I have over 12 years experience across a wide range of corporate areas including: intranets, delivery of large scale IT projects, business analysis, change management, user centered design, IA, project management, learning and development, online education and HR.

User experience and accessibility is something I am passionate about. I am currently working for Step Two Designs, an Information Management consultancy based out of Sydney and Brisbane.

If you have an event coming up or you know of something that is going on in Brisbane that relates to UX, let me know.

Rebecca Rodgers

Max Design presents: Website user experience and CSS workshop: designing for usability, building for the future
A hands-on workshop with user experience expert, Donna Maurer, and CSS expert, Russ Weakley.

Over two full days you will build detailed websites layouts from the ground up - starting with page layout, navigation and form design; and ending with clean markup and elegant styling using XHTML/CSS.

Day 1: Planning and designing the user experience
Donna Maurer

On day one you will plan and design a website - focusing on the user experience: designing the navigation, page layout and forms.

You will:

• learn techniques to understand your users, and prepare user scenarios
• understand your content with content analysis methods
• create an effective and usable site structure (information architecture)
• design a range of navigation methods
• create page layouts for content, home, index and special pages
• design simple forms

For each step, Donna will outline the fundamentals and show examples from small and large website projects. But most of the time will be hands-on - you work on your own project, ask questions and discuss with the group.

Day 2: Building beautiful sites using CSS
Russ Weakley

On day two you will build your website from the ground up - starting with structural markup, adding accessible markup and then styling your layout using CSS.

You will learn:

• how to create well structured, accessible markup
• the basics of CSS including rule sets, selectors, shorthand rules, inheritance and the cascade.
• how to structure efficient CSS files
• how to create a full CSS layout from a flat graphic mockup
• how to deal with browser issues including specific browsers such as IE5, IE6 and IE7.
• how to create a resolution dependent layout
• how to create CSS for printing and hand held devices

Who should attend?

Web managers, web designers, web developers and bloggers who:

• are interested in designing user-focused websites
• have a basic understanding of CSS and want to learn more

In this one-day workshop, Patrick Kennedy will present the fundamentals of information architecture (IA), the core methodology for organising and designing websites and intranets.

Key skills such as card sorting will be taught, and this workshop is designed to build in-house information architecture skills. A must for all web or intranet teams.

Please note, this is a introductory workshop designed to build core skills, and is not suitable for intermediate or experienced practitioners.

Event Details:
Time: 9.00am to 5.00pm
Date: Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Location: Rydges Southbank, Brisbane

For more information and to register, go to
www.steptwo.com.au/seminars/080618/

About the presenter

Patrick Kennedy is a senior consultant in Step Two Designs, and has over ten years of experience in the digital media and web industry. He has in-depth expertise in best practice web design and development, usability, information architecture, user research and strategy.

Patrick has provided user-experience consultancy for many public and private sector organisations both in Australia and the United Kingdom. Patrick will draw examples from real-world projects to give insight into addressing common challenges and issues. This practical approach will ensure that all participants gain information that can be used back in the workplace.

Patrick holds a nationally recognised training qualification (Certificate IV in Assessment and Training), and is steadily bringing this workshop to all corners of Australia.