What is Web Dev Conf?
Web Dev Conf (WDC) is the longest running conference for developers and designers in the UK, they are based down the road from me in Bristol which makes getting there super easy.
What I particularly enjoy about WDC is that while its a conference for designers and developers the talks arent always heavily geared towards those topics, after all sitting watching someone writing CSS or JavaScript all day would be a little on the boring side. Regardless of the topic I always find something to takeaway from each talk.
You can find out more about WDC on their site webdevconf.com
Things that made me think
While every talk had something which made me think these are the ones that had the biggest impact on me
Content design
This talk was given by Candi Williams, she spoke a lot about content design and it's importance, it's not something i'd considered before as normally i'm just given a design with content on it to develop but the talk made me realise how important it can be.
One of the key things that stood out to me was her saying that "Error states are an afterthought". This made me realise that i've never properly considered what the error states should say on forms. Half the time it's just generic and means nothing to the user so how are they mean't to understand what they have done wrong?
AI
One talk was given by Henrique Gusso, he spoke about AI and the perception that it's going to steal all our jobs. He made the excellent point that really what AI does is just act as an incredibly powerful tool we can use to make our work more efficient, there will always be a need for people to utilise it to get the best out of it.
Another point he made was that this is similar to how so many things are now made in factories and human made is considered a luxury, there's no reason this can't be the same for the Web.
Rediscovering creativity
Given by Nicole Murrells, this talk focused on her journey from working with kids to switching to tech and how she rediscovered her childhood creativity to help her accomplish that and become a designer.
What I took from this was her just do it attitude which really resonated with me, "Can't draw? Just draw anyway" is one way I can sum it up and it's made me want to try and become more creative like I was when I was younger.
My favourite part of this talk was "Have fun, who the fuck cares".
Web audio
This was something i'd not realised was even a proper thing but it's really cool. Pete Thomas took us through some of the history of web audio and ending showing us a live coding environment that makes music. I've got no idea how it works but it's really impressive and great fun to play with.
Have a play with it here zen.cephasteom.co.uk
In summary
I thoroughly enjoyed WDC 2023 much like last year, I learned about things I never knew existed and left with a rejuvenated outlook on what I want to be doing within this industry moving forward. WDC 2022 was my first attendance and it's what sparked me to create this website to try and get myself out there more.
I will be attending again in 2024 and I highly recommend it to anyone working in tech not just designers or developers, there will always be something you can take away from it.
