Training for humans
Choose from the training courses below or commission a custom course for your staff, combining elements of other courses.
Workshops can be one hour, half a day, or one day, and delivered remotely or in person.
For marketing teams & entrepreneurs
Maintaining your website
Most people can use the tools provided by web hosting platforms, but this course will teach you:
- how to use them to make sure that your website can be viewed on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices,
- how to add your brand colours to your WordPress website,
- how to use and customize WordPress blocks,
- how to make your website findable by search engines, and
- how to make your website accessible to visually-impaired and hearing-impaired users.
This training is part of all the website packages available from Carnelian Web Services.
Creating effective content
Have you ever looked at a wall of text on a web page and thought, “Life’s too short to read all that”?
This course will teach you how to:
- write for the web,
- create crisp, engaging content for your website,
- write in a consistent style and tone,
- ensure that your content is optimized for search engines.
For product managers & planners
Using Trello for project planning
I used Trello to plan our wedding, and I have used it to plan projects and events. In this course, I pass on tips and tricks for using Trello as a lightweight event or project planning tool.
User stories and personas
The target audience of your website, products, and services can be described by personas, which are a model of the type of person who might use your products. These help you to decide how to organize your website, and how to create content and features that meet your business goals.
This course covers the process of writing user stories and personas; how to develop personas from use cases; how to write an effective user story, epic, spike, and bug report; and how to integrate user stories with development.
Agile methodologies
Have you ever made an incredibly detailed plan, only to discover that everything changed and it was hard to keep track of? Agile planning allows you to create a list of tasks that gets prioritized and can be changed when your customers’ requirements change.
Learn about the different Agile methodologies available (Scrum, Kanban, ScrumBan, Smart / ADP), and which is the best fit for your team.
For designers and developers
Introduction to usability
Have you ever stared at a screen on a machine, completely baffled by which button you’re supposed to press next? Then you’ve encountered poor usability. Usability is the art of making a website or system easy and intuitive to use, and it’s often the difference between people sticking around to find out more about your product or service, and giving up and looking elsewhere.
Learn about the basics of user experience, accessibility, user interfaces, information architecture, branding, design patterns, tone of voice, progressive disclosure, plain language, localization and internationalization.
Cascading Style Sheets
Improve your CSS with this course on the underlying concepts and principles of CSS, and gain hands-on experience with CSS coding for styling your website.
Migrating to TypeScript
Find out about the business benefits of migrating to TypeScript, how to migrate your React JS site to TypeScript (either manually or automatically) and how to build unit tests in TypeScript. The first half of the course is suitable for product managers; the second half is aimed at developers.
For everyone
Demystifying DEI
Confused by the acronyms? Still learning about pronouns, land acknowledgements, how to support 2SLGBTQIA employees, and other social justice issues? This course will explain these concepts in a safe and friendly way, suitable for all levels of understanding. We will also introduce the concept of JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, inclusion).
Being an ally for 2SLGBTQIA+ people
You may be aware that there’s a rising tide of misinformation, hate, and bad legislation directed at trans and nonbinary people. It’s more important than ever to stand up for marginalized groups.
This course will cover:
- commonly-used terms for gender and sexual diversity,
- how to support 2SLGBTQIA employees and colleagues, and other social justice issues,
- pronouns,
- JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, inclusion)
This course will explain these concepts in a safe and friendly way, suitable for all levels of understanding.
Can’t see the exact course you need? I can develop custom courses, tailored to your requirements, based on any of the themes described on this page. Do get in touch to discuss your requirements.
About the trainer
I have a postgraduate certificate in education from King’s College London (UK), and many years’ experience of training, both in formal and informal settings.
I have developed and delivered many IT training courses which were highly rated by participants, as well as providing support to other teams in the migration of their websites, mentoring early-career colleagues, and delivering short presentations to people on my team.
I have been a web developer for most of the last 25 years, and I am also a writer, blogger, and communicator. I build bridges between teams and across different job functions.
I have been involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for 25 years, and have written three books about 2SLGBTQIA inclusion. I am part of the 2SLGBTQIA community.
Most Inclusive Collaborator award in 2023
Got questions?
Feel free to reach out.