Steven Word

As the demands placed on the web continue to rapidly expand, businesses will move away from a browser-centric and siloed internet presence towards more pervasive and multichannel digital experiences.  Integrations across a larger set of technologies will become dominant with emphasis on user expectations for security, personalization, and cross-device utilization.

Modern organizations will continuously develop, deploy, and undergo change and the demand for a centralized content hub will only become more critical. WordPress, with 30% of the web’s audience listening, is positioned to be the solution of choice for this hub. Through integrations with emerging technologies such as voice assistants, chatbots, IoT devices, and AR/VR, WordPress has the potential to manage and push content outside of the browser and through this impending evolution.

In this session, we will explore the array of technologies entering these new spaces and discuss how to prepare your business practices and development teams for the next iteration of the web. We’ll focus on new market opportunities, possible product ideas, and how to leverage cloud services to mature your websites into future-ready digital experiences, powered by WordPress.

WP Engine is sponsoring Pizza and soft drinks In addition to providing the WPATX Advanced Developers with a great classroom environment. We look forward to you joining this discussion. Bring your laptops and your questions.

BUILDING BULLETPROOF SOFTWARE THAT IS READY FOR THE MASSES

What distinguishes good WordPress development from great WordPress development? What tools can I use to improve my development process? How do I make my code extensible for future adopters? Why should I bother with following the coding standards and best practices? Will my software scale? How can I ensure my code will perform in the wild?

This crash course session will dive head-first into answering these questions as we explore the development practices of professional WordPress developers. Through exposure to tooling and popular development workflows, you will become familiar with the best practices from the industry. Geared towards creators of all skill levels, this session will help you build confidence when developing with the web’s most popular content management system.

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“Design for the Majority” is the second dictum in the WordPress philosophy. Repeating this mantra is simple but living it presents a series of challenges for designers and developers alike. Demographic statistics and personality studies indicate that individuals with careers in software development differentiate from the general populations tested in key areas associated with deductive reasoning, creativity, and compassion.

As makers, we have a responsibility to understand our users. We are experts in our field ­­wielding the power to influence the design and experience of 23% of the web. In our mission to “democratize publishing on the web,” we need to routinely examine our global audience and ensure we are meeting their needs in addition to our own.

This session will introduce techniques for approaching empathy in software creation and will identify the opportunities for growth that result from the adoption of compassionate and conscientious development practices. We will delve into the hiring methodology of forward­thinking companies, such as Etsy, to see how they are better connecting with their customers by increasing diversity amongst their programmers. This presentation will also propose tactics for discovering personal psychological preferences, and in turn, how to utilize individualized strengths to build software with the power to emotionally impact users.

When we publish software, we are communicating with the world. Through acknowledgement, introspection, and the direction of others, we can positively impact the lives of people we’ll never meet ­­ people that will never know of us or speak our names. The empathetic way is never the easy way, but it is the only way to create software that is truly for the people.