Web Standards, Accessibility & More

I was fortunate enough to recently attend the An Event Apart, San Francisco (you can view a collection of ALA SF photos on Flickr). The first thing to mention is, to my pleasant surprise, how funny Jared Spool and Jeffrey Zeldman were! In addition to the sessions, the atmosphere was electric, a made a few good professional contacts, and the food was excellent I also had the opportunity to personally speak (even though briefly) with Eric Meyer, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Joe Clark.

It would be great if every web designer and developer in the world could attend this conference as it promotes the right way to do web development–namely web standards and accessibility. There were also a couple excellent sessions on web design.

Eric Meyer, the infamous CSS guru, presented twice. He showcased his data table-to-bar chart CSS, which was really impressive. The second session focused on CSS and IE7, mostly about CSS selector techniques. Jeffrey Zeldman also presented twice–on Writing the User Interface and Selling Design. Other notable presenters include Jason Santa Maria of Happy Cog, Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering, and Kimberly Blessing of PayPal.

A few good quotes used in the presentations were:

• I’d have written it shorter if I had more time.
• Design helps people read less.
• An interface is worth a thousand pictures.

Beer is good. Web programming is enjoyable (usually). So why not put the two together during the Refresh Detroit monthly meet-ups? I am a co-founder of the local web professional group, and I’m usually the one to make the final decision on where we’re meeting. A pub has many times been the answer!

We’ve met three times at Stout Pub in Brighton, Michigan. This month’s Refresh Detroit meeting (April 25) we’re meeting at the Claddagh Irish Pub in Livonia. Good beer, good food, good times.

A few of my favorite beers are (from light to dark):

• Shipyard Light
• Old Speckled Hen
• Guinness Stout

Here’s some great places to get some serious chow.

• Moe’s Southwestern Grill - great Mexican-American food (and surprisingly, good oatmeal-raisin cookies)
• Jimmy John’s – great, fast, fresh sandwiches (don’t forget the salt-n-vinegar potato chips)
• Cold Stone Creamery – yummy ice cream, and with mix-ins
• Potbelly Sandwich Works – awesome grilled subs (and milkshakes)
• Zoup! – delicious soups (but the Greek salad sucks)