Form Function & Class 7 Event Report
by Benedict Viernes
Form Function & Class (or FFC) is an annual web design conference organized by the Philippine Web Designers Organization. Inspired by the 3 elements of a website, <form> (HTML), function() (JavaScript), and class (CSS), the conference aims to share important and up-to-date knowledge of web design and development to professionals and students alike.
On its 7th year, FFC was held on October 22–23, 2016 at the Hive Hotel in Quezon City. Over 300 guests from various industries, cities, and countries listened to talks given by local & international industry leaders. The first day consisted of hour-long talks and panels, while the second day was a full-day masterclass.
Day One: Conference
The morning sessions covered user experience & user interface design by speakers Sam Lorraine Chan (Using Stories to Design Interfaces) and Kendra Schaefer (Designing Cross-Cultural UI). Sam explained how crafting an intricate storyboard of how one uses a website can help in planning a user-friendly interface, while Kendra gave tips on creating interfaces for foreign cultures.
Before taking a lunch break, there was also a Business of Design panel, tackling the most common career and industry issues faced by web professionals today. Answering and sharing their insight were Jason Torres, Lindsey Grande, Russell Vergara, and Angela Obias.
Besides their generous contributions to conference swag, raffle items, & discounts, several FFC7 sponsors did lightning talks, namely: Hitesh Agrawal of Human Factors International, Julie Bulaklak of Pangalan/Z, and Kindred Pasaña of Aelogica.
The afternoon sessions continued with Mika Aldaba on designing for data-driven documents, followed by Lester Cruz on branding, who tackled how people understand and are affected by it. Then, Chris Lienert taught important don’ts in crafting web forms. The last speaker of the day, Sacha Greif, deconstructed state management in JavaScript.
To close out the day, there was another panel with the speakers to answer more questions about their talks. After rounding up the audience for a class picture, the FFC after-party was held later in the evening at 77 Bar and Restaurant.
Day Two: Masterclass
On October 23rd was the FFC Masterclass, where Holger Bartel talked about optimizing websites to improve performance and load times. There he shared different tools that can assess & pinpoint areas of improvement in order to decrease load times and increase overall performance.
There were also activities where the participants tried out these tools and presented assessments on different websites. The whole-day Masterclass also addressed questions beyond the initial scope of the talk gave more information regarding performance and optimization.
Form Function & Class 7 was a must-not-miss web design & development experience, covering critical topics and skills for web designers today.
We’d like to thank everyone who supported FFC 7 and we hope to see you again in future events by the Philippine Web Designers Organization!
Form Function & Class 7 was made possible by the following partners: UST CODEC, UST TomasinoWeb, La Salle Computer Society, UST ISS, Pangalan.com / Z.com, Human Factors International, Philippine Center for Creative Imaging, Aelogica, Balsamiq, .design, Axure, Sketch, Teradoor, Zeplin, Pragmatic Bookshelf, A Book Apart, Skillshare, Canva, WhenInManila.com, ABS-CBN Lifestyle, Uber, Stickermule.
Words by Benedict Viernes. Photos by UST ISS, LSCS, UST CODEC.
