Wordcamp Seattle 2012

Posted on March 4th, 2012 in Lectures and classes

Wordcamp is taking place on May 19th. This is a great opportunity to learn more about WordPress and meet local designers, developers and WordPress users.

I attended my first Wordcamp two years ago and listened to speakers on a wide variety of subjects. At that time, I was fairly new to WordPress and although some of the topics were “over my head”, I learned a great deal about WordPress and found the event to be extremely helpful.

Registration for this event is filling up rapidly so visit the Wordcamp website soon to learn more about the event and to register.

Creating E-Books with InDesign CS5.5

Posted on September 1st, 2011 in Lectures and classes

Recently I attended an Adobe workshop called “Create digital magazines, eBooks and more with InDesign CS5.5″. In this workshop, I learned more about creating ebooks and how InDesign CS5.5 can make the process easier.

Although 85% of all Adobe product users are still creating artwork for print, more people are starting to use smart phones, tablets and e-reading devices. As demand for digital media content grows, clients will be asking their designers to design for this media in addition to the standard print formats.

Designing for ebooks (or EPUBs, as Adobe calls them) is different from designing for print. While you can create ebook versions of printed material, ebooks handle content differently and can be challenging to work with. Where print can support multiple columns, ebooks are limited to a single column. Where print text is set to a point size that does not change, ebook text can be re-sized, causing the text to re-flow and fit the size or orientation of the device’s page. In addition, each device will render content differently depending upon it’s format or capabilities (e.g, a smart phone is narrower than most readers).

I’ve never tried to create an EPUB but it looks like a skill I’d like to learn and be able to offer to my clients. I will be experimenting with this soon.

Adobe has several resources with more information about this including an upcoming online seminar Digital Publishing: eBooks, eMagazines & Apps and Adobe TV has just posted a video, Create More Compelling EBOOKS with InDesign CS5.5 on their site.

IxDA: The Art & Science of Seductive Interactions

Posted on July 15th, 2010 in Lectures and classes

This week I attended an event: The Art & Science of Seductive Interactions.
This presentation by Stephen P. Anderson took a closer look at what we know about people and what qualities or motivations affect their behaviors. For example, we know people are curious, self-centered, like challenges and are highly visual thinkers — just to name a few.
By keeping these motivations in mind, we can create features that generate more interest in the website and result in greater user interaction.
Highlights from this lecture are available at www.slideshare.net. This event was held by Seattle IxDA.