this meetup is usually very casual, a small-to-medium sized group of people. definitely my kind of gathering; something as big as Web Innovators Group earlier in the week can be intimidating.

one of the organizers, Joshua Porter, gave a presentation on designing for signup: how to get your users over the hurdles of adopting your application. i’m currently enjoying josh’s book about social design so it was really valuable to see some of those concepts explained in more detail, in a format that could include more examples and interaction.

i met a lot of interesting people from the area and am looking forward to the next event!

the guest speaker tonight was Jesse Devitte, Managing Director and Co-founder of Borealis Ventures, and also formerly of Softdesk (acquired by Autodesk). Jesse talked about the changing landscape for venture capital, both in the businesses seeking funding, and the businesses getting funded. he also gave us a lot of background on the ‘exit’ options of startups: becoming a public company (IPO), being acquired by an established company, or remaining private (although rare).

the crowd was quite appreciative of the presentation, and we spent the preceding/remaining time socializing and networking with our peers and colleagues. i snapped a few photos:

lineup and themes

the morning of the second day was a bit code-heavy, but i hope the designers managed to get through it because there was a lot of valuable information for everyone.

Eric Meyer kicked off the code crunching with an examination of reset stylesheets, and how you can use custom stylesheets (combined with the power of CSS level 3) to debug your web pages.

Ethan Marcotte (aka beep) used examples of designer/developer miscommunication from his own experiences, to demonstrate how they (and we) could enhance our workflow, to better communicate and perform.

Peter-Paul Koch (ppk) gave a lively presentation on unobtrusive javascript; how you should separate your javascript from your HTML like you separate CSS from HTML.

Kimberly Blessing spoke from great experience of implementing standards in large organizations; both the why, and the how.

Andy Budd recounted experiences from hospitality and other industries as examples of consistent, well-designed user experiences, and how we could use their example to create better websites for our clients (and their customers).

Jeffrey Veen wrapped up the speaking itinerary by talking about data visualization, and what the next generation of web applications should draw from.

the bonus: critique

the final session was interesting; Jeffrey Zeldman picked at random, six attendee websites (self-submitted) to critique live in front of the audience. but don’t think that they submitted themselves for potential humiliation without great reward — Adobe supplied copies of Creative Suite as recompense.

the comments, once the critiqued parties eased into the idea, were valuable for us all. i think they demonstrated something very powerful: when we’re so wrapped up in a project, it’s difficult to to objectively look at our work for what it is. and how small tweaks to something that’s already good - can make it great.

reflections

first of all, don’t just take my word for it. other people have posted great reactions and i think it would be good to get their perspectives as well. the audience is a mix of design, development, and management professionals, and we each took something different way from the event. a short list of other reactions, including from the speakers themselves:

• Jeffrey Zeldman’s roundup of session notes
• i also enjoyed Ethan Marcotte’s perspective
• Peter-Paul Koch has impressions of speaking at this event and great insight on event “potlach”

my own perspective

as i’ve already played this trumpet; i’ve been in the web game for a long time. but the beauty of these events is how even experienced attendees can still learn so much (even the speakers’ reflections outline what they took away from the event). the industry is so broad that no individual can obtain a depth of knowledge in as many areas, as the aggregated speaker lineup possesses.

a few things that really stuck out in my mind, in no particular order:

ethan marcotte’s work, even down to his slides, is incredible. i am humbled by seeing what he produces.

jeff veen and andy budd possess the ability to tell incredible engaging stories. so much so, that you don’t realize until the end that you’ve learned an awful lot in the process. they are worth the cost of attending the conference, alone.

with folks like jeffrey zeldman and jason santa maria on staff, happy cog studios must be a really interesting place to work.

i’ve always enjoyed PPK’s writing, but i never realized how much energy he had in person. also, it’s as if the english language has too much overhead, and is holding him back; i wish i could hear him (and understand him) speaking his native tongue.

jeff veen and doug bowman provided very different perspectives of google. respectively: the brilliant, high-minded idealism that drives product innovation and pursues ideals, versus the knowledgeable pragmatist who pores over every decision and every design choice, knowing that they will have an enormous impact on both users, and infrastructure.

