@ Stef - OmniGraffle - without question
Updates from Dom Murphy RSS
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SXSWi 2008: Closing thoughts
Cut to the chase — SXSWi really blew me away. I cannot recommend the event enough. I only managed to attend 2 days, by the time I had to leave on the Monday I was seriously gutted; a glance through the program for the final 2 days revealed dozens of very interesting talks and events. Fortunately, many of the events are available to download as podcasts from the SXSW site. Wish I could have caught this — at my new favourite Texan billiard hall.
And that really gives you an idea of how great SWXWi really is. It is the most exciting and comprehensive event I've personally attended. What impressed me highly, was the sheer diversity of the schedule and quality of content. A previous conference I attended last year kept referring to web design from 2001 as being ‘back in the day’ and the term Web 3.0 was dropped on several occassions. Yawn.
SXSWi wasn't like that at all — it was refreshing to attend an event with such an open attitude from both the speakers and the audience. Not once did I feel it was trying to be too cool for school, or self referring.
So I've come away from SXSWi utterly inspired and excited at the future for digital media and for the future of TAK!
I'd like to notably thank the SXSWM team who I went over with. Everyone was really friendly and let each other do their own thing whilst at the same time re-group and share experiences and thoughts. Digital Central and Stef Lewandowski who organised the trip should be commended for their enthusiasm and commitment to getting 7 differently skilled individuals together to document their findings. I'd like to thank Stef in particular as he had the foresight to create the SXSWM central reserve for us to use during our time at SXSWi which proved invaluable whilst over there. Really great stuff.
Each of us will certainly bring back something unique from SXSWi and this will ultimately raise our own and Birmingham's offering.
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SXSWi 2008: Numbers as pictures
The last talk I attended was hosted by Peter Kim and Joy Mountford entitled Data As Art. This talk would prove to be the most inspirational talk out of my time at SXSWi.
I'm a big fan of Edward Tufte and simplifying data through graphics and visual art. I'm also really into generative art and using Maths to create visual graphics. This talk showcased some of the best in the field.
On a simple level representing data visually not only makes something which is impossible to understand into something very easy to understand. See this video clip to view the flight paths of aircraft over the United States over a 24 hour period. Millions of numbers through visual interpretation becomes easy to realise and understand. (Lets put it this way, I was shitting my flight home after seeing this!!)
To see some of the videos from the talk, click the image above or here.
After Joy demonstrated several experiments that she had worked on at the Yahoo Research Labs, Peter took over and gave a basic intro to Processing — a program used by many to visualise data.
It's really hard to put into words what I experienced during this talk but I came away completely inspired. So much so, that I am considering a learning Processing and setting up a website (with Expression Engine) to document my experiences and experiments. I've dabbled with Max/MSP before but Processing results seem to be more visual and is the syntax seems similar to Actionscript but way more powerful. Apparently the community is very supportive and there are some excellent forums helping newcomers like me to learn the ropes.
He also demonstrated creating audio with Processing with a small application which converted his spam emails into music. He joked how laptop musicians are often referred to as 'checking their emails' whilst performing live. So he decided to make music whilst checking his emails. Nice.
Perhaps the best way to further explain what this whole scene is about is to check out some of the key people in the field right now. These are...
Definitely the most inspiring talk of SXSWi.
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SXSWi 2008: The art of saying hello
Feeling quite inspired after the Logo discussion I headed over to a 15 minute book reading by Thom Singer about networking at conferences called, Some Assembly Required. I'm crap at networking, I'm the kind of person who absorbs stuff in so I thought attending this session would give me a few angles on how to get out there at these conferences and not to hang out at the back. The talk was pretty short — just 15 minutes — but crammed full with useful information. The best piece of advice (and it's common sense when you think about it — isn't everthing?) is to simply say hello and take it from there. Thom retold the story about how, the day before, he met a chap who was setting up a focussed social networking start up. He met him simply because the man’s name tag said he was from New York. There had been huge delays in getting down to Austin from New York and so that provided the seed to start the conversation. He finished the whirlwind talk explaining how his daughter had a rare skull disease which was pretty much incurable. Through his network of friends he found himself with the opportunity to speak to a brain surgeon who had developed a new technique which would cure the problem — the only man in the world. It was a poignant moment to finish on and really hit home how a simple “Hello” could change everything. As he left I decided to put his words into practice and turned to the chap sat next to me. Turned out he was the same man from New York who the speaker had spoken to the day before. We got chatting and he explained his start up project Get Naked. Going against the grain of Facebook and MySpace where bigger is better, his project was to keep the stuff you want to share with your friends to yourself. It wasn't about having ‘friends’ with those you barely know, It was about sharing and communicating with your closest friends. I liked that — I really dislike the whole “how many friends have you got?” mentality. It was a good chat, I gave him our TAK! promo pack and he gave me his business card. Thom Singer said, one of the most important things to remember when networking is to follow up the meeting afterwards, which I intend to do. I was on a roll after that and instantly got into the networking mode and shared a beer with a producer of the Austin Chronicle before heading over to the Adobe Lounge to see if I could find Sara Forsberg. Sara works for Adobe and recently asked us if we would be featured in their Design Center project. Unfortunately, she wasn't at SXSWi but I did end up having a good long talk with other key Adobe staff and again swapped contact details. This networking thing is easy!
