You don’t have to be a developer or know how to code in order to enjoy these sessions. With opportunities to learn coding basics in unconventional ways, gain a greater understanding of how to test newsroom products and a hands-on session to build your very own chatbot (with no coding involved!), there’s something in this track for any newsroom staffer to improve their skillset.
Take a closer look at our Developer Tools + Tech track:
Everything You Need to Code, You Learned in Kindergarten If you identify as a “math hater” and think you could never learn to program, this session will change your mind! Learn programming concepts through interactive games and activities that will get you out of your chair. Speakers Lindsey Cook, Digital Skills Editor at The New York Times, and Ashlyn Still, Graphics Developer at Reuters, will make sure you leave with a list of resources for starting to program in the language best suited for your needs.
Ensuring Accessibility For News Accessibility can be an afterthought, if it’s even thought of at all. Does your news app meet recommended contrast guidelines for visually impaired users? Can you navigate your page with only a keyboard? Dean Betz, Executive Producer at MSN and Aditi Bhandari, Web Producer at WAMU, will talk about common accessibility pitfalls and best practices.
[RSVP] Learn How to Build an Alexa Skill Alexa, the voice service that powers Amazon Echo, enables customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice. This hands-on session with the Alexa Skills Kit team will teach you how to build new Alexa skills — like the ability to play music, answer general questions, set an alarm or timer and more. Great for developers and non-developers alike. Please note, you must RSVP first in order to attend this session.
Thoughtful Testing: How to Ask the Right Questions in A/B Tests Thoughtful product development requires asking the right questions before you get started. Washington Post Product Manager Angela Wong and Digital Editor Sophie Ho will discuss how to carefully design the parameters of your test using case studies to walk through the difference between quantitative and qualitative data, when you need one or the other and how to test them. This is a great session for product team members, newsroom leaders and anyone with a general interest in how to strategically use indicators from testing, surveys and traffic to inform user experience decisions.
[RSVP] Build-a-Bot Workshop In this hands-on workshop, Quartz Bot Developer & Product Manager John Keefe will teach you how to craft a mildly sophisticated “Ask Me Anything” chatbot and even give it some artificial intelligence! No coding is involved, so no previous experience necessary. But you WILL need to bring a laptop or tablet.
What questions about developer tools and tech do you have that you’d like addressed at ONA17?
You can ask speakers questions ahead of time to help shape the conversation. If you’re curious about an emerging trend, want to know more about a topic or are hoping that speakers will dig into something during their session, now’s your chance to post a question below. We’re thrilled to be using Hearken to make this happen!