d.Construct 2006 Clearleft

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Design is hard. The Web is complicated. How do we make things for people when all we have are the most basic understanding of what they want? Join Jeffrey Veen as he takes a broad survey of the challenges designers face today, and how we're all solving those problems with new perspectives on user research, interaction design, and information architecture.

Thomas Vander Wal provides an overview on tagging services and outline where there is value in tagging. This focuses on what is different in folksonomy that improves upon tagging, so that it becomes a powerful tool. Thomas provides insights to help answer when to use tagging and/or categories, who should be tagging, the value of a tagcloud (or lack of value) when used properly, and how to create value from tagging to improve the sites and services we build.

How can we build modern web applications that use DOM Scripting and Ajax-type technologies and ensure that they are accessible? To find the answers Derek lookd at the impact of Ajax and dynamically-generated content on people with disabilities by examining how various assistive technologies interact with modern web development techniques such as DOM Scripting and Ajax. Using those results Derek creates a strategy to make some currently popular design patterns more accessible to all users.

Can you ever go back to Ajax once you Web 2.0 with Flex 2.0? The Flex 2 framework and the Eclipse-based Flex Builder 2 IDE provide you with a superior development workflow for creating web applications. You can create rich user interfaces quickly by using features such as data binding, application states, custom components, effects, and transitions. Join Aral Balkan, the Lone Ranger of the Flash Platform at d.Construct, as he shows you how easy it is to use open data, consume web services and create mashups in Flex 2 by using open source ActionScript 3 libraries for Flickr, Mappr, Odeo, and YouTube. Warning: This session may alter your preconceptions about the Flash Platform.

Over the course of d.Construct, we've heard plenty about APIs from the people providing them: Yahoo!, Amazon, etc. But why should you, as a developer, be interested? Come on a journey with Jeremy Keith as he describes how much fun can be had from hacking around with open data. Listen to his experiences of experimenting with mashups. Find out how Web Services can rekindle the passion in your code. After some initial foreplay describing the differences between REST and SOAP, join Jeremy as he penetrates some code. Soon you'll be swinging with Amazon, Flickr, and Google Maps.