Debrief d.Construct

Now that I’m back at work I’ve probably got just enough time to write up my experiences at d.Construct 2006, so here goes…

Firstly, I’d like to say a great big nefarious hello to all the developers and designers I met on the day, and a special hello and thanks to Graham Bancroft, Ben Ward, Steve Marshall and Fatty - it’s nice to put faces to the names at last guys!

I enjoyed most of the presentations although some more than others. I’m not going to review them in depth here - I’ll just outline my thoughts instead. You should definitely listen to the d.Construct 2006 podcasts (although the presentations themselves don’t appear to be live yet) and formulate your own opinions.

The most pleasant surprise, for me, was Jeff Barr’s talk about Amazon’s APIs - I went in expecting nothing but an hour long advert and, although the theme was entirely Amazon based, the content of the talk was pretty educational.

Derek Featherstone’s talk on accessibility was probably of most use since my boss (who also attended) picked up on the potential accessibility nightmares that are JavaScript enhanced interfaces. Nice one Derek; you managed to communicate successfully in one hour what I’ve been failing to outline to him for years! I shall be taking notes on your technique.

Jeremy Keith managed to fire up my desire to muck about with API’s and Microformats over the course of both his talk and the Microformats picnic he hosted in the Brighton Pavilion gardens. Expect to see all kinds of madness incorporated into this site over the coming months (whenever I have time to play). I’m really looking forward to the Microformats themed WSG meetup that Stuart’s planning in the next month or so.

Finally, as expected, Jeff Veen’s talk on designing the complete user experience was, undoubtedly, the best of the presentations on the day. This probably isn’t much of a surprise though, as it’s well known in the industry that Jeff could sell Microsoft products to Mac users (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration but still…).

Once the event had finished we all wandered down to the seafront to attend the excellent after-party at The Terraces on Madeira Drive. It was here that I met up with Graham and gradually got incredibly drunk; which I hadn’t really noticed until buying the train ticket home became a monumental task of applied concentration. Thanks for that Graham - it was a top evening!

So, in summary, the event was excellent; the company outstanding; the knowledge obtained exemplary; the after-party awesome; and the hangover unpleasant. Looking forward to next year!