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I thought I would post this up whilst the event was still fresh in the mind. Firstly, bang for buck, this was the best I have been to in the last 3 years. That includes the Future of Web Design and @media. The range and quality of speakers were first class, all of them were interesting, not all appealed, but they all provoked an element of inquiry and from any web event that’s exactly what you want.
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First off, Jared Spool, ‘the Dawning of the age of Experience’. As an entertaining show opener, he really is the man, he even does card tricks and usability gags, what a guy! He stated the importance of building a multi-disciplinary team, how that effects the quality of work and gives a holistic approach to designing the best user experience. All really important areas, and when sitting next to your board director you really are glad that somebody so highly regarded , states his case so plainly. Great start….
Peter Merholz, ‘Experience Strategies’, again such a good presentation, continuing on from where Jared left off in a seamless switch of style but a progression of the same content. Peter introduced us to the pyramid of experience. It looks like this;
He made the point that we have a tendency as designers to overly complicate our work. The pinnacle of the pyramid is what is most important. The iPod technology is not the best, the features are not vast but the experience is a great one (helped by iTunes and iStore) – hence the success. By stripping back the solution we have come up with, to the core of the problem, we are more likely to produce an elegant design solution. Get rid of the excess fat around the product. Target it and make sure you have a vision that is clearly defined. Or ’stars to sail your ship by’. These stars of course should be defined in good information design, to which I remind you that Peter is on the board of the IA institute.
The importance of collaboration and multi-disciplinary teams was also made. Mmmmm, I can see where we are going with this. All good, onto Leisa Reichelt.
Leisa presented, ‘Waterfall Bad, Washing Machine Good’, and in many ways was the most important talk given. In it, she outlined the problems of waterfall methodology, how it was never really advocated by the man who started it (W.W. Royce apparently) and how iterative design is so much better.
Most importantly she showed how Agile (and its numerous flavours) differs from UCD. She highlighted both their pros and cons and by doing so left the presentation where it should be left – as an open ended statement. Neither is a silver-bullet, both have good points, both have bad. To this end I am convinced that there will be a new way forward and I’m determined to work it out. I have a feeling it depends on culture, team dynamics and multiple skill sets. Harness this and a great idea and you get your Apple-like success….
All of these talks also pointed back to the reflective practice of designing, or knowledge-in-action, tacit knowledge, that Schon talks about. This skill is implicit in designing and something that should never be underestimated. Designers do have a great instinct in making great decisions – just look at Jonathan Ive to see that. Of course they need the culture to thrive, and that’s where visionary management helps by creating the right culture.
Ok on to Cameron Moll, I have seen him twice before but he has really improved his presentations. I enjoyed this and his points had a clarity and a purpose that were well researched and interesting. He is a multi-talented guy, no doubt about it.
After that George Oates and Denise Wilton from Flickr and b3ta were on the couch, talking about their projects. Denise was funny and could do stand up I reckon. The site continues to be irreverent and anarchic and her tales of moderating were enjoyable. With Flickr- to be honest I’m bored with the site now. Its kind of like the friends reunited or last minute.com of recent times. Its a photo – sharing site that has done exceptionally well but now what? Well apparently they are about to launch an ‘interestingness’ area for photos around a topic area based on location.
It seems IA is being instilled onto folksonomies. Who would have thought it? Bringing order (being a part of the design process) seems to have even touched the areas of communities where you are not the owner but just the guardian. Still, makes sense to me, and even better for the user who needs to see aboutness for a better experience.
The last one I saw was Matt Webb, is he mad or a genius? This observation was not based entirely on the suit and Jesus sandals combo. His presentation was like a brain dump and left me reeling. All perfectly valid but an A-Z of experiential design in 40 minutes was intense. If he just did one slide – the Experience Stack and explored that, it would have been enough but it was a barrage of cognitive science, HCI and brand building technobabble. I guess some companies love it but it was a tad too much.
I left early to catch a train but a great day out and its given me loads of inspiration for the future. Thanks Clearleft for the effort and the reasonable price.
Tags: Dconstruct 2007
[...] The great thing is that the client identifies with this A3 colour print, they put it on their wall. It defines where they are heading, its ‘the star to sail their ship by’ as Peter Merholz said recently at dConstruct… [...]