More to post tomorrow.
I’ve got 7 more sessions to post about and will try to get them finished up tomorrow.
Sunday 5pm – Sex and Computational Technology
I went to this session solely because it had the word “teledildonics” in the description. Maybe also a little because the rest of the sessions in that time slot sounded very boring by contrast.
There really isn’t a lot to say here other that it was interesting. Kyle showed off some interesting toys and Violet Blue is just as hot in person as she is on her blog.
SXSW07.INT.2007.03.11.SexAndComputationalTechnology.mp3
Moderator: Amanda Williams , University of California at Irvine
Amanda Williams University of California at Irvine
Violet Blue Blogger, Open Source Sex
Johanna Brewer University of California at Irvine
Kyle Machulis Engineer, Nonpolynomial Labs
Cory Silverberg Author & Educator, Come As You Are & About.com
Sunday 4:00pm – Startup like Ghengis Khan
Sorry, but this was my least favorite session. It had some great potential but Kevin spent way too much time on the history of Khan and not enough time tying in the details to running a startup or project.
Someday I’ll have to do my own version of this idea as a blog entry.
Moderator: Kevin Hale Co-Founder, Infinity Box Inc
Kevin Hale Co-Founder, Infinity Box Inc
Sunday 3:30pm – Las Vegas Design
I thought this was mostly fluff, but the speaker was interesting.
Many of the most popular and interesting cities and web sites weren’t really designed, they just happened. MySpace wan’t designed, it just sort of grew out of an idea and became popular despite it’s often garish appearance. MySpace, like Vegas has abandoned Pure Form and stepped into a world full of mixed media where everything has it’s place and everywhere is that place. Less is a bore.
Familiarity that is a little off is strange and revealing. A lot of familiar things are ignored, yet when it’s altered slightly it becomes interesting again and even tells us a bit more about the reality. For example the half sized statue of liberty with a roller coaster in the background somehow brings more meaning to the real one sitting in New York harbor. (Don’t ask me how though, I’m just repeating what Dan said.)
Now for the part that made sense to me. Vegas is organized around a pattern of activities. The designers spent a great deal of time and money watching people interact with the environment and organized everything to fit that pattern. Pay attention to the minute details and the customers will have a better experience (see what what was said about the water here.) Each level of a great experience should provide a positive enjoyable feedback.
Moderator: Dan Saffer Interaction Designer, Adaptive Path
Dan Saffer Interaction Designer, Adaptive Path
Sunday 11:30am – Short Attention Span – Big Dividends
Wow, this session rocked. Jim and Brendan did a wonderful job of talking about leveraging a short attention span to keep things interesting and productive.
Do things because you can do things. This was the reoccurring theme in this talk. Just do it because you can. Of course, that isn’t to say that you should do everything you can. Just realize that you don’t need any more reason than because you can.
Continual evolution of design and business. Don’t think your design can’t change or that your business has to do the same thing over and over. Switch it up and follow the needs of your customers.
Chase the shiny things. Many times the shiny things bring us to new places, new situations or new relationships. Do everything as well as you can for as long as you can and don’t be afraid to do something half way and leave it.
Dividends are not always monetary. Practice, experience, ideas, reputation and connections are just a few of the dividends that may end up being worth more than money.
Keep a book or store of ideas. Half thought to half finished, keep track of the ideas and projects that you don’t have time or the will to finish. Even if you don’t pick them up later they can be a great inspiration for more ideas that you will finish.
Do it just because you can.
Jim Coudal Pres, Coudal Partners
Brendan Dawes magneticNorth
[update]
The podcast is available here:
Sunday 10am – Using RSS for Marketing
Not as interesting as I’d hoped, but there were some good nuggets of information.
Some of the basic points they made are: Consistent updates, Use RSS to inform your customers, Don’t be too stingy with information, teach your users how to use RSS and update frequently.
Tom Markiewicz CEO, EvolvePoint
Emily Chang Co-founder, Ideacodes
Bill Flitter Chief Mktg Officer, Pheedo Inc
John Jantsch Owner, Duct Tape Marketing
Greg Reinacker CTO/Founder, NewsGator Technologies Inc
Saturday 5pm – Ghost in the Machine
This was a very good session that explored the realm of religious blogs and why the authors write about their beliefs.
I’ve been reading RLP’s (Real Live Preacher) blog for about a year and had just recently heard of the Velveteen Rabbi so it was a real treat to get to hear them talk and say hi.
My only complaint was that the moderator let a couple of he questions run too long, even after it became apparent that they weren’t questions. Other than that it was a good session and I learned a bit about two bloggers in my feed.
I encourage you all to check out the blogs and read a little into each person’s faith.
Moderator: James McNally Proprietor, Consolation Champs
James McNally Proprietor, Consolation Champs
Rachel Barenblat – Velveteen Rabbi
Kevin Lawver – UltraNormal
Hussein Rashid – islamicate
Gordon Atkinson – Real Live Preacher
Saturday 4pm – Ruining User Experience
It’s all about the water. Or more specifically it’s really the small aspects of one’s meal that determine how well you appreciate your waiter. The same holds true for web applications. It’s not how well the app does it’s job but more about how much it annoys you. Any annoyance is a barrier to entry and will keep or drive your users away.LaLa.com was the first example on the chopping block. It requires javascript, doesn’t downgrade at all, and won’t work on mobile browsers. While LaLa was a favorite site of Aaron’s it was would, and most likely has, driven away others who would find it useful but can’t get past the barriers.
When building a web application, start with the no frills set. Be sure everything works and then offer a slightly dressed up version. Cool colors, better layout, and nicer fonts appeal to a lot of people but might hinder a screen reader or phone browser. Be sure they aren’t required for a usable experience. Lastly add the whiz-bang items like ajax, javascript form validation and animations. Again, be sure they don’t get in the way and that they aren’t required.
Usability and accessibility is key. It won’t matter how pretty your site is if people can’t use it they won’t.
Aaron Gustafson Sr Web designer/Developer, Easy! Designs LLC
Sarah Nelson Design Strategist, Adaptive Path
Saturday 3:30pm – Grids are Good
I must have forgot to take a pic during this session so I’ll have to steal one from Mark when he gets his processed.
Grids are Good! Yes, they are. Mark Boulton and Khoi Vinh did a great job of explaining how to layout a web page on a grid. They explained the constraint of the browser width, ad unit sizes, and ways to split the page up into multiple columns and bring those columns together as needed for the design.
Mark Boulton Owner, Mark Boulton Design
Khoi Vinh Design Dir, The New York Times
Saturday 2pm – Web App Autopsy
I was disappointed about this one. It was not at all about examining a dead web application. Instead they looked at 4 popular and successful web apps and examined the numbers behind their success.
The sites presented were Wufoo, BlinkSale, Feedburner, and RegOnline.
All four were based on different web architectures, PHP, Rails, Java, .NET respectively. They spent a lot of time comparing total lines of code, lines of application vs HTML and Javascript, and lines of code in various parts of the code like marketing, billing, support and app. I found most of this pretty boring and given the difference in business and data models not at all surprising.
The rest of the talk was more numbers and yet more numbers. Customer conversion rates, revenue per customer, support questions per 100 customers, and price vs cost analysis. None of it was particularly interesting and most of it was quite dry.
Moderator: Ryan Campbell Co-founder, Infinity Box Inc
Ryan Campbell Co-founder, Infinity Box Inc
Bill Flagg Pres, RegOnline
John Zeratsky Designer, FeedBurner
Josh Williams CEO, Firewheel Design