Apparently there is a “traveling” web design conference called An Event Apart that will be hitting New Orleans April 24-25 and then Boston, Chicago and others every month or so. Of course it caught my attention since it is going to be in New Orleans. I am not sure if the speakers or topics change by location, but it looks like a pretty interesting set of topics. While most of the geospatial web companies have a pretty good handle on the mix of tech, content and design, I think there is still plenty of room for design in may home brew or tech focused projects. I will be the first to say that most of my web map projects over the last 10 years have been fairly design void (though I thought they were great at the time I was creating them). There is definitely a different aesthetic sense used for cartography than for publication (web or hard copy) design that I have really begun to think about more as I sink back ever further into the cult of Mac. There are a few “good site” and “bad site” design websites out there that you can get ideas from, but I have to say that while it can be a pain in the butt, designing by committee will often produce a more tempered, accessible design than an individual’s personal vision.
Hi there, I’m one of the two founders of An Event Apart. Just wanted to answer your implied question and say that the speaker list does change from city to city, and thus the topics list does as well. (Some speakers repeat, but not many; we try to keep things fresh and up to date.)
If you have any other questions about the show, feel free to ping me about them! (Also, I may have to subscribe to your feed, being kind of a mapping fan myself. Curse you! Too many feeds already!)