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SXSWi 2008: Who needs Facebook?
Personally, I don't use Facebook so wasn't too bothered about attending the keynote interview with Mark Zuckerberg. I find the whole Facebook concept a waste of time and a self agreed exploitation of privacy in the quest to get the most friends and to broadcast to the faceless Facebook herd. Slightly off topic but people complain about ID cards yet they happily share their most private details on a site which is rumoured to have ties with the CIA and can target and sell advertising based on users very specific data.
As it turned out, the Q&A with Sara Lacy was a bit of a circus, so I missed out on the hot gossip of SXSWi. If you're wondering what I'm referring too then simply check the link and see what all the fuss is about and watch the video linked above. From what I can gather, she was at times taking centre stage and the audience started to turn on her. Fair enough but from what I can tell, Zuckerberg wasn't the most forthcoming of interviewees and so naturally she became the personality. What do I care though, I wasn't there. Instead, I went to a debate entitled “Logos: Why They're Irrelevant and Can Actually Hurt Your Business” a debate which also became a hot potato.
The general premise of the talk was that the role of the Logo / Logotype brandmark has had it's day. No longer can the Logo carry a company along and you hear very little of the classic 'corporate redesign' jobs which were so common up until a few years ago. The big question was, has the Logo lost it's value in favor of other things like services, navigation and the url?
They stated the Logo's importance in comparison to well designed services, communication, content and usability isn't really that important at all. They questioned whether a good name and url was more important than a good logo mark. The panel raised the question if Logos of the past represented a good sign of trust, then in today's digital climate, is the URL taking that role? After all, many visitors arrive at sites via search engines — a logo free, URL rich process.
Apparently, on average your website will receive 1 new visitor per month for 1.5 seconds. What can you do to make them stay? My opinion then (and now) is that the Logo and site look and feel has a massive influence on that moment. The audience thought this too and the audience began to grill the panel. The panel argued that elements like descriptive navigation are just as important, and I agree completely. Navigation should instantly communicate what is on offer and can really explain a site fast whilst supporting a visual language. I think Zoppa is a great example of everything done right within that first 1.5 seconds.
However, I believe the Logo has an important place in today's service driven digital world and still represents a mark of trust and recognition. For example, in today's online mash-up environments where content merges into a giant data soup. Logo's confirming the content source can at a glance represent source credibility. Many mash-up sites don't offer this simple feature.
The panel and I also agreed that too often clients can get hung up on the Logo at an early stage in the development process when maybe their focus should be on knowing exactly what it is their product's services are. I've met many clients who don't really know what their site should say & do, but they know they want their logo rendered in blue. Perhaps the Logo should develop naturally alongside a website build. Services and content could then help define and shape the Logo rather than the other way round. I will try this approach in the future.
The panel then proceeded to show the infamous Web 2.0 Logo Chart. In my opinion it's a disposable logo graveyard with so many forgettable marks. The panel agreed and asked why couldn't the logotypes in this chart be just simply 12pt Arial. This disregard of the Logo caused quite a stir and personally, as much as I dislike most of the logos in that chart I understand they exist to at the very least resonate with a potential audience. My point here is, if a group of products delivered the same service in the same way, what would then influence the users choice? The logo will always be relevant.
As the talk gathered motion I began to reflect on a project close to my heart, StickerNation. I began to think how StickerNation demonstrated with it's vast image archive how important it is for people to express themselves and bond with an identity. The site featured thousands of personal brand marks created for no other reason than to simply achieve a point of recognition and respect.
Overall it was an interesting talk and myself, the audience and the panel agreed and dis-agreed with many points. Coming away, my conclusion is that brand values and services can't be solved within a single logo. The Logo is be a symbol recognition and a device to help support and resonate with the services on offer. To disregard the Logo completely would be to commit brand suicide.
I'm glad I missed that Facebook Q&A even if I did feel a bit out of the loop on all the gossip in all the bars that night.
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Come on – Let’s save Polaroid!
I heard about the death of poloroid when it was announced on February 8th, since then I've been trying to work out whether I should be stocking up on film or shouting at Polaroid Corporation.
