We were at WordCamp Porto 2018

Paula Rodrigues – art director –

Most interesting talk:

Case Study – Jornal ECO by WidgiLabs

https://eco.pt/

The guiding principle behind this project was to build an extraordinary relationship with the client, looking for the best solution – not the cheapest one.

In terms of layout there are no surprises; even so, it's a benchmark project, built on atomic design, which strikes me as an excellent principle when it comes to saving resources at the mock-up stage. This principle allows you to reuse "content" – in this specific case called "molecules", in direct reference to the scientific concept: atoms (HTML elements) grouped in a particular way form "molecules" which, when replicated, populate the website in various instances. Several "molecules" make up what is called a "template", but the interesting part is thinking of those molecules as modules you use again and again.

This project is also a good example of how small teams can take on large-scale work – WidgiLabs is a small company and intends to stay that way, treating freelancers as an occasional resource.

Interesting facts about the project

• A small but effective team, organised using the scrum methodology; working in sprints made it possible to manage time allocated vs. time estimated, which in turn allowed them to think about the product as a whole and prioritise features.
• The main requirement of this project was to guarantee maximum productivity for the journalists. With that in mind, an intuitive back office was essential; the choices made also meant the clients had to be educated: flagging up good practice in managing tags on a blog was key to better structuring and maintaining the paper's topics. There's a certain cooperative effort here that makes complete sense for the success of the website. We can implement the components properly, but success is also built on the client's commitment, discipline and judgement.
• Neutralisation: the project set out to neutralise the competition, incorporating every feature found on rival websites.
• Differentiation: the project had to outdo the competition by bringing something new to the table.
• Taking risks is OK!

Key ideas from WordCamp 2018

• Educate the client: a website is an investment. It's comparable to a car – you want to buy the right car, and you know the car will need maintenance. You also want whoever drives it to be a responsible person.
• Not every client is worth keeping.
• A large share of business growth comes from selling to existing clients, or from providing support to existing clients, because website maintenance is fundamental.
• Never underdeliver
• From July 2018, website speed on mobile will become a ranking factor in how Google assesses a website – this helps to reinforce the mobile first idea
• SVG is being used more and more, and matters more and more to a website's speed
• A new market niche: improving website rankings (diagnosis and improvement)
• A product is a potential investment because it earns money on its own, doesn't depend on a team tied up in services, and you can sell it from and to anywhere in the world. The product should be tested, but it's the potential clients who will show you which way to go; good documentation prevents support + support will cost you. It's important to form partnerships and reuse what you've already built. The advice is to split the team: half handles the services, which generate the capacity to invest in the product.
• The current trend is to work less and less – leisure is going to grow sharply and that creates a new paradigm. You can see it in the way we present ourselves socially: wine lover, mother of two. PeerSpots is a startup keeping an eye on emerging tribes and looking to activate those communities, connecting tribes to their spiritual homes and enabling community engagement. These days people don't want to give up the part of them that is their essence. You have to recognise the leisure activity / hobby and build the technology that serves the passion. Example: https://winespots.co/

Worth exploring

Gutenberg editor: this editor will be built into the next major WordPress update, due out later this year (WordPress 5.0). It will be a strong competitor to Visual Composer, with the advantage of being part of the WordPress core. You'll be able to edit various aspects through a dedicated CSS editor, and it lets you create custom modules. You can try the plugin out early here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/

A few references for monitoring / optimising website speed and optimising your work schedule:

https://www.webpagetest.org/

https://gtmetrix.com/

https://varvy.com/pagespeed/

https://updown.io/

https://www.pagerduty.com/ JTNDZGl2JTIwY2xhc3MlM0QlMjJmYi1jb21tZW50cyUyMiUyMGRhdGEtaHJlZiUzRCUyMmh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGd3d3LmplbGx5Y29kZS5wdCUyRmVzdGl2ZW1vcy1uby13b3JkY2FtcC1wb3J0by0yMDE4JTJGJTIyJTIwZGF0YS13aWR0aCUzRCUyMjEwMCUyNSUyMiUyMGRhdGEtbnVtcG9zdHMlM0QlMjIxMCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRmRpdiUzRQ==