I received an email today confirming that one of my topics was selected for the St. Louis Day of .NET conference.

The topic I will be presenting on is a topic for which I am passionate. Passionate seems a little overkill and strange, but let me give you the long story. The web is very prevalent in our lives. Websites are becoming more-and-more user friendly, and user experience design is important to this progress. Elegant designs, intuitive navigation, attractive, usable websites should not be something limited to web designers. In order for a website to achieve its goals, the handoff from web designer to content owner needs to happen. Websites are only as good as their content. The design helps to make the content stick.

So… using DNN should be easy for content managers – the source of content. Web administrators should feel confident in handing off content management responsibilities. This isn’t always the case. I wince coming back six months later to some of the websites we implemented at Engage.

Okay, okay, so what’s my topic?

Maintaining Design Integrity in a CMS with Smart Implementation Techniques

Abstract: Handing off a website to content managers can often be scary for website developers. The users of content management systems are notorious for killing elegant designs. This presentation will review a number of techniques available in DotNetNuke to keep your website looking good while still distributing content management responsibilities. Topics for this presentation include: locking down the rich text editor, skin and container development techniques to prescribe design, and the importance of training your customers on the basics of web site management.