Luckily, SavePolaroid have come to the rescue with some tips on how we can go about trying to save Polaroid in a constructive way and until then we can just stock up on film.
Goto SavePolaroid and join the revolution. There's still life in it yet!
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SXSWi 2008: Sunday Schoolin’
A late start to Sunday put me in a grotty mood but as the day panned out it turned into be one of the most inspirational days I've had in a long time. Here goes...
Down to the convention centre and straight into a talk by Jared Spool — the founding principal of UIE. His talk — Magic and Mental Models: Using Illusion to Simplify Designs really offered up several golden nuggets about the theory of interface design. This is the kind of stuff which I've picked up along the way through trial and error, gut feeling and some research. So to hear someone so knowledgeable explain the whys and how's really made me realise and understand some of the decisions I sometimes make (& don't make) when designing interfaces. His talk was very visual. His genral theme was about using illusionary tricks to make the user experience better. I joined as he was explaining how 20 years ago he was asked to create the user experience for reformatting a 5mb hard drive something which back then took 20 minutes. Even though the developers questioned the need — he proposed the use of a progress bar even though by displaying such a device it would further slow down the computer and therefore take slightly longer to do the overall task of formatting the drive. But, the end result when compared to a blank screen was of a quicker overall perceived time in completing the task. Common sense today, but radical at the time. He then compared that with a series of tests he conducted around the Kano Model — where perception affects the experience. In his tests, users perceived Amazon to be quicker than other sites when in reality it was by far the slowest site to use. The reason for this was that Amazon answered direct user expectations quicker than the other sites, so the overall user experience was one full of rewarding moments. This experience seemed to make the overall user's time faster even though it was 3 times slower than the fastest site on the list, About.com which funnily enough was perceived as the slowest.
In between doing quite a cool 3 step magic trick on stage, he shared the knowledge he referred to as Delight. He explained the importance of delight in the user experience — making people love something is the most influential way to improve perception. This can be achieved through quirky humour; the twitter downtime cat fixing their servers. Through attention to detail; Apple dedicating a small amount of valuable ROM space on the iPod to encode the colour of your iPod so when you use iTunes the same colour (ie: your personal) iPod appears. He also referred to the Flickr members homepage; personalised sets of photos. And finally through functionality; online flight booking system Farecast uses it's vast data mining abilities to recommend to you to hold off buying a flight ticket until tomorrow as (statistically) it'll be cheaper then — a kind of 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink' secret tip.
He also explained how the reverse is also true; he retold a story on how he wanted to get an alarm clock with an iPod dock and speakers so he could wake up to his own music. He spent a long time finding a unit which had a great, full sound. After doing a lot of reading and listening, he bought a device which sounded great. The only problem was, it lost 5 minutes of time each week and so, as an alarm clock it was useless. Even though delight is important, basic expectations are paramount. Additionally also added that what is delight today, becomes basic expectation tomorrow.
What I got from all this was to always try and improve the experience. Go that little bit further. This can be from every perspective — usability, visually and functionally. This talk made me realise that the extra work in doing this is always worth it.
Inspiring stuff............ and that was just the 1st talk of the day!
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SXSWi 2008: Saturday Night (Not So Live)
After the disappointment of missing the Great Design Hurts talk (partly due to me getting carried away in writing the last news post) I decided to do all the writing and content upload when back in the UK, which is where I am now. In my Jim Jams feeling really spaced out.
So Saturday, after missing the talk, I headed back to the hotel got my shit together and decided to head off to the Google party. This party set the theme for the rest of the evening — queues. I got down to the venue and the queue to get in stretched quite a way. With Ben from Beef already inside I decided to join the line and see what gave. Eventually it was me — the guys in front of me decided to try somewhere else and I tagged along to the Frog Design party. The chaps I went with were pretty cool especially a man named Zeke who hung out with us for the rest of the evening. He's a developer who dabbles in design and is at the start of his career. Was great to meet someone with so much enthusiasm about the industry and we chatted whilst in line at the Frog party queue.
A crazy moment then happened - in front of me there was a guy walking down the line handing out free ice creams. Oh shit - it was the Ice Cream Man.
Photo by Noah KalinaTo quickly fill in a picture - this guy contacted us about 3 years ago asking if we could help him design and build a site. His concept was cool - to drive around America in his ice cream truck to all the major festivals, hand out free ice cream and generally spread good vibes. Alas - because we had only just started TAK! we couldn't do the job (paying work first - boooo!)
I quickly flashed my TAK! button which I was wearing and watched his expression turn from a quick glance to a "no wayyyyyyyyy" stance. It was definately a great highlight of my short tour and we chatted for a while seeing what we'd both been up to since we ast spoke way back when. He's still handing out free ice creams and keeping the dream alive and has a very cool new site to show off.
