Better Typography
Given that the web is ‘95% Typography’, why is most typography on the web so poor? For so long now, designers and developers have taken little time to learn the subtlety of good typographic design. But don’t worry, it’s not a black art; you just need to follow a few rules. This presentation will take you through Five Simple Steps to improve your typography; type anatomy; types of typeface; choosing typefaces; size, space and weight; and basic typesetting.
Five Simple Steps to Better Typography will be presented by Mark Boulton
Hot Topics Panel
A favourite of past @media conferences, the very final session will feature a handful of @media speakers discussing questions posed by conference attendees.
How to be a Creative Sponge
How do you ‘design’ something? How do you get from words to a ‘design’? Aimed at non-designers, and designers needing a creative unblocking, Jon Hicks demonstrates how to soak up influence and inspiration from a wide variety of sources, and how to use it to interpret and answer a creative brief.
How to be a Creative Sponge will be presented by Jon Hicks
Interface Design Juggling
Keeping all the right pieces in play when designing for the web can be a balancing act. This session will focus on being an independent interface designer in a complex world of endless choices. Learn how streamlined process and smart approaches can make for compelling, adaptable designs with XHTML and CSS. You’ll soon be juggling the following with ease:
- Balanced interface design: what works and what works better.
- Reducing complexity: CSS wireframing, smart typography.
- Embracing microformats: how designers can benefit from semantic markup.
- Self-efficiency: tools and best-practices for independent-minded designers.
Interface Design Juggling will be presented by Dan Cederholm
Royale With Cheese
When we look around the web at designs from across the globe, what do we see? Do we see a rich diversity of design culture, where different regions bring their own unique flavors to the web? Do we see a multi-cultural melting pot of design influences and inspiration? Or do we see a dull uniformity where design has become increasingly globalized?
Designer Andy Clarke discusses his findings from five months of discussing these issues with web and other visual designers from across the world. He will share his own thoughts about the future of web design might be in an increasingly globalized industry.
Royale With Cheese will be presented by Andy Clarke
