Liz Danzico

Use Your Words: Content Strategy to influence behaviour

• When: Monday 10th February, 9:00am—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Liz Danzico
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($650 if attending conference, $795 if not)

What if we were truly open to the language in our cities, our neighborhoods, our city blocks? What is our environment telling us to do?

In this workshop, we’ll let the language of the city guide us to explore how words, specifically the words of our immediate contexts, shape our behavior. By being open to the possibilities, we’ll explore how language influences both the micro and macro actions we take. We’ll go on expeditions in the morning—studying street signs to doorways to receipts—comparing patterns in the language maps we’ll construct. In the afternoon, we’ll look at what these patterns suggest for the products and services we design.

You’ll walk away having learned how words influence behavior, how products and services have used language for behavior change, and having tools for thinking about language and behavior change in the work you do.

Spend the day letting words use you, so you can go back to work to use them with renewed wisdom.

What you'll learn

• The ability to think about content strategy writ large
• The value of design disruption
• The effect of designing for behavior change
• The business case for behavior economics
• A sparkling self-guided tour of the language of Wellington!

Who it's for

People with a core interest in content strategy, behavior change, design for impact, and/or who have a love for words and amateur cartography. People with advanced urban planning and/or GIS mapmaking may place out of this workshop.

What to bring

• Comfortable footwear
• A smartphone (with space for photos)

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Jonathan Snook

Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS

• When: Monday 10th February, 9:00am—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Jonathan Snook
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($650 if attending conference, $795 if not)

Have you ever added !important or added an extra selector just to get something to style properly? Have you found yourself adding more properties to override properties you already set elsewhere in your CSS? Does inspecting an element in Firebug or Web Inspector reveal a long stream of styles being applied, overridden, and reapplied? Then this workshop is for you.

What you'll learn

This workshop will shift how you think about writing CSS that will simplify your code, make your project easier to manage, and allow it to grow without creating an increasingly brittle system of dependencies. Your code will also be more portable, making it easier to use code on other projects.

Who it's for

Do you work on larger projects? Do you work with larger teams? Then this workshop is for you.

You need not have played with the latest and greatest CSS3 and know what a vendor prefix is. You will need to know a selector from a property and have a general understanding of CSS-based layouts.

What to bring

You will need to bring a laptop with their favourite code editor.

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Dan Saffer

How to Design Microinteractions

• When: Monday 10th February, 9:00am—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Dan Saffer
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($650 if attending conference, $795 if not)

It’s the small details that turn your product from one that’s just tolerated to one that’s loved. But how do you focus on details? This hands-on workshop will walk participants through the process of designing and refining microinteractions.

We’ll start with an introduction to microinteractions and step through the microinteractions model which sets the structure for the day. Mid-morning, we’ll be focusing on Triggers: the manual controls and system conditions that start all microinteractions. We’ll do two exercises on triggers, one of which is around the principle of Bring The  Data Forward. Much of the morning will be spent learning about and documenting Rules, the “interaction” part of microinteractions. We’ll deconstruct the rules of an appliance, then do additional exercises around Preventing Human Error and Don’t Start From Zero—adapting the microinteraction to what’s known about the user and/or the environment.

After lunch, we’ll tackle the third part of microinteractions: feedback. We’ll discuss the messages that feedback conveys, then do three exercises. The first will be to Use The Overlooked, where we look at various pieces of UI to see how they could be reused for feedback. Our second feedback exercise is around speaking human: how can we take utilitarian copy and make it more humane. We’ll finish up feedback with an exercise in animation: how can use animation to convey information?

Loops and Modes are the last part of microinteractions. We’ll talk about when to use modes, and do an exercise around Spring-Loaded and One-Off Modes. We’ll then look at Loops, and do an exercise around Long Loops: how to extend your microinteraction into the future.

We’ll end the day by putting everything together to design a microinteraction, then discuss how to incorporate microinteractions into your process, including documentation and testing.

