New England Regional Developers - Design

User Experience Designer at Common Media

gabe@commonmedia.com — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 03:23:40 +0000

Position Title:

User Experience Designer

Has experience in:

Strategy

Design

Full/Part Time:

Full Time

Part Time

Telecommute Allowed:

Job Description:

We’re hiring again! Common Media is looking for an outstanding User Experience Designer to join our team in Hadley, MA. We’re a web design, development and consulting shop with a healthy mix of new and ongoing projects. We’re looking for an experienced UX professional who is passionate about designing beautiful, intuitive and functional websites. The right candidate will have a well-developed process and will be to facilitate collaboration between clients and developers. This candidate will also be able to lead coworkers in making decisions based on their knowledge of usability benchmarks.

We hire craftspeople who care about keeping their tools sharp: we look for co-workers who are smart, get things done, and care about doing things right. We appreciate a wide breadth of experience, but the final requirements for this particular opening are a passion for usability, design and the drive to keep up with the latest tools, processes and techniques.

Primary responsibilities will include:

Project planning, requirements gathering, wireframing and UX design for new client projects
Conducting usability evaluations and moderating user testing studies for new and existing clients

Valued skills and attributes:

A healthy respect for and knowledge of usability and accessibility standards
Ability to consider edge cases and lead clients through the initial website phases
Ability (and eagerness) to learn new skills on the job
Attention to detail and production schedules
Ability to contribute positively in a team environment
Ability to maintain a busy work schedule in a collaborative work environment

Compensation commensurate with experience: we value expertise and efficiency, and our pay scale is very competitive. Benefits include health insurance and 401k. Please submit a resumé, cover letter, and salary requirements (if any) to jobs@commonmedia.com.

We would prefer to hire full-time and on-site in Hadley MA; but could make an exception for an exceptional candidate.

Position to start on or before September 15, 2015.

Pay range:

Compensation commensurate with experience

BOF - Why Drupal can save the Environmental Movement

Elyssa Marie — Sun, 02 Aug 2015 03:14:44 +0000

Can it? Humanity is certainly at a crossroads. There is something universal about Open Source communities that unleashes human creativity, that drives people to late nights tearing down the barriers to their dreams and creating powerful change. What are the visions that Open Source people want for the world, and how does the Drupal framework bring that vision to reality?

20-min Presentation - Power + Parallels among Open Source Communities

The Pioneer Valley is teeming with groups that value free exchange of information, versatility + adaptability, and coming together for the common good. It is no coincidence that you find overlap among the people in Open Source communities. This presentation outlines the parallels in the norms, values and practices of the Drupal community and two other local regenerative culture movements: Permaculture and Non-violent Communication.

25-min Discussion + Think Tank

What would happen if a web platform for collaboration, free discussion and collective enterprise were created with Open Source values at its core? It is amazing that Drupal Core has over 30,000 contributors. How is collaboration possible among this many people? The northeast permaculture community has over 10,000 people. Imagine if they could collaborate to an equal degree, and if they could network and collaborate among movements with similar core values. The sky would be the limit, and the movement would be firmly rooted in the ground.
Thank We.

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2015 - 4:00pm-Sep 12 2015 - 4:50pm

Room:

Concourse

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Speaker Bio(s):

Elyssa Serrilli is a community organizer in the environmental, education and non-profit sectors. As a budding web developer, she is keenly aware of how impactful web technology upgrades are for local and regional movements. Elyssa is also a kick ass wilderness guide - hit her up if you'd like to know more hidden gems to explore in the Pioneer Valley.

Designing from the Content Out

jeckman — Sat, 27 Jun 2015 15:50:15 +0000

Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration. - Jeffrey Zeldman

We've all heard that content is king, yet when it comes to designing web experiences we're still stuck with lorem ipsum and placeholder images, as though the real content didn't matter.

We're still designing web experiences from the top down, starting with the desktop view of the homepage, even though they're more likely to be experienced from the bottom up - starting with a content detail page on a mobile device.

Designing from the content out means starting with atomic elements of content, and building a system of components and layouts based on the real structure of content.

Experience level:

Advanced

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2015 - 10:00am-Sep 12 2015 - 10:50am

Room:

165

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Speaker Bio(s):

CEO @ 10up, WordCamp organizer and WordPress developer. Have spoken at many DrupalCamps and WordCamps, including NERD Summit last year. See http://johneckman.com/ for more.

SEO Begins before Design

KevinKestyn — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 15:29:11 +0000

Today good website search engine optimization relies upon how content is framed and delivered. For Google to properly rank a website, it must interpret the websites context and strength of that context. In SEO we try to effect this by theming.

The website architecture is weak when SEO elements are missing or overly used. The website will bring a weakened theme to Google. SEO will suffer and perhaps can never be maximized. Even if the content is strong, it will always be framed in a weak structure.

