Universities near the cutting edge of web design and development

Published Monday 02 July 2012

Photo by: Sharon Steeples / Flickr

Organised by UKOLN, the JISC-funded centre of expertise in digital information management, the theme for IWMW 2012 was 'Embedding Innovation', especially relevant in these changing times in higher education. Recurrent themes during presentations and sessions were: open data, responsive design and mobile apps.

According to Steve, the 3-day conference was full of interesting discussions with a refreshingly honest undertone.

The organisers did a great job making a conference scale to feel like a workshop, he said.

There was a really good mix of attendees, so discussions included different views and justifications for design choices.

Leading the way in open data

Universities are sometimes considered to be lagging behind in their application of web design and development. However, from the three days of plenary talks and workshop sessions, it's evident that this is not the case, Steve said.

The gap between cutting edge design and what universities are doing is narrowing. For example, responsive design is something that is being implemented by many institutions, and not just being talked about.

When it comes to open data though, Universities are actually leading the way at the moment and there's lots of innovation with mobile apps as well.

Steve himself ran a session on Mobilising Wordpress which looked at using responsive design in Wordpress blogs.

A full description of the workshop session can be found on Steve's blog.

Find out more: http://sboneham.com/blog/2012/06/mobilising-wordpress/