This document summarizes the highlights from the FOWD 2009 conference, compressing 8 hours of talks into 25 minutes. It includes summaries of presentations on progressive enhancements with CSS3, designing for user feedback at Digg, the future of web design with new display technologies, actively designing community at Vimeo, getting work done without worrying, the future of markup languages, and creating art with technology. The document also notes that a panel debate on short form vs. long form content did not produce many clear answers.

1. FOWD 2009
Highlights
Compressing 8 hours into 25 minutes
November 18, 2009

2. DAVID SENIOR DESIGNER
NPR
david.wright@me.com
WRIGHT @davewrightjr

3. Dan
Cederholm
SimpleBits

4. Progressive
enhancements
with CSS3
Don’t wait around for all browsers to
support new specifications.
Dan Cederholm: Progressive Enhancements

5. EXPERIENCE
STYLE
MARKUP
Dan Cederholm: Progressive Enhancements

6. Highlights
1. Enriching form elements
Yahoo is rounding corners on submit buttons
2. RGBA
A = Alpha (also awesome?)
3. Drop shadows that don’t hurt
Built in support eliminates loads of work
Dan Cederholm: Progressive Enhancements

7. Highlights
4. Scaling images on hover
Eliminates need for duplicate images (ex: thumbs)
5. Rotation
Interesting opportunities for user-feedback
6. Fade effects
Reduces need to create separate images
Dan Cederholm: Progressive Enhancements

8. “ None of this
stuff matters.”
IE users: A less polished but not
diminished user experience.
Dan Cederholm: Progressive Enhancements

9. News?
1. Add some sexy to your standalone
Experimental projects are a good starting spot
2. Today’s 10% = Tomorrow’s 40%
Hone your style
3. Break up with Flash
E ects might help us relax our death grip on Flash
Dan Cederholm: Progressive Enhancements

10. Daniel
Burka
Digg

11. Feedback
Informing
Design
Listening. Really listening to your users.
Daniel Burka: Digg

12. Don’t
oversimplify
Feedback can’t simply be grouped
into good and bad categories.
Daniel Burka: Digg

13. Know your
audience
If you’re a big organization, this
can be tough. Do it anyway.
Daniel Burka: Digg

14. Feedback:
1. Fans Be cautious
2. Haters Complicated
3. Bug reporters Awesome
4. Experts Free consulting
5. Niche Be cautious
6. Implicit Stats, user-paths
Daniel Burka: Digg

15. Read between
the lines
Feedback usually indicates
problems, not solutions.
“I need a faster horse.”
Daniel Burka: Digg

16. Don’t panic
Change is frustrating.
Daniel Burka: Digg

17. Elliott
Jay Stocks
Freelance

18. Stop
Worrying
& Get On
With It
More on CSS3
Elliott Jay Stocks

19. madebyelephant

20. atebits

21. 24ways.org

22. bornliving.com

23. jasonsantamaria.com

24. Matthew Smith - Squared Eye

25. “ Don’t worry if you
can’t validate.
Many new technologies won’t
validate because they’re not in
the formal specifications.
Elliott Jay Stocks

26. Bill
Buxton
Microsoft

27. Display
Technology
& The Future
of Web Design
On how devices link us to the Web
Bill Buxton: Microsoft

28. “ The diversity of web
browsers tomorrow
will match the
diversity of ink
browsers today.
ink browser=paper
Bill Buxton: Microsoft

29. Consider your
interactions
with paper.
We're nowhere near being close
to being able to reproduce those
interactions with browsers.
Bill Buxton: Microsoft

30. Consistent
display in all
browsers?
Nope.
Bill Buxton: Microsoft

31. Blake
Whitman
Vimeo

32. Actively
Designing
Community
Designing the Vimeo Community
Blake Whitman: Vimeo

35. Design for the
users you want.
A space for creators of original
video content.
Blake Whitman: Vimeo

36. Impose the
right limits
No “most popular” lists
No “highest rated” videos
Contacts capped at 1,000
Blake Whitman: Vimeo

37. Lead by
example
Staff must use the site
Design for users, yourselves
Blake Whitman: Vimeo

38. The Long
& Short of It
A debate about consumption and creation
of content in long vs. short form.
Panel Debate on Content: Short Form vs. Long Form

39. The debate
produced few
answers.
Not a shocker.
Panel Debate on Content: Short Form vs. Long Form

40. Why?
1. Form is specific to content-type
2. How long should a video be?
3. Short form introduces long form
4. Editorial and marketing
perspectives are very different
Panel Debate on Content: Short Form vs. Long Form

41. AUTHORITY
Is authority inherent in long form?
How is authority established in short form?
Panel Debate on Content: Short Form vs. Long Form

42. Molly
Holzschlag
Opera

43. HTML 5
Killed XHTML 2
The Mysterious
Future of Markup
Molly Holzschlag: Opera

44. HTML 4.01:
The last spec
Anyone still use this?
Molly Holzschlag: Opera

45. XHTML 1.0
Bridge between HTML and XML
Strict code formatting
MIME type problems in IE
Molly Holzschlag: Opera

46. XHTML 2
Not backwards compatible
Effective only on a closed system
Molly Holzschlag: Opera

47. WHAT Working
Group
Web Hypertext Applications
Technology Development Group
Started in 2004
Non draconian error handling
Molly Holzschlag: Opera

48. Highlights
1. Forms 2.0
Required attribute will kick ass, for instance
2. New APIs
HTML 5 specifies scripting APIs and OTHERS
3. Existing DOM interfaces are better
Javascript will be really helpful here
Molly Holzschlag: Opera

49. Be careful.
This spec is
still evolving.
Molly Holzschlag: Opera

50. Josh
Davis
Joshua Davis Studios

51. Space
Creating art with technology
Josh Davis: Joshua Davis Studios

52. “ Play is
important.”
Josh Davis: Joshua Davis Studios

53. “ If I’m not making
mistakes than I’m
not really learning
anything.”
Josh Davis: Joshua Davis Studios

54. “ If M.C. Escher
were still alive,
he’d be a F**kin’
programmer.”
Josh Davis: Joshua Davis Studios

55. Links:
http://delicious.com/davidwright/fowd09-ona
Slides:
http://slideshare.net/davewrightjr

56. Thanks!
david.wright@me.com
@davewrightjr