London .NET March 2024 with James Bender and Maria-Assumpta Ukaefu

Join us at Trainline's offices in Holborn for our March 2024 Meetup. Maria-Assumpta Ukaefu will be joining to talk about building fake websites to study cybersecurity awareness, and James Bender will be talking about creating a design language for your websites using Tailwind CSS.

Maria-Assumpta Ukaefu: Addressing Online Fraud: Exploring Fake Websites and Demographics

In today's digital landscape, there's a constant struggle against scammers who seize every opportunity to deceive. Due to a lack of awareness, many individuals have fallen victim to this escalating threat, despite the availability of some protective measures.

To delve into how demographics influence the ability to detect fake and potentially fraudulent online shopping platforms, similar to popular sites like eBay, I conducted research, created two identical shopping sites, and invited participants to identify the counterfeit one.
The outcomes yielded fascinating insights, and I'm eager to unveil my research findings.

Maria holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and is on track to receive a Master of Science in Advanced Computer Science. Her professional experience spans technology and the financial services sectors. Her expertise extends to programming languages such as C# and Python, with experience in Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server database management systems, and she is currently enhancing her skills in data analytics. Based in Gravesend, Kent, she dedicates time to reading about healthy lifestyle practices, and motherhood, and offering support to women in the tech industry.

James Bender: Hey Web Developers, Use Tailwind CSS to Create a Design Language and Get Back to Coding!

As a web developer, I have spent most of my career struggling with UX. While libraries like SASS and Bootstrap have made CSS easier, it can still be a nightmare to get that picture in your head onto the screen the way you want it. But what about that picture in your head? What is a “good” color palette? How should my page elements be spaced out? And what about all these font faces and sizes? And once you’ve figured that all out, you need to worry about things like responsiveness and accessibility. If you’re working on a team, how do you ensure everyone is on the same page (no pun intended) with the look and feel of the site? It can all seem overwhelming. And you end up feeling like you spend more time messing with the “look” of your web page than you do working on the functionality of your application.

As a design-challenged web developer, I have been there. I have felt this pain. The good news is that there is a solution. In this session, I’ll show you how I used Tailwind CSS, a little design knowledge, and a small upfront investment in time to create a design language for my applications. This language is easy to use, can be tailored for different projects/clients, and helps keep a consistent look and feel across your application. Let’s finally tame the “design monster” and get back to coding!

James is the Lead Application Architect at INSPYR Solutions and runs their Application Services practice. He has been in software development for over 20 years, and his clients have included government entities, financial services companies, healthcare companies, and professional sports teams. He writes a lot of JavaScript stuff, mostly React, and Node (Express, Apollo), he used to write a lot of .NET stuff, he wrote a book about TDD, and he's on Twitter @JamesBender.