Notes from Frontend United
I, along with 12 other NodeOners, spent a 3-day weekend in beautiful Amsterdam attending Frontend United. A brand-new concept, Frontend United (FU), replaces Drupal Design Camp as the conference to attend for anyone interested in design and UX related to Drupal.
The conference began with a sprint and training. Sessions on topics from how the theme layer works, or ought to work, object oriented CSS, Sass, data visualization, usability testing and theming in Drupal 8 followed.
I did not attend that many sessions, instead taking the opportunity to talk to people and network. An often overlooked aspect of conferences is the value of meeting new people and getting new ideas and impressions.
I did attend Lisa Rex's session on rapid usability testing. Lisa has gained a lot of experience from usability research from her work at Acquia. Her session was a goldmine of tips, advice and pointers for anyone wanting to get serious about usability testing. The session was highly inspirational and I look forward to putting it in practice.
I also presented a session called "UX Under Fire" providing arguments for designers facing extreme skepticism towards the value of UX. In my session I broke UX down into its constituent parts and showed how those tools and activities are critical for projects delivering business value by bridging the gap between business goals and requirements capture in projects.
NodeOne was a premium sponsor and along with us we brought our brand new swag: the Druplicon cookie cutter. Made of 100% stainless steel, it helps you make literal Drupal goodness. Just to sugar it even more we also included delicious icing. Use your cutter to evangelize Drupal among friends, or strangers, or give your client meetings or coffee breaks an extra touch of Drupal. Two cookie recipes are printed on the back.
If you weren't in Amsterdam and missed to collect one of these, don't worry. Based on the success, chances are high we'll bring it to more camps and conferences.
I'd like to thank the organizing team for making such a great conference. A big thanks goes out to Bert and Jesper for being super helpful, guiding lost sponsors in a city where cabs don't take credit cards or drivers speak much English.
Despite the payment and language issues, I hope we'll see more conferences in Amsterdam. It's great city to visit, especially in the spring.
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