There are only a few days left to register for WebVisions Portland — and we’re super excited to announce some special workshop combo deals from our sponsors Adobe, WebINK and Internet Explorer. Get a half-day workshop plus a two-day conference pass for only $400!
For a limited time, register for WebVisions Portland and get a free pass to Kevin Hoyt’s “Getting Started with Arduino” workshop for only $400. The workshop includes a free Arduino board and other materials…» Register
For a limited time, register for WebVisions Portland and get a free pass to Alex Porter, Andrew Cooper + Nathan Bingham’s “Building HTML5 Games” workshop for only $400…» Register
For a limited time, register for WebVisions Portland and get a free pass to typography expert Thomas Phinney’s “Control the Web: A Hands-on Guide to Great Web Fonts and Typography” workshop for only $400…» Register
Lastly, we have a great selection of free events for WebVisions attendees, including Studio Tours, Film Screenings, Parties, and the VFX Revolution panel with Jeff White of ILM, Academy Award-winning effects supervisor Brian Van’t Hul of LAIKA studios and other effects experts.
Online registration is open until Monday, May 14th at http://wvpdx.eventbrite.com/
Buy a conference pass to WebVisions Portland and enjoy a fabulous and totally free events, from Studio Tours to a Visual Effects panel with industry experts!
Regardless of our best laid plans, it’s often the ideas and events that we least expect that end up mattering to us most. This has never been more true than in today’s chaotic, highly uncertain world. Serendipity–looking for one thing and finding another–is increasingly recognized as an organizing principle of personal creativity, adaptive teams, and discovery in user experiences. Yet how can we plan for something that by definition is unpredictable? How can we prepare for the unpreparable?
Thor Muller has the answer, and it’s “planned serendipity.” In his half-day workshop on “The Eight Skills of Planned Serendipity,” Thor will demonstrate a set of eight concrete, attainable skills that allow us to increase the appearance of chance in our design practices, make unlikely connections, and take action on the ones that matter. Planned serendipity draws from fields as wide-ranging as neuroscience, modern art, agile programming, drug discovery, and progressive education to create a practical framework for luck.
Since 1995, Thor has founded five companies, and launched over two dozen web applications and sites. He was the co-founder of Rubyred Labs, a web development agency specializing in social networks, and Trapezo, a Web service for syndicating content. He was also VP of Digital Media at Frog Design, the world renown product design firm, where he founded its San Francisco-based Internet practice.
Responsive Web Design focuses on the display of web content, but the reality is that devices are much more than displays. In Gino Zahnd and John Bragg’s workshop “The Device is More Than a Display: Responsive Web Design is Only the Beginning” both developers and designers will come away with a solid understanding of how to create a product that makes full use of all of the capabilities of a device, from its screen to its accelerometer, and everything in between.
During the workshop, you’ll actively collaborate with John, Gino, and other attendees to create a real-world product/service that spans the desktop, mobile web, native apps, and maybe even activity-specific devices! Whoa!
Learn how to think in terms of designing and building with device classes, rather than just screen size and orientation. You’ll consider mechanisms for input, sensory feedback, processing power, data storage and environmental context to create experiences that truly respond to peoples’ real world usage.
A futuristic communication interface from the Fritz
Lang film Metropolis
SciFi and other speculative interfaces can unlock possibilities for new interactions in any product or service. Interfaces from SciFi films offer examples to real world design issues that are humorous, prophetic, inspiring, and practical to interaction designers – these interfaces are fun, inspiring examples and reflections of current interface understanding.
In their workshop on “How to Use Scifi to Create Better Interfaces”, the duo of Nathan Shedroff and Chris Noessel’s will share lessons culled from imaginative interfaces unbound from traditional constraints, with examples and prompts for attendees to brainstorm around these lessons to unlock new aspects of their existing projects.
All levels of experience can benefit from this unique perspective and gain valuable insights. Likewise, any product or service interface can be enhanced with these lessons.
Custom hardware for custom projects used to be expensive and deeply technical. Thanks in large part to the commoditization of sensors, and the movement of open source, all you need these days is an idea and the will to experiment. If you can plug-and-play, then you can be a Maker.
In Kevin Hoyt’s awesome half-day, DIY session “Getting Started with Arduino”, you will get a gentle introduction to the world of custom hardware projects with the open source electronics prototyping platform, Arduino.
Kevin will take you on a guided tour of how to get setup, build your first Arduino program, interact with electrical sensors, and connect to your web-based applications. Along the way, get the inspiration flowing with coverage of several custom projects.
HTML 5 Gaming is rapidly evolving and there has never been a better time to give it a try. In Jesse Freeman’s fabulous and highly informative workshop on “Building HTML5 Games”, he’ll focuses on using Impact JS to create amazing retro style games in the browsers without a plugin. Impact takes advantage of Canvas, JavaScript and modern browsers to deliver fast fluid games directly in the browser. Even better is that Impact JS works on mobile browsers too. Impact JS also works great natively on iOS since you can compile your Impact JS game in XCode to take advantage of Open GL graphics and Open CL for sound.
Jesse’s workshop will cover:
Workshop attendees will also get a free non-commercial license of Impact JS along with documentation and lesson source code.
For the past 13 years Jesse Freeman has been on the cutting edge of interactive development with a focus on the web and mobile platforms. As an expert in his field, Jesse has worked for VW, Tommy Hilfiger, Heavy, MLB, the New York Jets, HBO and many more. Jesse was a traditional artist for most of his life until making the transition into interactive art and hasn’t looked back since.
If you were once a student who lived on Top Ramen and socked away spare change for a night out, you probably remember that going to an event or conference was out of the question. WebVisions is offering a special deal – simply register a group of attendees for WebVisions, and the conference will donate a scholarship in your organization’s name to a student at School of Visual Arts, NYU, Parsons Institute or other school of your choice.
We’re offering one scholarship for every four paid attendees that you register from Dec. 15, 2011 to January 15, 2012. Contact Brad Smith or Jennifer Jones at 503-230-2058 or register online at http://wvnyc-groups.eventbrite.com/