Eric Mann Joins 10up

Eric Mann on September 6, 2012 • 3 Comments

You probably don’t know me yet – let’s fix that. I’m the new guy from the Pacific Northwest who spends as much time writing code as I do happily lost in the woods. Be careful, because I’m just as likely to talk your ear off about jQuery and AJAX as I am high alpine backpacking.

I’ve been building websites recreationally for over a decade; professionally for 6 years. I’ve been working with WordPress since a friend bribed me with a ticket to WordCamp Portland 5 years ago. Since then, it’s become my favorite platform for both serious development and rapid prototyping. WordPress has been at the core of everything from corporate websites to Facebook apps to slideshows; I have yet to find something I can’t do with it!

For the past couple of years, though, my focus has been on polishing my skills in different software paradigms and languages. But I’ve never abandoned WordPress – I stay active by speaking at WordCamps, working with the core development team, and answering questions on the WordPress Stack Exchange.

Video & Discussion: Enterprise Class WordPress

Jake Goldman on August 25, 2012 • 1 Comment

Enterprise Class WordPress is a look at what it means to tackle web projects for really big organizations using WordPress. The talk highlights tools and resources for enterprise implementations, marketing tactics and resources for pursuing large scale clients, and even takes a hard look at what our platform needs to do better (multilingual). Above all, it explores how we, as a community, can better pursue large businesses and make WordPress not just the #1 web publishing platform for small to medium sized organizations, but the #1 platform for large scale implementations.

Meaningful conversation and education about WordPress in enterprise is really critical for ushering in the next stage of WordPress’s growth, which is why I’ve taken this conversation to a few WordCamps in the last few months. I debuted the talk in Orange County, but the Boston version was the first to make it up to WordPress.tv. You can also see the standalone slides from the original version (which has evolved a bit).

Helen Hou-Sandi on August 22, 2012

This weekend will bring Zack and I to the Midwest, where we’ll be representing 10up at WordCamp Chicago. Not only are we excited to both be on semi-familiar stomping grounds, but we’ll be bringing you two brand new talks! Zack will be presenting “Grokking the WordPress Object Cache: Getting a Handle on the WP_Object_Cache Class“, an absolute must for developers and anybody else who cares about performance or the deeper innards of WordPress. I will be giving a talk entitled “How to Sneak Your Way Into Being a Rockstar WordPress Developer When Everyone Thinks You’re a Designer“, which, despite ironically being in the designer track, is about how I got involved with contributing to WordPress and how you can, too, whether or not you’re a developer-type. We’re excited to be at DePaul in the beautiful neighborhood of Lincoln Park, and we hope to see you there!

Jake Goldman on August 20, 2012 • 1 Comment

This weekend I’m heading to New Mexico for the first time for WordCamp Albuquerque. In addition to continuing the conversation about WordPress in enterprises, I’m looking forward to participating in a panel on Making a Living as a Designer or Developer with WordPress. Judging by the communication so far with speakers and attendees, this looks to be an incredibly well organized and planned camp. If you’re headed to Albuquerque, be sure to say hi this weekend!

Opening a new tab or window: usability considerations

Taylor Dewey on August 14, 2012 • 5 Comments

Have you ever asked your web developer to open a link in a new tab or window? Generally, this is accomplished by adding a target="_blank" attribute to a link. Let’s consider the usability implications.

The rationale is almost always founded in a desire to keep the audience engaged with your content longer, or a concern about usability (for example, keeping the reader losing his or her bearings). The overwhelming finding from user experience researchers*, however, is that new windows/tabs should be avoided when simply opening new web pages. However, there are some appropriate use cases: opening a non-HTML document (web page) like a large image, video, audio, or other media, or to avoid interrupting an important linear process like a checkout. Even with these exceptions, however, there are friendlier alternatives like tool-tips and lightboxes.

In fact, the target="" attribute was actually deprecated (being phased out) from the HTML specifications until HTML5. As of HTML5, the W3C guidelines stipulate that it is no longer deprecated because it is deemed “useful in Web applications, e.g. in conjunction with iframe.”

on August 14, 2012

I’ll be attending the 501 Tech Club monthly meeting this Thursday, August 16 from 5:30PM – 7:30PM at The Rhode Island Foundation in Providence. In addition to mingling with some local non-profit tech leaders, I’ll be serving as one of the panel members for the “Ask An Expert, A Group Problem Solving Salon” panel slated to kick off around 6PM. The meeting will be informal and is designed to connect non-profits with tech experts who can lend insight on how to use online marketing tools to further organizational and fundraising goals. I’ll be fielding questions on how non-profits can better leverage their websites as part of their larger digital strategies. Hope to see you there!

Jake Goldman on August 13, 2012

We might tell our clients to be serious about social media, and we might even build next generation websites structured entirely around social media. But we’ve been so busy helping clients that it wasn’t until tonight that we started getting serious about our own social strategy. We now own @10up on Twitter – the official place for 10up news and insights. In addition, we’ve launched our Facebook fan page, where you’ll find team photos you won’t find anywhere else. Of course, you also can continue to follow me at @jakemgold for unique 10up insights and news, and the team 10up list for a peek into our psyche. Be sure to let us know what you think – at those locations!

Reflections: WordCamp San Francisco & 10up’s Annual Meeting

Taylor Lovett on August 11, 2012 • 1 Comment

Last weekend I had a blast attending WordCamp San Francisco, the original and largest WordCamp. For the price of one incredibly cheap entry ticket (well, plus travel from my home base in Washington DC…), I saw interesting speakers, ate great food, met friendly people, listened to live jazz, and was given complimentary WordPress gear. The conference was filled with WordPress users, enthusiasts, developers, and everyday people who just wanted to learn more about the platform, bonded by an affection and appreciation for the open-source WordPress project. Tied in with our annual company meeting, all of team 10up was flown into San Francisco for the purpose of attending the WordCamp and having some time for team bonding.

The most anticipated WordCamp event was, of course, Matt Mullenweg’s “State of the Word” – a light-hearted expression of his aspirations for and reflections on the current and future state of WordPress. As a web developer and plugin maker, Matt’s thoughts on unit tests for plugins stood out. Matt underscored the importance of elevating the quality of plugins in the official repository; units tests would be a great way to start this process off.

Bates College wins eduStyle Judged & People’s Choice “best site” award

Jake Goldman on August 3, 2012

Last summer, we had the privilege of collaborating with the brilliant designers at Tellart and the IT team at Bates College to rebuild the college’s website on WordPress. Our mission was to build a durable, modular framework that would balance the consistency and unique features envisioned by Tellart with some department personalization and a clean administrative experience consistent with the needs of each departments (apparently, Food Services didn’t understand why there were sports scores; food fights are not scored). We were proud to hand off just that framework to the talented developers at Bates who ran with it.

Today, I learned that the project won both the “Judged” and “People’s Choice” category for “Best Overall Website” – the top category – in the 2012 eduStyle Awards. Bates was also nominated for “Best Home Page” – the second highest honor – which it won the “People’s Choice” award for. The awards, in their 5th year, celebrate the best work in college and university websites.

Tammy Hart joins 10up

on August 2, 2012 • 8 Comments

“Howdy ya’ll!” I’m the new girl that hails from the South by way of Alabama and Oklahoma. Don’t let my country girl roots give you the wrong idea; I’m a geeky introvert that spends most of my time wrangling code and producing original user interface designs from the comfort of my air conditioned office space. When I’m not hunkered over my keyboard working on my latest project, I can be found playing wife to my husband of 11 years and mom to our three daughters.

I’ve been in the business of creating websites for over 7 years, much of that time spent working for myself and honing my craft. My years as a freelancer have fostered an appreciation for both creative design and solid coding. I am passionate about pixel perfection and love to see a project from blank canvas to final launch.

WordPress is my favorite playground. I’ve designed custom themes and plugins for clients, and released free themes and plugins for the WordPress community. I’ve spoken at over a dozen events, most of which were WordCamps, and have taught classes on blogging and building websites with WordPress.

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