SEO can be like a competitive debate taking place in front of Google; where we argue relevancy through website structure and content. To create and maximize that relevancy we must plan and assure ALL elements important in SEO are independently built into the design.

Experience level:

Advanced

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2015 - 11:00am-Sep 12 2015 - 11:50am

Room:

162

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Strategy

Design

Speaker Bio(s):

Kevin Kestyn has 20 years experience; he began developing websites in September 1995. Today he is an SEO marketing expert.

Introduction to CSS and HTML

weyakin — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 15:05:15 +0000

For those just starting their journey into front-end web development, this session teaches the very basics of writing mark-up and styles to create a website. CSS and HTML are basic building blocks used on every type of website and this is a great starting foundation for people just beginning in web development.

The session will include lecture-style introductions to basic concepts and terms for writing HTML and CSS, as well as recommendations for editors and tools. From there, participants are invited to use their own computer to try out creating a basic page with CSS and HTML themselves. Starter templates will be available for download to get you going. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and ask for help as we go along with the hands-on process. Older children (recommended ages 10+) are welcome to join as well.

If you plan to attend, you should bring a laptop with you. Having an editing software installed will be helpful. If not, suggestions will be made during the workshop.

Experience level:

Beginner

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 11 2015 - 10:00am-Sep 11 2015 - 11:50am

Room:

165

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Speaker Bio(s):

Victoria (Vicki) Chapman has been a web developer and designer since 2000, when she started as a student designer/developer for the University of Connecticut. She made her first website in 1997. Victoria is currently a senior front-end developer for Common Media in Hadley and specializes in CSS/SASS, responsive design and development, 508 accessibility, and works in platforms including Drupal, WordPress, and Ruby on Rails. She also works part-time as a professional illustrator/artist under the name Weyakin Designs.

An Introduction to Responsive HTML Emails

tdodson — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 16:45:08 +0000

Whether you’re using emails for newsletters, promotional content, or event invitations, you need to be able to reach your subscribers on whatever devices, operating systems, or email clients they are using. In this session, we’ll look at some of the challenges of sending responsive HTML emails (e.g., lack of client support for a variety of CSS rules) and how you can apply what you already know about HTML and CSS to overcome them. We’ll also talk about techniques (such as CSS injection) that can make coding your emails much easier. Not everyone gets excited about hand-coding emails to begin with, and sooner or later most designers turn to templates provided by third-party services. We’ll take a look not only at what these services offer for building emails, but also for tracking analytics and managing subscriber lists. Finally, we’ll discuss best practices for effective campaigns and how to avoid being flagged as a spammer. [I don't yet have an image to upload with this proposal].

Experience level:

Beginner

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 11 2015 - 4:00pm-Sep 11 2015 - 4:50pm

Room:

162

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Design

Development

Speaker Bio(s):

A writer, designer, and librarian, Thomas Dodson serves as the front-end Drupal developer for the Harvard Library. He edits and publishes the arts and letters journal Printer's Devil Review and the Best Indie Lit New England series. He is also a fiction writer, and his stories have appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal, CONSEQUENCE Magazine, Chicago Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He blogs about technology and design at techneblog.com

Out of the Silos and Into the Farm

marlim@gmail.com — Wed, 27 May 2015 20:53:12 +0000

As a freelance content strategist and UX consultant I see a lot of teams that divide the content and design teams from the developers - and it never ends well. I've begun to recommend to teams that we implement elements of agile development, and learn the "soft skills" for teamwork. It increases team communication, and decreases the likelihood of stalled timelines or increased scope down the line. In this talk, we'll talk about the value of collaboration, agile development, and the UX process, and more importantly, attendees will learn real-world practices to achieve smoother team collaboration, and ultimately more successful products. I use specific examples from clients ranging from startup to enterprises like Motorola Solutions and Fidelity Investments to illustrate situations that I find every developer and designer can empathize with. I think this is an important talk, due primarily to the fact that I address the soft skills that too many teams overlook, or never learn.

Sessions Topics:

Strategy

Design

Speaker Bio(s):

Marli Mesibov is the Director of Content Strategy at the design and UX agency Mad*Pow. Her work spans strategy and experiences across websites, web applications, and mobile for enterprise companies and startups. She is the managing editor at UX Booth, and a frequent conference speaker. Marli can also be found on Twitter, where she shares thoughts on UX Design, content strategy, and Muppets. You can learn more about her and her work at http://marli.us

Bang for the Buck: Improving Drupal Site Performance on a Budget

cmsdave — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 04:00:36 +0000

We all want our Drupal sites to run faster. The need for speed only continues to increase as does the rapid growth of mobile users and the ever-expanding amount of rich content on the web. For many of us, Drupal is at the center – serving up our content to users who expect pages to load FAST. But despite its power, Drupal can be a performance bottleneck. For large projects, the solution may be as simple as provisioning additional hosting resources: more memory, additional server instances, load balancers, etc. However, increased server resources can come at a significant cost, which may not be an option for projects that are constrained by limited budgets.

