Workshop 1: Content's relationship to responsive design
Cennydd Bowles, the author of Undercover User Experience Design, and a product designer at Twitter, will run this workshop on how to design for a responsive age. He will talk attendees through the need to reappraise how our industry works, and how we need to focus on designing for the next phase of the web's evolution. You will learn and discuss how to prepare deliverables that will help your content thrive both now and in five years' time. You will also dip into techniques on catering for diverse user bases, and discuss topics like content-out design and whether Agile is a solution.
This workshop is set to get attendees up to speed on the tools they need to implement a brand-driven content strategy that will complement their user-centred design techniques. The focus will be very practical; delegates will get stuck in by taking sample organisations through a website redesign engagement. Led by Margot Bloomstein, the principal of Appropriate, Inc. and author of Content Strategy at Work, the first exercise will be to prioritise communications goals and develop a message architecture, which is essential whether you're designing for the web, a mobile app, social media, or an offline experience. Topics will also include how to minimise off-brand features, and how to use a content audit to evaluate content against the message architecture.
Unsurprisingly, this workshop is proving popular with South Africans, thanks to the growing local recognition of mobile as a prime way of getting online. Presented by Luke Wroblewski, an internationally recognised digital product leader, and the author of Mobile First and Web Form Design, this session will centre on detailed examples, explanations and best design practices that are set to shift delegates' thinking on website organisation, layout, input and more. Amongst others, you will learn how to optimise navigation systems and menus for mobile devices and adapt them to a variety of screens, as well as how to organise your websites and applications to deliver immediate value on these mobile devices.
In the only session to be run by two presenters, attendees can expect a very collaborative workshop with plenty of discussion. Rachel Lovinger, a content strategist and experience director at Razorfish in New York, along with Cleve Gibbon, CTO at Cognifide in London, will facilitate a deep dive into the highly topical practice of structuring content. They will show you how to create content models that can identify gaps, resolve issues, enhance multi-channel collaboration, and ultimately become part of the functional specifications that define how a site and its CMS should be built.
While the main conference will take place on 25 and 26 October, the workshops on 24 October are optional and open to everyone - not just conference attendees. If you can't make it to the two-day conference, you can still choose to attend a workshop and learn in a collaborative environment.
CS Forum is taking place at Spier Estate in Stellenbosch, from 24 to 26 October. The workshops all take place on the 24th: two in the morning, and two in the afternoon. Morning workshops will run from 08h30 to 12h00, and the afternoon workshops will run from 13h30 to 17h00. Tickets are priced at R2,600 each, and include lunch and morning or afternoon refreshments.
Get all the workshop details and register for your chosen session at www.csforum2012.com.
