Just as early filmmakers struggled to break free from the conventions of live theater, after 10+ years Web designers are still trapped in the structures of the past. Forget pages, linear text and other archaic vestiges of design's print ancestry; the separation of content from presentation has already changed everything.
Dan Willis Consultant, Sapient
Getting ready for the first SXSW session this year
Session is a little late to start. People still getting settled
Technical difficulties so far...
We're getting started...
Crowd is excited and cheering... seriously
Arguing that the Harry Potter promo site is the worst of worst web design - another dead tree....
Important web stuff is hidden and the rest is just a print layout pretending to be web
Web is so much more than old school print... mature now. Design needs to follow
Newspaper sites - headlines are a commodity
The web has moved well beyond simple linear text (video, etc.)
"we don't know a lot about web design" - everything we know is based on print design. Web is close to being a medium of its own but needs to jump ahead and become unique.
"Everything we know about web design is all we know about print design."
The web is currently at the point similar to when the still picture evolved into the moving picture show and then a proper movie. Technology was invented and then artists figured out how to take it to the next step.
Over times, movies evolved and techniques were developed to create something new... beyond what you could do in still images.
Web content is getting smarter every single day. Data knows more about itself due to metadata and the ways we can use it... next step is how you connect that data together to create unique experiences.
More self aware data is coming and less control of data and content will become the norm. What will "things" become once you put them out there...?
Too much web content is "print in disguise".
Example: flickrvision. Random voyeurism.
We're all voyeurs. We like to watch people, especially at their most honest and raw.
Grammar example #2: Self-aware (but uncontrollable) content
User created context - context is everything but online it's hard to control context.
Elements of film grammar combined in a way to be greater than their individual parts. "One plus one equaled three."
What are the elements of WEB grammar? Not print grammar applied to the web.
Grammar example #3: User-created context.
Context matters. The user controls the context.
Grammar example #4: Ambient awareness.
Micro-blogging. Each update is like a dot in a pointilist painting. Each isn't necessarily significant on its own.
The web will be less about the type and layout and MUCH more about the experiential content - how it feels, how people interpret the experience
Grammar example #5: Experiential content.
The experience itself IS the content. Rollercoasters: coaster creators can't design the individual experience, they can only guide it.
Content is important but it's all about how people experience it and interact with it. Design will move beyond making things pretty...
The user will (in a sense) become and independent designer of their person experience. One designers and unlimited unique personal definitions. Designer must share design space with user.
Can argue that we are moving towards an "experience based economy"
Think of building ambient awareness. eg. A hotel adding in tons of webcams in their public spaces so users/viewers can get a sense of the hotel experience...
Kill the marketing speak. Give the user an EXPERIENCE.
Need to start thinking about making 1 + 1 equal 3 - once the user has been able to have their unique personal experience with your content.
In a newsroom scenario, people should be thinking about maximizing the content and pieces that didn't work for the traditional newspaper store... put it on the web... connect those smaller chunks with other interesting bits and you create something new and unique. Move the content beyond the simple oldschool control of the print editor. Let users make those chunks of content more robust and live a unique experience.
Design is not about looking pretty. Even if it was, it isn't now.
For the 21st Century design is a big thing. (not traditional design though)
Visual design is a MEANS to and end. Not the end itself. Just because it's beautiful, doesn't make it good design. Design solves problems. Designers have to both define the problem and solve it.
Designers need to step up and be the leaders of helping to define the problems and actively work to solve problems. This is important to help design transcend 20th Century design.
Organizations may need to be restructured in order to think about design differently.
One of the keys will be to allow different disciplines to work together and flow.
Design right now is like a TV dinner. Keep everything separate. DON'T LET YOU PEAS TOUCH THE RED THING.
The 21st century model isn't TV dinners... it's jambalaya.
[I'm picturing Newman on Seinfeld during the Soup Nazi episode)
We've built a number of good design disciplines for the web (visual, interaction, IA, etc.) but for the 21st Century those disciplines need to mash together - hence Jambalaya. Can't separate one from the other...
Gotta invite lots of people to the party but you need to do design better and both exploit expertise as well as protect expertise.
Designers need to speak as experts with Business owners as experts in their realm and they need to respect each other's expertise. NOT A FREE FOR ALL.
Need to organize SMALL cross discipline teams - AGILE!
Design for specific users and very specific needs. Users are not "everything" - have clear focus and understand clear needs.
The days of the elastic user (who is everything: "the user is this/that") are over.
Embrace ignorance... no one knows exactly how something will work in real life.
You'll never ever figure it all out... there will always be something bigger around the corner. Embrace it.
Don't be distracted by the new fancy tech. It's cool but don't bet all your money on a single technology. It just lets us do stuff
Don't be distracted by failure - that's the key to moving forward. Just keep moving.
That's pretty much it folks. Thanks for following along! More to come shortly...
Andre
somnambulant
Copyright 2012 Scribble Technologies Inc. All Rights Reserved.
