As a web designer, Alison Knott wants to dispel the myth that design is about looking good. It’s about effective communication… that works and looks great!
Alison’s career as a print designer turned web geek has seen her give presentations in an unusual blend of creativity, marketing, community and web. As an emerging public speaker, she brings high-octane enthusiasm to her presentations, with a focus on audience involvement.
When not tooting the WordPress horn, she can be found drawing strange portraits in the company of her two parrots in Halifax. She runs the WordPress Halifax Meetup and E3C, a meetup for visual artists.
Alison will be giving a talk entitled “Engage your audience now: purposeful content design for beginners“.
What’s been your best experience with WordPress?
Running a WordPress Meetup! People come in frustrated with something they don’t think they have the power to do or change. A few hours later, they leave more empowered and ready to share what they’ve learned with others. How amazing is that?
Tell us a bit about your WordCamp Ottawa talk.
Design often gets a bad rap of being about looking pretty and following trends. An after-thought to the content presented. But without good design, people will have a hard time engaging with your content. Design is dang important!
My talk is for anyone who wants to see the reasoning behind how key design principles influence how people view content. It’s the intersection of art, science, marketing… and my lame jokes.
What’s your favourite thing about attending WordCamps?
What stands out to me about WordCamp is how well all levels of users and makers jive together in one space. WordCamp embodies (at least to me) what WordPress is at its core – open, evolving and collaborative. Meeting people with lots of differences yet one common element that is WordPress is very humbling.
What’s exciting you about WordPress in 2016?
I run a WordPress Meetup and a few months ago .org started sending a newsletter to us organizers. Now we can draw inspiration from other groups that are highlighted, get ideas for meetup themes, and are kept in the loop with what’s happening with WordPress as it might relate to our attendees. It certainly has helped us stuff some extra ooey-gooey goodness into our meetings!
Recommend one to three people in the WordPress world to follow on social media!
https://twitter.com/wpbeginner – my go-to when I want to point people to more common WordPress questions. Also a great resource to just make sure I’m still up-to-date on the basics.