In this session, we'll outline the spectrum of options for improving the speed of your Drupal site… on a budget. We'll begin with the premise that there are actually many things you can do to significantly improve the overall speed of your site without spending a lot of time or money.

Studies show that nearly half of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, and that even a 1 second delay can contribute to an increased bounce rate and a decreased conversion rate. So, let's get that 1 second back!

INTENDED AUDIENCE: This session is perfect for those who want an overview of Drupal site optimization best practices and basics. Ideal for beginners or for established developers who want a sanity check. This will not be a deep dive into advanced Web Performance Optimization; there are many excellent talks and resources on that. Instead, we'll examine some often overlooked enhancements that can add up to significant speed-ups – with specific focus on free tools and techniques that can be implemented with relative ease and for little to no cost. At the end of the session, we'll share a checklist that you can use to assess your site.

Note: This session was originally presented at Drupaldelphia 2013 and has been expanded and updated. Many of the concepts in this presentation can also be applied to WordPress sites.

About the Speaker

Dave Sawyer is a Solutions Architect at OHO Interactive - a proud sponsor of NERD SUMMIT 2014. He has 15 years experience in web development and specializes in architecting multi-site solutions. Dave is an Acquia Certified Developer and works extensively with Drupal. He has given talks at numerous Drupal conferences and camps including DrupalCon Austin, Drupaldelphia, and DrupalCamp New Jersey. Previously, Dave has worked as a consultant and developer for Adobe Systems, Bloomsbury Publishing, and The Vineyard Gazette. You can follow him on Twitter at @cmsdave.

Experience level:

Intermediate

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2014 - 10:00am-Sep 12 2014 - 10:50am

Room:

162-75

Allowed Types:

Session

Session Track:

Session Tracks (NERDSummit 2014)

DrupalCampMA

Sessions Topics:

Speaker Bio(s):

21 Best Practices for Higher Ed Web Development

jasonondesign — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 01:36:24 +0000

Are you dreading your upcoming web redesign, or so excited that you can't wait to start? Have you discussed it in a dozen committee meetings, or is it the red-headed stepchild, never mentioned? Are you suffering from too many good ideas or too many stakeholders?

In this rapidfire session we'll share 21 tips and tools for effectively designing, and building a website. User personas, sticky buckets, green machines, and many others. Tips on managing the design process, and photography no-nos.

But wait! There's more... we'll also save some time to hear from you about your toughest problems, so bring 'em with you.

This is a code-free session, open to anyone who has an interest in making better websites, guaranteed.

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 13 2014 - 4:00pm-Sep 13 2014 - 4:50pm

Room:

162-75

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Design

Speaker Bio(s):

As co-founder of GravitySwitch.com Jason Mark has been at the forefront of digital marketing for over 20 years. Before working in digital marketing, Jason was involved in multiple artificial intelligence, and 3D computer animation projects. He’s given talks and taught classes at Yale, Harvard, UMass, MIT, Mt. Holyoke College, Hampshire College, and the Marlboro College Graduate Program, where he was part of the first ever program for internet strategy in the world. He’s had students commute to New England from as far away as California to take his classes, and also gives professional talks around the country for iPhone DevCon, Android DevCon, Joomla New England, Drupal Camps, Design4Drupal, and ADC/GDC, as well as corporate clients. He’s worked with Disney, Sega, Honda and many other name brands, and is a master at reaching students of all different levels.

JasonOnDesign is Jason's blog on... well web design and usability.

Design Matters

jasonondesign — Sat, 16 Aug 2014 01:23:24 +0000

Art is subjective. You like it or you don’t like it. But design is the science of art. It’s art with purpose. Design is about intent.

What do you want people to know, feel, and do?

Have your products been designed with intent? Are you willing to break out of your comfortable thought patterns and stretch your limits? Are you willing to test? To try? To fail?

Bring your biggest problems. Your sticky wickets. Your unsolvable problems and your biggest dreams. Jason will help you better understand how you can utilize design to better achieve your goals. With an emphasis on testing, Jason will review a number of audience projects and offer simple changes or tests that will help you maximize the work you've put into your project

Session Time Slot(s):

Time:

Sep 12 2014 - 9:00am-Sep 12 2014 - 9:50am

Room:

163C

Allowed Types:

Session

Sessions Topics:

Design

Speaker Bio(s):

JasonOnDesign is Jason's blog on... well web design and usability.