chris fahey and jason santa maria reminded me that we’re not necessarily solving new problems; communication, and designing the medium thereof, is something that’s gone on from the dawn of time. instead of a cave wall, or a stone tablet, or a printed page, or a radio wave - the web is our medium. the style with which we tell our story can either enhance the message, or obscure it.

the conclusion

in the end, it was definitely worth it. since i’m not billing conferences to an employer anymore, i need to chose them with a greater scrutiny. An Event Apart delivers great value and i’m glad i attended. if you’re in the web profession and i’ve swayed you, there are still two more AEA conferences this year: AEA San Francisco in August, and AEA Chicago in October.

as an attendee i don’t have any financial incentive to offer, but if you choose to read one of the excellent bloggers they choose to sponsor from time to time, you might find a coupon that makes it even easier to justify attending!

this conference series could be summed up for those lacking any patience as simply: do the right thing, here’s why, and this is how. the organizers, Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer, are known in the website profession as stalwarts for holding ourselves up to the very best practices.

the lineup of speakers each brought a different perspective, backed by a wealth of industry experience and successes at major companies and projects.

lineup and themes

Jeffrey Zeldman started day 1 by focusing our attention on empathy, and the pursuit of excellence in our work.

Eric Meyer was up next, offering us a thorough examination of available CSS frameworks, and each ones strengths and weaknesses.

Jason Santa Maria showed us how conveying content in a meaningful way to an audience via the web is not so new a concept; telling a story is something we’ve been doing for ages.

Luke Wroblewski talked to us about how to convey information on the web in the most effective manner by closely managing web application heirarchy.

Doug Bowman shared a perspective on how we serve our customers better if we start, from the beginning, to design for scale, in all aspects of the word.

Christopher Fahey talked to us about Style; what is style, where it comes from, how it affects us and when it  is good and bad.

Jared Spool closed out the official itinerary for Day 1 by teaching us about the “Scent of a Web Page” and how users intuitively find (or fail to find) the information they seek.

sound like a lot for one day? it sure was. but it wasn’t quite over yet.

the evening’s activities

Scott Fegette is a product manager for Dreamweaver at Adobe, and he talked to us about Dreamweaver CS4 Beta and the new features that should appeal to designers and developers alike.

then there was an opening night party at a club in Boston sponsored by Media Temple.

as long as i’ve been making websites (2008 makes 14 years) i’m constantly learning, and conferences like this give me the opportunity of getting the best advice, straight from the foremost practitioners in the industry.

when i recap day 2, i’ll reflect more on the takeaways that i will incorporate into my own workflow and efforts.

as of sunday afternoon, Registration is still open!

Update: i’ve written a brief summary of the conference here.

recently i’ve started a site that has a definite magazine-style feel to it, and my first instinct was that a grid-based CSS framework might save me a lot of time to build it. i chose the Blueprint CSS framework as the basis of my development, and after a fairly friendly learning curve, it’s greatly sped up my process.

an added bonus: an open CSS framework is far better documented for future maintenance and development than anything i would have built from the ground up. that’s important to me and my clients as well - maximizing the efficiency of billable hours by leveraging proven tools and techniques.

you can retrieve Blueprint from the Blueprint Google Code page, and there’s a quick tutorial to get you started.

in the past, some frameworks i’ve used have advanced initial development, but hampered the process when you get into intricate details. thankfully, Blueprint looks like it’s structured to be unobtrusive; it only affects what you want it to. when this project is completed, i’ll follow up with my reflections on the experience.

looking back, this doesn’t have to be an exercise of sound and fury. you can transform it into a tool for understanding where and how your attention is divided. i don’t recommend trying to be two things at once; but rather, even if you’re required to switch focus from task to task to disparate task, put your whole self into it. wear your hat. and when it’s time - switch to another hat.

my hat rack currently includes:

• husband
• (pet) father
• web designer
• web UI developer
• web backend developer (php/mysql)
• system administrator
• writer (blogger)
• student (BA degree)
• student (new web technologies)
• handyman
• in the new england winter, shoveler*

what’s on your hat rack?

* i shovel well. i shovel very well.