CodeWorks '12 Conference Tour
25 Sep - 12 Dec 2012 at Multiple

Enjoyed this one - some great examples of usability "fails". Even though it wasn't too "techy", it was a nice review of the basic we all need to know.

This was a good overview of Lithium for someone who didn't know much about it. However, I agree with the other commenters that you need a few code examples (or maybe just one) to show an actual "application" (even a simple one). Something that highlights a strength of Lithium would be great.

Excellent presentation. Very much down to earth and in the right amount of detail. I also like the examples given toward the end. I think you have also done a very good job of presenting in such a way that forces the audience to participate, and that is always a good thing.

from Codeworks Philly: I thought you did well, it is difficult to pitch someone else's product for sure, but I definitely like the idea of not focusing so much on the syntax. I would suggest you consider spending some more time giving the outline of how the framework implements MVC, and maybe if you have to have code in it, pick a couple of things that illustrate the ease of use (maybe the Facebook API or something). The other thing I would suggest is that since you are taking Lithium on the road for the developers, that problem you mentioned of all the documentation being spread out needs to be addressed, even if just putting all the resources in one place from where they can be accessed.

Good information on your Philly presentation. Would like to see a little more about the CLI part of it. Actually a good spin off topic would be to talk about why using CLI for maintenance and other related tasks is better than using a browser accessible page. Another thing that might be helpful for Silex is a diagram that kind of shows the overall flow through the framework

Took away some great knowledge from this one, thanks for putting it together.

This seemed more like "What is a Framework?" than "An Introduction to Lithium". I didn't feel that it really distinguished Lithium from any other framework, aside from an emphasis on how non-central the documentation is. A little more focus on what Lithium does better than other frameworks, or what it does well, would be helpful. Overall, the impression I got was "Mainstream frameworks do this, and Lithium does too" on almost every point, which just makes it seem like it's a "yet another" project.

I definitely enjoyed this talk, and it reaffirmed much of my understanding of usability. One thing I'd like to add: most of us as developers are "hidden in the back" and don't necessarily interact with our end users. Find out who does - Customer Support, Sales, etc - because I can guarantee if there's usability issues with your site, they've heard about them many times. They also may be familiar with "User Personas" that you haven't considered.

I once deployed a combination social/e-commerce site in a hobby market, where the typical person interested in the hobby is male, aged 13 to 30. What we found from talking to our Customer Support staff though, was that while the social aspects were used by our expected audience, the store itself was frequently used by their mothers, grandmothers, wives - people who weren't involved in the hobby at all, and didn't really understand how the products were organized in the store. We got the mothers of a few local customers involved in usability testing and their feedback almost *immediately* improved the bottom line.