Category: Meetups

A big thanks to everyone who came to July’s meetup. The theme in July was designer-developer relations. The theme came about following a previous month’s open discussion, Lexi asked the group how she as a designer could work better with developers.

We welcomed Josh, a UX designer from the BBC, who gave a talk on overcoming some of the frustrations between designers and developers. The talk was followed by an open discussion introduced by Lexi and lead by Trevor Adams.

Thanks to both our sponsors – TopCashback and iWeb.

Talk

Solitary design, solitary development

Josh Hillier

We are all familiar with the saying “throwing the designs over the wall” and the frustrations this brings. From personal experience my talk will address some of the common problems, pitfalls, and knowledge gaps between Design and Development and share ways in which they can be overcome.

We tried something a little different to usual in June. Running a workshop style session, with a good amount of discussion throughout. It was an enjoyable evening which saw the planning of a hat festival, as well as a number of other more usual projects!

For those who missed out or wish to recap, Natasha has posted the simple 4 step process on her blog.

Thanks to both our sponsors – TopCashback and iWeb.

Talks

Planning like a pro

Natasha Allsopp

Ever had to present a talk or complete a project and not known where to start?

In this fun and interactive workshop, we’ll work in small groups to take a project or presentation idea and create a focused plan which will provide a solid foundation, helping streamline the entire project process.

This one weird technique is incredibly flexible. It can be applied to your next project whatever it may be, from preparing a conference talk to planning a holiday.

Want to know more? Then come along and get involved.

A big thanks to everyone who came to May’s meetup. It was a brilliant evening, with a record turnout for Staffs Web Meetup.

Thanks to both our sponsors – TopCashback and iWeb.

Talks

The Business Case for Modular Design

Laura Elizabeth

Designing patterns instead of pages is generally thought of as more sustainable way to design.

Anyone who’s ever tried it will have probably have found it takes a lot more than just designing a bunch of components and fitting them together (like Lego!)

So with a longer process, and bigger budget, it’s increasingly important that we can get clients on board with this new way of working. To do that we need to work out what the business case is for modular design and most importantly, how we can sell it to our clients.

Saving Time with Gulp

Jake Cobley

I will explain the pros and cons of introducing a task runner into your front-end development workflow. I’ll then introduce Gulp and demonstrate how it can be used to automate a number of common tasks such as asset compiling and optimisation.

Discussion Session (Lean Coffee)

Trevor Adams 

Our interpretation of Lean Coffee, a fast paced open discussion. Using sticky notes, during the break people will post up questions or talk topics. You will have the opportunity to vote for the sticky notes that you find the most interesting. We’ll then open the floor for a short discussion on each topic.

Nerdy t-shirt competition

Jamie Pollock was the winner of May’s nerdy t-shirt competition. Judged by our carefully selected panel of experts, consisting of Bean enCounter staff and Natasha Allsopp. Jamie went all-out, wearing not one… not two… but five t-shirts! Exceptional effort Jamie. Well deserved win.

A big thanks to everyone who came to April’s meetup.

Thanks to both our sponsors – TopCashback and iWeb.

Talks

Marketing & SEO for Web Designers

Jed Wylie

A 10 minute potted history of 10 years of marketing things we did which didn’t work, worked a bit or knocked our socks off.

How to grow crazily fast using scientific marketing

Karl Blanks

The web’s fastest-growing companies embrace experimentation. In this talk, Dr Blanks will discuss techniques that his company has used to more than double the sales of many companies.

A big thanks to everyone who came to March’s meetup.

Thanks to both our sponsors – TopCashback and iWeb.

Talks

We’ve included a summary of the evenings talks below.

Help! I Just Inherited This Web App. Where Do I Start?

Darren Beale

Aimed either at the owner/manager of an existing web application or a web team who have just landed a large maintenance project.

It covers commercial as well as technical subjects, but at a high level suitable for the technical and non-technical alike. Rammed full of actionable advice from the get-go with a downloadable check-list provided at the end so you don’t have to make any notes. An excellent primer on the things to consider when taking ownership of a legacy project.

Testing from the outside in

Andrew McCombe

The industry is full of talks, blogs and books on Test Driven Development, and many projects come with a full set of tests already. But what if your project doesn’t have tests? What if you’ve inherited a website and need to implement new functionality? How do you know what you’re going to break?

Discussion Session (Lean Coffee)

Trevor Adams 

Our interpretation of Lean Coffee, a fast paced open discussion. Using sticky notes, during the break people will post up questions or talk topics. You will have the opportunity to vote for the sticky notes that you find the most interesting. We’ll then open the floor for a short discussion on each topic.