If you’d like to check out the slides, here they are:

Effective & Efficient Design with CSS3 (PDF, 1.7 mb)

Here are several links to related resources that I couldn’t put in the slides but which you might find useful.

Beginner CSS3 Articles

• Start Using CSS3 Today: Techniques and Tutorials
• Modern CSS Layouts: The Essential Characteristics
• Modern CSS Layouts, Part 2: The Essential Techniques
• Prefix or Posthack

Benefits of CSS3

• CSS3 and Veer navigation
• How to: Get CSS3 box-shadow and border-radius accepted as a viable option at your workplace

Media Queries

• A tale of two viewports – part two
• The viewport metatag (Mobile web part 1)
• The orientation media query
• Detecting device size & orientation in CSS
• Designing for the Retina Display (326ppi)
• Protofluid

Flexible Layouts

• 70+ essential resources for creating liquid and elastic layouts
• Flexible Web Design: Creating Liquid and Elastic Layouts with CSS

Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about my book, Stunning CSS3: A Project-based Guide to the Latest in CSS, head on over to www.stunningcss3.com. That’s where the example files for the media query site I showed during my presentation will eventually be hosted. For now, check out the CSS used on the site to see a wide variety of CSS3 techniques in use.

• My great friend Stephanie (Sullivan) Rewis speaking about great tools to make CSS3 development easier and how to make many CSS3 effects work in a wider variety of browsers and devices.
• Nicole Sullivan explaining how she optimized Facebook’s massive CSS file. (I’m so curious to hear about this!)
• Estelle Weyl teaching how to develop CSS3 and HTML5 for iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. (It’s awesome how many new techniques you can use.)

Plus five more sessions (including my own on ways to improve efficiency and usability with CSS3). Want to “attend”? I have a couple options for you.

One, you can still buy a ticket for $179, plus get 10% off by using discount code CSSGILLENWATER when you sign up.

Two, you can win a ticket! To enter the contest, tweet “I want to go to the #CSSsummit on July 28. Follow @zomigi and retweet to win. Learn more at http://bit.ly/csZgT9.” Do this by this Sunday morning at 8 am Eastern US time. I’ll pick the winner immediately afterward and notify him or her through Twitter (which is why I need you to follow me).

My presentation was titled “Improving Efficiency and Usability with CSS3.” I talked about how CSS3 is about more than making things look pretty (though it’s really good at that too). Many CSS3 techniques can reduce your development times, decrease page loading times, improve usability, and increase the adaptability of your pages to different devices (including iPads and iPhones). I talked about which pieces of CSS3 you can add to your web sites right now and how they might benefit your projects in tangible ways.

If you’d like to check out the slides, here they are:

Improving Efficiency and Usability with CSS3 (PDF, 1.4 mb)

Here are just a few links to related resources that I couldn’t put in the slides but which you might find useful:

• Start Using CSS3 Today: Techniques and Tutorials
• Modern CSS Layouts: The Essential Characteristics
• Modern CSS Layouts, Part 2: The Essential Techniques
• CSS3 and Veer navigation
• How to: Get CSS3 box-shadow and border-radius accepted as a viable option at your workplace
• Prefix or Posthack
• Taking Advantage of HTML5 and CSS3 with Modernizr
• Targeting the iPhone 4 Retina Display with CSS3 Media Queries
• The orientation media query
• Detecting device size & orientation in CSS

I’ll be giving an expanded version of this presentation at both the 2nd Annual CSS Summit online conference on July 28 and at Web Directions USA in Atlanta on September 24.

Registration for the CSS Summit is only $149, but you can get 10% off by using the discount code CSSGILLENWATER when you sign up.

I’ve heard a lot of complaining about how SXSW Interactive isn’t what it used to be, it’s too big, you can’t run into your friends, you can’t get into parties, etc. Since this was my first time, I have nothing to compare it to, but I can say that I was still able to meet a lot of the people I wanted to and make some really great connections with smart, talented people in the web design industry. My situation is a little bit different than most people who attend SXSW, however; I’m an author and speaker in addition to being a working web designer, so I think I do stand to get work in the writing and speaking areas of my career as a result of networking at SXSW. If I wasn’t an author and speaker, though, I don’t think SXSW would have been as beneficial in building my professional network. I do see how it’s both too insular and big for being as effective at that as other conferences or events could be.

The first couple days, I had a hard time getting into any sessions—or at least any I really cared about. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the quality of the presentations I did see and didn’t feel like I was learning much. But after the first couple days, I finally got into some really excellent sessions that gave me new ideas for things to try in my projects and career. I’ve felt like I’m in a bit of rut lately, since I haven’t had much client work to do, and have felt discouraged about my career. But after seeing some of these great sessions, I feel re-energized about what I do, the value it has, and where I can take it. That’s probably the most valuable takeaway from SXSW for me, so if you’re trying to decide whether to go to SXSW next year, that may be a good reason to decide yes.

My own workshop, “CSS3 Design with HTML5,” went pretty well, I think. I got many really nice compliments on it from people who were there, as well as some helpful feedback that I think will improve some of my upcoming speaking engagements. I assume that a podcast of it will be up on the SXSW site at some point, but I haven’t been able to find it yet. I’ll let you know! In the meantime, you can view the demo site for the workshop at www.sxswcss3.com.

