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10up at WP Engine Summit/2020

WP Engine Summit 2020

In two days, 10up is taking an active role in WP Engine Summit/2020. The Summit, taking place on June 10 from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm CDT, will feature a keynote by Robert Herjavec from SharkTank and break down open source trends, technologies, research, and campaigns that accelerate digital breakthroughs. This year, it will be held online through a combination of live and on-demand virtual content and creative networking. Registration is free.

Helen Hou-Sandi Presents At WordSesh Americas 2020

Helen Hou-Sandi on May 26

Helen Hou-Sandi WordSesh Americas 2020

WordSesh is a live, highly-curated, free virtual conference centered around WordPress. WordSesh Americas 2020, happening this Wednesday, May 27, includes 12 sessions that touch on topics like headless WordPress, client services, and communication skills.

I am excited to be a part of the lineup, sharing how developers can make the most of a development tool they are probably already using: Github.

Github is used by many developers to build and manage both public plugins and themes and private work. My session takes a closer look at GitHub Actions, a newer feature to help with automation for repetitive tasks like testing and deployment. It will cover WordPress-specific Actions, tying multiple Actions together in a workflow, and ideas for how to continually improve development processes.

Deep Dive: Gutenberg’s Create-block Scaffolding

Fabian Kaegy on May 22

Fabian Kaegy on Gutenberg Times Live Live

Yesterday, I was a guest on Gutenberg Times Live, discussing the inner workings of the Create Block scaffolding tool and the creation of new templates. The “WordPress/create-block” tool is a Command Line Application that facilitates the building and registering of new block plugins to help developers extend the capabilities of the WordPress block editor.

The discussion revolved around my pull request, Create block: Add support for external templates hosted on npm. I demonstrated how this proposed solution makes it easier to create new block templates.

You can watch the video on the Gutenberg Times YouTube Channel.

Helen Hou-Sandi on May 4

!!Con 2020 (pronounced “bang bang con”) features two days of ten-minute talks celebrating the joyous, exciting, and surprising moments in computing. This pay-what-you-want conference is happening online May 9-10, 2020 and I am excited to share that I will be speaking at 1:00 pm EST on Sunday, May 10.

My talk, Sparking Musical Joy at Home With Magnetic Stripe Swipe Cards and Tiny Code, shares how I, a programmer and not a human jukebox, used a Raspberry Pi, magnetic stripe swipe cards, stickers, and a tiny Bash script to help my children enjoy curated music on their own terms.

10up Recommends UX Research Tools On Adobe’s Xd Ideas Blog

Chris Wallace on April 15

Effective UX Research Tools

User experience research involves evaluating and capturing user behavior and interactions, and requires interactive collaboration and prototyping with participants and stakeholders. With remote work on the rise, leading UX researchers have adopted a new generation of tools that facilitate this research and collaboration without the need for in person interaction.

In the article 5 Effective UX Research Tools That the Experts Use, Adobe asked professional UX researchers and designers — including 10up’s own lead UX designers Ben Grace and Melissa Vander Wilt — to spotlight their user UX research tools of choice.

Ben shares how 10up leverages digital whiteboard and remote team collaboration software Miro to plan and prep for research, keep the team organized, and socialize findings.

Melissa highlights 10up’s use of Hotjar to perform user testing and behavior analysis, run surveys and polls, and gather insights for ongoing optimization.

If you’d like to do your next design and UX project with a team that knows how to achieve excellence without needing to be in the office, get in touch.

Optimize Your Work From Home Experience

Christine Garrison on April 10 • 1 Comment

Kinsta Work From Home Webinar

10up is joining forces with Kinsta for a free webinar focused on optimizing the work from home experience. Featured on the webinar will be our own Brad Miller, a Vice President who has worked from home for several years.

Happening on April 15 at 12:30 pm Eastern time, the webinar will cover:

Tips for setting up an at-home workspace
Ways to eliminate distractions
How to create opportunities to casually connect with colleagues (and talk about something other than work)
How to prioritize time effectively
Insights on finding work-life balance when work and home are the same place

Learn more and register to save your spot!

Jake Goldman on April 6

In response to COVID-19, many people are working from home for the first time. Recently, I shared insights from my experience working at home and leading a remote agency with one of our clients, T-Mobile. My tips are featured alongside some other perspectives in their story, Pants or No Pants? That Is the Question! For the record, I am team “yes, pants.”

Jeff Paul on April 3

WordPress 5.4 was released this week, featuring new and better blocks, a cleaner block editor UI, improved user data privacy features, and a handful of under the hood performance and developer improvements. Seven 10uppers helped make this release possible, including myself, who was recognized as a Noteworthy Contributor.

Thank you for helping make WordPress: Ben Greeley, Fabian Kaegy, Felipe Elia, John Watkins, Ryan Welcher, and Tung Du!

Jason Clarke on February 11

Today WordPress powers 35% of the web, yet there are still many myths and misconceptions about using the WordPress as an enterprise-level content management system.

10up is one of four enterprise agency partners featured in the new ebook, Faster, Smarter, Safer WordPress for Enterprise, by Pantheon, a WebOps platform for open-source Drupal and WordPress websites. The ebook shares valuable insights on how enterprises can best leverage WordPress and work with an agency partner. It also addresses common myths and misconceptions about the capability, security, and scalability of WordPress as a platform.

Bringing Out 9to5Mac’s Dark Side

Ricky Lee Whittemore on January 14

9to5mac Dark Mode Example

Brightly colored screens in low-light environments can keep people up at night, contribute to eyestrain, and even burn up battery life on newer devices with OLED displays. In recent years, all major operating systems — macOS, iOS, Windows, and Android — have added a dark-mode option. With this setting, the OS and any application that supports dark mode can switch from a light color scheme to darker tone, which offers UI personalization and reduces eye fatigue.

With all major web browsers now supporting the dark-mode setting, web developers can also serve either a light or dark theme, based on the user’s device setting.

Apple news site 9to5mac, a long-term client, added dark-mode support to its site just before the official release of iOS 13 last Fall — the first version of the iPhone operating system to offer dark mode.