What you'll learn

How to improve their products by focusing on details. This workshop walks through the principles for designing details including how to:

• Bring The Data Forward
• Don’t Start from Zero
• Prevent Human Error
• Use the Overlooked
• Speak Human
• Make Long Loops

Who it's for

Designers, Product Managers, and Developers who want to take their products to the next level by focusing on details. Best for intermediate designers.

What to bring

Just yourself! And a laptop, ideally.

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Erika Hall

Collaborative Research for Better Results

• When: Tuesday 11th February, 9:00am—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Erika Hall
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($650 if attending conference, $795 if not)

Being a designer (or an entrepreneur) means exercising control over a limited set of factors to create something new, and then sending that new creation out into the wider world over which you have no control. All too often, critical design and business decisions are based on internal assumptions rather than how the world actually works. Research may be considered the purview of a few isolated specialists in an organization if it’s considered at all. When you have to move quickly and collaboratively, how do you make sure that you and your team have the information you need to to design and build a new product or service that delights your target users and meets your business goals?

Research can be much faster and more flexible than you might imagine. In this workshop, we’ll cover the most immediately useful research principles and practices for anyone busy doing other things. You’ll learn how to fit research into virtually any timeline, type of organization, or process.

In the morning, we’ll cover formulating effective research questions and gathering useful data. The afternoon will include conducting collaborative analysis, distilling that analysis into models, and then sharing the insights you’ve gathered with your client or internal organization. Transform your team into a perpetual insight machine.

What you'll learn

• How to use research in any organization, budget, team, or timeframe

• How to identify and formulate your key questions (Hint: these aren’t the ones you’re going to ask)

• Choosing research methods and activities

• The art of the interview

• Post-Its and patterns: Analyzing your data

• Models and pictures: Something something persona/ diagram

• No insight lost or wasted: Digesting, reporting, and sharing

Who it's for

Anyone who works in design or development, in-house, on the client side, or freelance.

 

What to bring

An open mind and a good pen.

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Josh Clark

Designing for Touch

• When: Tuesday 11th February, 9:00am—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Josh Clark
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($650 if attending conference, $795 if not)

Touchscreens are everywhere now, even the desktop, and this workshop tells you what you need to know to make the most of them. Fingers and thumbs turn desktop design conventions on their head, with the ergonomics of handheld devices demanding entirely new design patterns for both web and apps. Handheld touchscreen design introduces ergonomic concerns that are new to many digital designers; it’s no longer just how your pixels look but also how they feel. At the same time, touch gestures have the opportunity to sweep away away buttons, menus and windows from mobile devices, but gesture design takes care and education. Find out how to do it the right way. This workshop takes a hands-on approach (*ducks*) to touchscreen design with practical guidelines, rich examples, exercises, and a bunch of new rules that bust the “settled” conventions of the desktop.

What you'll learn

• Layout and sizing guidelines for touchscreens on phones and tablets… and desktop, too.
• Emerging gesture conventions and design patterns for both apps and web
• How to make gestures discoverable by educating users with contextual cues
• Techniques for making touch interactions fast and efficient
• How to cope with the reduced real estate left in the wake of giant touch targets
• When the best touch UI is no touch at all; how to use sensors to speed or replace touch input
• Opportunities to push frontiers with entirely new interactions through touch

 

Who it's for

This workshop is for all flavors of designers (UX, IA, and visual) as well as developers working on either websites and native apps. The day will deliver guidelines and exercises focused on creating layouts and interactions for all types of touch interfaces from phones to desktop. This isn’t a code-intensive workshop. Instead, Josh will focus on new design patterns and approaches to conceiving touchscreen interfaces.

What to bring

Please bring imagination and a sense of wonder, along with a notepad, pen or pencil, and some markers. Laptops or other gadgets aren’t required except for enthusiastic tweeting and note taking.

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Aarron Walter

Emotional Design

• When: Tuesday 11th February, 9:00am—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Aarron Walter
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($650 if attending conference, $795 if not)

Although it’s never been easier to create and launch an app, it’s still incredibly hard to stand out from the competition. Usable apps are the norm today, but apps that make customers feel like they’re interacting with a human, not a computer, are a rare breed.