I had a lot of fun going out to bars and parties and such, but I also managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of Austin tourism. On my last evening, I went down to Holy Cacao for some cake balls. The peanut butter ones were amazing. The chocolate ones were quite good too. The others I tried were rather unsweet for something that I expected would taste incredibly indulgent. But I’m definitely glad I went. I desperately wanted to try their s’mores, but didn’t have time. Next time… (Side note: The owner and her boyfriend were extremely nice—the boyfriend even gave me and my friend a ride back downtown when our cab never showed up!) After going to Holy Cacao, I went to the Congress Avenue bridge to watch the famous bats emerge at dusk. Very cool.

Here are a few tips I would give to SXSW newbies, just based on my own limited experience:

• Stay at a hotel really close to the convention center. Yes, you will pay more, but I think it’s worth it. I can’t imagine having to take a shuttle or other type of transit back to some distant hotel multiple times a day. It was nice being able to quickly go back to my hotel in the middle of the day to rest, grab a snack, or drop off my laptop.
• If cost is an issue for you, leave for home on Tuesday, not Wednesday. There really wasn’t much going on Tuesday, since so many people leave that day and everyone who is still there is exhausted from partying all weekend. It felt really anti-climatic being there on Tuesday. I should have saved myself that one extra night of hotel cost and left a day early.
• Wear comfy shoes.
• Pack a tiny flashlight so you can sneak into your room at 4am and get ready for bed without waking up your roommate.
• Buy some food (preferably healthy stuff) the first day you’re there so you don’t have to eat out every single meal. Bring a water bottle along with you.
• The sessions on the first two or three days can be really busy, and the popular ones have lines, with not everyone being able to get in to see them. Get to these 15 minutes early to ensure yourself a spot.
• If you want to go to the parties, plan to get there really early, and you may still have to wait in line. I went to almost no parties, but instead had a really fun time hanging out at bars and restaurants with my friends and new people I had met. We had some really great conversations, both geek and non-geek related, and I had a great time. Thanks, people who hung out with me! You know who you are.
• Talk to everyone. Try to limit your time sitting silently behind your screen. I’m an introvert, so it was a little hard for me to strike up conversations with random people standing around me, but I did it and I’m so glad I did. Again, I had some fantastic conversations, both ones that were just plain enjoyable and a couple that might actually help my career.
• You can’t go to everything, so try to prioritize the things that you won’t have an opportunity to do at any other time. For instance, a certain panel may sound really interesting, but if you have the chance to go to lunch with some new people and talk about interesting and career-benefiting stuff, do that instead. You can always watch or listen to the panel later.

Final fun fact: I thought North Carolina (where I live) was obsessed with pork. Turns out Texas is far more obsessed. There was bacon and/or sausage in everything and many signs gleefully celebrating this fact. I have finally eaten bacon chocolate chip cookies. I also ate this delicious, ridiculous monstrosity involving a bacon-laced waffle cone filled with guacamole, pico de gallo, beef taquitos, and tortilla chips. Texas, I salute you.

Designing CSS Layouts for the Flexible Web (PDF, 5.5 mb)

Yes, it’s a big file—there are a lot of graphics in the PowerPoint. But I didn’t want to compress it very much and have all those graphics look distorted, since examining the graphics is the main point of the presentation.

There’s a little CSS in the presentation, but if you want more in-depth tutorials on the techniques alluded to in the presentation, I’ve written up many of them on this blog:

• Foreground images that scale with the layout
• Hiding and revealing portions of images
• Creating sliding composite images
• Space images out to match text height

Registration for The CSS Summit is still just $139 for an individual and $439 for a meeting room (meaning, you can get a bunch of people together in one place and all attend the conference) through July 3. Use the code CSSZOEMG when registering to get $25 off. A percentage of the proceeds will go to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association.

First, I’m participating in the “virtual” conference called The CSS Summit on July 18. Since this conference is entirely online, everyone from across the globe can attend. There are some great speakers lined up. I’ll be giving a very similar talk as the one I did at the most recent Voices That Matter: Web Design Conference, so if you’ve downloaded those slides and now want the notes and audio to go with them, this is your chance!

Registration for The CSS Summit is just 139 bucks for an individual and 439 for a meeting room. Use the code CSSZOEMG when registering to get $25 off. A percentage of the proceeds from every Summit will go to charity, and this time around the recipient will be the Children’s Organ Transplant Association.

Much closer to home, I’m speaking at the UNC Webmasters meeting on June 4 (tomorrow!) in Chapel Hill, NC. If you’re affiliated with UNC, please stop by and introduce yourself! Again, it’s a similar presentation to the one I did at Voices That Matter, but much more informal and Q&A oriented.

Finally, I’ll be speaking at a Carolina Adobe User Group meeting later this month. I’ll have more details about that soon.

Designing CSS Layouts for the Flexible Web (PDF, 5 mb)

Yes, it’s a big file—there are a lot of graphics in the PowerPoint. But I didn’t want to compress it very much and have all those graphics look distorted, since examining the graphics is the main point of the presentation.

If you’re ready to get beyond the graphics and start working on the actual CSS techniques alluded to in the presentation, I’ve written up many of them on this blog:

• Foreground images that scale with the layout
• Hiding and revealing portions of images
• Creating sliding composite images
  

If you register before March 12, you get $200 off your registration. Plus, use the code WBASPKR to get an extra $200 off, for a total of $400 off.

The slides PDF has quite a large file size, due to all the graphics in the PowerPoint, but I didn’t want to compress it very much and have all those graphics look distorted.

Designing CSS Layouts for the Flexible Web (PDF, 6.9 mb)