The Frog Design party was pretty wack (stupid long beer queues) and after hooking back up with the gang we headed over to the 16bit party which (again) was queuing round the block. Bollox to it - back to Buffalo Billiards for rematches of Shuffle Board and beer.
(We won with a final shuffle(?) from the TAK! MVP)
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Back home - apart from a few customs has …
Back home - apart from a few customs hassles (newark gestapo confiscating my texan sauce collection) was a nice trip.... flying out from Newark at night was really cool - look out of the window tiny NYC. See you all on your return! Safe trip to all.
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@ Jo - I have that article of journalism …
@ Jo - I have that article of journalism if you want to grab it before i leave. I'll be down in reception until 8.50 - if not I can give you it in B'ham
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@ all - I’m heading off in 30 mins - I …
@ all - I'm heading off in 30 mins - I have some spare promotional prints if you would like
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Just got back - a great day today - lots …
Just got back - a great day today - lots of inspiring moments - high five!
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Going to head back to the hotel to drop …
Going to head back to the hotel to drop my bag off - then heading str8 back in. Moo party for sure (queue's pending). A great day today.......... gutted to have to go back tomorrow :(
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Just attending the ‘visualising data’ …
Just attending the 'visualising data' talk - very interesting indeed - a highlight
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Finding out why logos are no longer rele …
Finding out why logos are no longer relevant...
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Currently in Magic & Mental Models - usi …
Currently in Magic & Mental Models - using illusion to simplify interface design
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Until my blog is integrated: http://tiny …
Until my blog is integrated: http://tinyurl.com/2oego7
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hey up. anyone back at the hotel? i’m o …
hey up. anyone back at the hotel? i'm off to google party - message here if you wanna meet (leaving in 20mins - 17.50)
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Hey Stef / Jo / Pete - are you still at …
Hey Stef / Jo / Pete - are you still at Barcamp? Is it worth coming over?
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SXSWi 2008: Saturday first impressions
First impressions stepping into the convention centre — where the bulk of SXSWi activity takes place — was of overwhelming excitement. Registration was fast and easy and after getting the event catalogue I realised some tough decisions needed to be made. With so much on offer to see and do I wasn't sure where to start.
I came to SXSWi with a goal to discover new technologies which could help TAK! in the future as well as examine whether graphic / interface design excellence is a lost art. Over the past year or two I've gotten quite bored with the state of the web and how design can appear so cheap in comparission to other creative mediums (ie: print, motion etc.) So at SXSWi I wanted to find out whether the internet today (and tomorrow) is more about content and social networking than unsability and interesting design.
Upfront my opinion is that the very best sites should do everything. Visually they should stand out from the competition, work well and be feature rich. Not wanting to blow my own trumpet but TAK!'s community site StickerNation covered a lot of bases — where great content sat within a visually inspiring look and feel; still today we get a lot of emails thanking us for doing that project and how it inspired them to get involved in street art or web design.
The first talk I went to was Design is in the Details by Naz Hamid from Weightshift. I caught the 2nd half and although Naz didn't cover any new ground, he did reaffirm the design process and made me feel better that people out there do strive for good design online.
The next panel I checked was the How to Rawk SXSW — a fun primer to the festival with a good bunch of speakers.
After that I decided to get some food and see if I can find a cheap iPhone and small gifts for loved ones. I forgot how big this place is, and an hour was spent walking a couple of blocks and discovering nothing but eateries and roads. I did stroll past the Childrens Museum which looked pretty cool. Nice characters!
On return I proceeded to check out Ellis Labs' presentation of version 2 of Expression Engine. I've not heard of Expression Engine before but a quick check of the internet during the SXSW Rawks panel I realised it was a session worth investigating. Expression Engine is a well priced CMS which seems to be both powerful and desincentric. What they presented literally blew me away. Of all the features on display the sheer innovation in the interface was the thing which impressed me the most. Shit was shown that I didn't even think was possible. From the reaction from the more technically minded, it would seem the CMS itself is very good behind the scenes being fast, scalable and customisable. It's something TAK! will definately look at for certain projects.
After that conference I got stopped by a chap from Utterz who took my photo and interviewed me. Straight after that my good friend Ben Hostler from Beef spotted me — he's at SXSWi representing Bristol on a very similar thing to myself and the West Midlands Massive. At this point we both realised our 3.30pm panels were starting and I quickly rushed to check Great Design Hurts. Unfortunately the room was full and so I ended up missing the talk which I wanted to see most (shit). The talk seemed to tackle the question which I have come here to research. From the pre-talk blurb — great design does hurt and doing something new and different is scary, but worth it. From what I gather all the talks will be available to download afterwards - so all is not lost!