In this workshop you’ll see real world examples of brands that use personality and emotional design to make their products feel human. We’ll explore key business benefits of emotional design, and learn how to create a design persona, the foundation of brand personality. You’ll also learn how to shape the voice of your brand, considering how your product would speak in moments of triumph and crisis, resulting in a human experience.

What you'll learn

• Principles of emotional design that will influence your next project
• How brand personalities make businesses small and large more successful
• How to identify emotional traits of your audience that will influence how you communicate
• How to create a design persona that clearly defines your brand’s personality

 

Who it's for

Designers and UX practitioners of any level that want to learn how to go beyond creating usable interfaces to create memorable, emotionally engaging experience will find value in this workshop.

 

What to bring

An open mind and a thirst for knowledge.

 

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Scott Berkun

Creative Thinking Hacks / Mastering Creative Thinking

• When: Wednesday 12th February, 9.00am—12.30pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Scott Berkun
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($395 if attending conference, $495 if not)

Most talk about creativity is trash. Berkun has spend his career sifting through the great, and not-so-great advice given to, and by, creatives throughout the ages, just to provide you with a fun filled, action packed, no-nonsense full-on  half-day that will reframe how you think about ideas, how they work, where to find them, what to do with them and how even to get your ideas through the bureaucracies and status quo prisons that keep your best work locked up in a sad little prison of a workplace.

Why do you get your best ideas in the shower? Why are ideas so easy to forget? What habits are guaranteed to make you more “creative” (and what does that word really mean anyway)? Why does burnout happen and what can you do about it? What can you do when working for a boss, or with a coworker, who is as creative as a box of rusty nails? All of these questions will be answered and more.

What you'll learn

In roughly four parts, we’ll cover: your brain and how it works, creative hacks and tricks based on SCIENCE (and practice), how to pitch ideas and bend minds to your will, and how to adapt all this amazing new knowledge to your personal habits. You’ll hear various creativity myths busted right before your eyes, and right before you’re led into exercises that delightfully demonstrate the principles, while making you laugh (or if you don’t like laughing, make you cry).

Who it's for

Anyone who works with ideas, wants to master their creative forces, or feels stuck in a rut of familiar patterns and wants to learn a way out. For designers, engineers, programmers, leaders, user researchers, and anyone who spends all day thinking up stuff with the hopes of convincing other people to use that stuff.

What to bring

Your brain. Your body will be needed too, but not nearly as much. Bring a
favorite thing to write on and with, and also bring a a few soft things to
throw at each other (fruit works great). This workshop will be
non-technical and you will be reliant on your ability to talk and play
with other humans, write things quickly on post-it notes, play ridiculous
games you’ve never heard of before, possibly involving the ability to
dodge flying objects (see fruit above). A change a clothes is recommended
if you move slowly and have bad peripheral vision.

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Brad Frost

Everything You Wanted to Know About Responsive Design…And Less!

• When: Wednesday 12th February, 9:00am—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Brad Frost
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($650 if attending conference, $795 if not)

Everything You Wanted to Know About Responsive Design…And Less! is a full-day workshop that takes a deep dive into the world of responsive web design, covering everything including broad concepts, strategy, how responsive design affects process, responsive design patterns and principles, and development best practices and considerations.

Oh, and the “…And Less” part? Responsive design is a huge topic so unfortunately it’s impossible to pack everything about it into a single day. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try, right?

What you'll learn

Here’s what will be covered:

The ever-shifting landscape – The web landscape is getting more diverse every single day, and this section will address why responsive web design is becoming increasingly essential

• Approach – There’s more than one way to skin this mobile web cat. We’ll look at the various strategies being used to address

• Foundations of Responsive Design – Responsive web design 101. Fluid grids, flexible media and media queries make up the core of responsive web design

• Principles of Adaptive Design – What beyond layout do we need to concern ourselves with when creating great multi-device web experiences? We’ll cover how ubiquity, flexibility, performance, enhancement and future-friendliness are powerful principles for making great adaptive web experiences.

• Atomic Design – In order to create effective interfaces for the multi-device web, we need to think about design in a systematic way. We’ll introduce what atomic design is, why it’s important and how to integrate this methodology into your workflow.

