For A Good Time, Call Midwest PHP

A great group of people at Midwest PHP

 

So, I’m at Midwest PHP. That’s right. A front-end developer for a .NET shop at a conference filled to the brim with open-source developers, talk about Linux, and beards… so many beards. That being said, I’ve never met a group of people so kind, accepting, and open. They are a credit not only to the PHP community, but the developer community as a whole.

The talks have also been awesome. It’s been a nice collection of topic overviews that I’ve enjoyed learning from and being inspired by. I already have a long list of to-do’s that I’m taking back with me to both try and use, and we’re only half-way done. I’m really excited for day two.

Anyway, enough fawning over my new-found friends.  Let’s get to what you’re all hear for… slides. Here are my Rocking the Responsive Web Slides and the simple responsive demo. Steal them, use them, convince your boss and clients that responsive is the future AND the present. Do responsive, and make the web better. And if you’d leave me your feedback on joind.in, that would be great!

Need a place to start? Fork and contribute to Squeaky Clean, my fast and clean WordPress boilerplate. Even if you’re not a WordPress guy, the SASS file is a great place to start on your project.

Here are the slides for my second presentation, “Embrace Your Inner Designer.” I’m sorry they are so delayed. My brain decided it was a good idea to leave my laptop power cord somewhere other than in my bag.

Oh, if you use these slides to make something awesome, PLEASE put a link to it in the comments below. I love hearing about amazing new things.

UPDATE: If you missed my talks at Midwest PHP, or you want to watch them again, MJG Intl. was kind enough to host a meeting, “An Evening of Web Development,” during which I presented very similar (and very nervous) versions of my two talks. The videos are available on YouTube: Embrace Your Inner Designer and Rocking t he Responsive Web.

O+A Sessions: Paul Adams on the Social Web

My notes from the 2012 O+A Sessions

In his talk about Facebook and the future of the social web, Facebook’s Paul Adams explained the power of the Social Graph API and how it will change not only the way that we interact with brands, but the way that we use the Internet. He also made the argument that once a user uses a site that correctly users the Social Graph, they will never go back to sites without it. Read More…

Recent Nielson Study Proves You Can’t Ignore Mobile Users

My job at VistaComm affords me the ability to talk to quite a few of our clients about their mobile device strategy. Often we find during those discussions that they haven’t given any thought to it, and if they have, they feel that there isn’t any need at this time. Although I understand their reasoning, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Read More…

The Fallacy of the “Mobile Web” & “Native Apps” (or How to Fracture Your Users Without Trying)

“As of this writing, there’s no contest: ship mobile apps if you can afford it.” – Jakob Nielsen

When I woke up this morning, I was overwhelmed by the number of times friends were Tweeting, Facebooking, and emailing me the newest post by Jakob Nielsen, “Mobile Sites vs. Apps: The Coming Strategy Shift.” Ninety-nine times out of 100, I agree with every word he says. This article is the one exception.

While I agree with his basic premise, that if given the option between equally well-developed native apps and web pages, the apps often are superior, there are some serious caveats that need to be pointed out before such a blanket statement is made. Read More…