Styling React For Reuse

We've all installed a third-party component that fit our functional needs, only to sacrifice design, hours, and css elegance getting it "close enough". Using real-world examples, we'll explore how to use your preferred css approach to develop widely-customizable components without causing pain.

Slides: http://styling-react-for-reuse.surge.sh

'Forbidden Planet' Cured my Imposter Syndrome

Come with me on an adventure with a heroic robot, a mad scientist, a feminist, a pilot, and our monster: imposter syndrome. Let me share how a sci-fi movie from 1956, starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen, taught me how to recognize imposter syndrome not as the monster hellbent on ruining my romance with an ever-evolving frontend ecosystem, but as a tool to prevent burnout.

A11y: The sprint-filler way

We see so much information about incorporating accessibility (or a11y) features, but the task seems so daunting, or just not that pressing. Why is a11y important? Where do you get started? What are the quick wins that will give you the biggest bang for your buck? How can we break this down into smaller, sprint-filler-sized pieces? I will answer these questions, share some resources, and discuss the importance of why everyone should focus on a11y. Though this talk is more focused on web and mobile, there are topics discussed that reach far beyond those platforms. Developers, designers, managers, and more can learn how to take the overwhelming task and turn them into smaller, more accessible ones.

Weaving Tapestries of Code

Yarns, fibers, and fabrics. You have more in common with the weavers of yesteryear than you realize. In this expedition into the past of fiber arts, we'll explore how our coding art is the continuation of our ancestors at the loom, how you can learn lessons from their patterns, and maybe a thing or two about that nice sweater you're wearing.

I'll share stories about how fiber arts influenced some technological advances that we take for granted. Cryptography (knitting encoded messages into sweaters), mathematics (making three-dimensional shapes impossible any other way), and computing (the first programs were on 80-thread-wide wooden punch cards for Jaquard looms). I want to show users how fiber arts still share deep parallels to modern coding by creating a React app using a knitting pattern as a spec.