Merry Front-End Christmas

Pete Hunt - Scaling up and down: evolving your testing strategies

Projects have different testing needs at different points in their lifecycle. In this session we'll have a look at the evolution of testing at Facebook and Instagram, how our needs changed over time, things we did right and mistakes that we made.

Kyle Simpson - Choose your own JS adventure

Yeah, yeah, ES6 is awesome. Everyone knows that. We're all excited about not having to write the word 'function' anymore. But, isn't it about time we stop obsessing so much about what TC39 puts into the official language spec? Let's talk about making and using tools (built in JS, of course!) to customize the language itself to your own liking. We'll talk about macros, code parsers and transpilers, and other fun tricks to put the control of the language back in your fingers. Make your own JavaScript. And no, that doesn't have to stop you from playing nicely with others.

Petro Salema - Dream big. Think small.

Hoverboards, jetpacks, holograms, and "the next big thing:" none are everyday technologies not because we can't envision them, but because we haven't yet put together the capabilities to make them consumable technologies. The buzzing, blinking, and beeping atmosphere mediated by our ever-on, ever-connected, and ever-present devices has made it clear that computer technology revolutions will be grounded in making computing more humane (UX). But what the next lifestyle shaping and culture-making product will be is almost impossible to say. It's very hard to invent the future, but it is our job—and within our reach—to enable it. And the key to this is solving smaller problems. We'll consider how solving small and hard problems is what brings about capabilities, and it is capabilities—more so than vision—that is the link between our imagination and reality.

Nicolas Gallagher - Making Twitter UI infrastructure

Alice Bartlett: Burn your select tags - EpicFEL 2014

Native select boxes are rubbish and I have the user research videos to prove it. In this talk I’ll show videos from a recent user research session around the design of a form on GOV.UK. I’ll talk about the many failings of select boxes to meet the needs of less technically capable users.

James Higgs - Product development = tradeoffs - Front-end London, November 2014

There are no absolutes in technology except this one

Ben MacGowan: The Era of Gratuitous Animations - Front-end London May 2014

With technologies constantly evolving, it is becoming easier to bring our interfaces alive with animations. But that doesn't necessarily mean we should always make that piece of text fly in like it's Superman. In this talk, we will explore the things we should be considering when making these decisions, looking at interfaces that got it right and others, not so much.