• Process and Workflow – Our new reality means that we need to adapt our process and workflow to match. This section will tackle thorny areas like convincing your clients, changing the behavior of your colleagues and designing in the Post-PSD Era.

• Responsive Patterns – Creating adaptive interfaces is challenging, but thankfully the web community is hard at work creating flexible, downright innovative design patterns. We’ll look at how to tackle layout, navigation, images, tables and more.

• Development Best Practices – The way we build websites has changed. This section will discuss mobile-first development, conditional loading and more to help you develop future-friendly web experiences

Who it's for

Responsive design affects every aspect of the website creation process. Business owners, project managers and more need to understand how to approach this chaotic Web landscape. Designers need to rethink how they approach their work and learn how to design interfaces that adapt to any screen resolution and environment. Developers need to become a more integral part of the design process and also understand the plethora of challenges brought about by the rise of the mobile web.

This workshop is targeted at anyone looking to expand their knowledge about the massive topic of responsive web design. There’s something in it for everyone. Bring the kids!

 

What to bring

Nothing special. A computer if you want to look things up or some way to take notes.

 

 

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Sha Hwang

Become a Data Superhero: Assembling Your Visualization Utility Belt

• When: Wednesday 12th February, 9:00am—12:30pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Sha Hwang
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($395 if attending conference, $495 if not)

This workshop will be a detailed primer on the state of the art in data visualization today. We’ll break down a few projects, and will look at many more to understand best practices in visualization. We’ll look at popular datavis tools like d3 and TileMill. We’ll learn how to tell when a visualization is working and when it is getting in the way. We’ll come out better able to think through and figure out how to explore data ourselves.

We’ll return to work full of ideas, with a bevy of tools and techniques to visualize data, that dark nebulous stuff we accumulate, and we’ll feel a little bit like superheros.

What you'll learn

Since we’ll all be at different stages, what you’ll take away from the workshop will vary. We won’t aim to make you an expert at code or design, but we will develop visual literacy, an eye for what works and what doesn’t. We’ll have a whole host of threads to pursue further, from books to blogs to code libraries. We’ll leave less paralyzed and more curious when it comes to data. We’ll return to work with smarter questions to ask of our data, and have ideas on how start getting answers.

 

Who it's for

Anyone who runs or works at a company that deals with a lot of data will have something to learn from this workshop. From designers to developers to product managers, we all have more to learn from our site analytics, our location data, or our multiheaded nemesis — metadata.

What to bring

Something to write on, something to write with. Points for creativity.

 

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Tom Loosemore

‘Even the government can do it’: How to change your organisation to put the needs of users first

• When: Wednesday 12th February, 1:30pm—5:00pm
• Where: Michael Fowler Center, 111 Wakefield Street, Wellington
• With: Tom Loosemore
• SOLD OUT!
  This workshop has now sold out. If you wish to be waitlisted, email:
  Natasha Lampard.
• ($395 if attending conference, $495 if not)

Organisations born before the Internet was mainstream can struggle to deliver truly great digital services. Writing the digital strategy is often the easy bit; it’s actually delivering services users love that is hard.

Even the most essential digital products can get stifled by bureaucratic inertia, strangled by pointless processes or shafted by myopic risk-aversion.

Learn how the UK Government is avoiding such pitfalls by using the culture, skills, code and processes of lean, user-focused start-ups to radically redesign its digital services.

Find out how to make the space in which to innovate, recruit the right people, create the right culture, use the right technology, choose the best suppliers and gather enough positive momentum to scale up and get your whole organisation fit for a digital era.

The workshop will be full of practical, pragmatic advice, and will equip you with tools, tactics and techniques to help your organisation to get the hang of all this digital stuff, putting the needs of users ahead of that of the organisation.

What you'll learn

You’ll learn to use a suite of battle-proven tools, tactics and techniques that have helped institutions like the BBC and the UK Government acquire the capability needed to design and deliver great digital services.

Who it's for

Anyone striving to design and deliver great, user-centric digital services inside an organisation which doesn’t seem to know how.

What to bring

A pencil (optional).

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