Fresh

One of the best panels I saw at SXSW was “UX Team of One”, presented by Leah Buley of Adaptive Path. Buley delivered a fast paced, info-packed presentation on how to deliver kick-ass UX design with limited resources.  While a lot of panels at SXSW are more esoteric and high-level, “UX Team of One” was all about being in the trenches and getting design work done.  Throughout the whole talk I was furiously scribbling notes on practical tools and techniques for generating ideas quickly and efficiently.  But you won’t need to read my chicken scratch notes, she has all the resources, worksheets, slides and inspiration collected on her website.  Best of all you can see a video of her whole presentation, recorded by an audience member.  Sync it up with the Slideshare slides and it’ll feel like you were there.

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This panel at SXSW was really interesting for a couple reasons. Jared Spool from UIE is such an engaging presenter! He had us all laughing; I was thoroughly engrossed the whole time. Also, the panel was really awesome because it challenged a few ideas that I generally don’t think twice about.

One of the primary points from the panel was that there is no evidence that user centered design has ever worked. I was really surprised to hear this! One of the anecdotes that he used was based on Apple and Microsoft. Spool claimed that apple hardly does any usability tests, while Microsoft does them constantly. (and we all know whose designs are better!) He didn’t have any numbers behind this, so I’m not sure of the validity. But really interesting none-the-less!

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After an inspiring trip to Austin for SXSW, I’m finally getting a chance to look back at all of the notes and ideas from throughout the week. One of the standout panels for me, was the talk entitled “Design for the Wisdom of Crowds”. The speaker, Derek Powazek began his talk by referencing several social experiments such as the one conducted by Francis Galton, in which a crowd was asked to guess the weight of the cow. Everyone guessed wrong, but the average of the guesses was very close. Similar results were found when applying this to a change jar. So the question he poses is: How can we, as the creators of the web, allow for this wisdom to take place in our communities online? In his panel he discussed some simple ways to think about tweaking interfaces to facilitate better user experiences online.

Some basic rules for making this happen.

1. Diversity - Organize a group of diverse individuals with a wide range of opinions

2. Independence – Encourage the group to contribute for their own selfish reasons

3. Decentralization - There’s nobody in charge

4. Aggregation - Tallying the results and doing something with it

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I attended an awful lot of panels at SXSW, but one that really stuck with me was called “Are Women Taken More Seriously on the Web?” The premise the panel operated under was that women are not generally taken very seriously, and they touched on a lot of interesting points.

The panelists were FASCINATING. I loved hearing their experiences being a woman in tech and how they have dealt with being taken seriously in a dude-centric environment. I didn’t really come away with a lot of concrete notes from that session, but here are some points I wanted to highlight:

Do you come off as a woman online?

One panelist talked about how her mother frequented a college football forum and noticed that the women’s opinions on that forum were never taken that seriously or were mocked. Her mother created a profile on the forum that was deliberately androgynous. She did not state her name; her picture was of something innocuous like a football; her username wasn’t indicative of her gender; and when asked about herself, all she would say was that she had “a son who plays college football.”

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What a blast. Friday night a bunch of us went to the “Pasties and Pastries, A Burlesque Cupcake Cookoff!” party at Emos. There were cupcakes. There was burlesque. There was Lone Star Beer. Good times!

There was a french horn player in the opening band!

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SXSW is not complete without swag. At eROI, we decided to go the sticker route this year. Big kudos to Stephen who designed this set. The stickers are designed so that they form a seamless tile when put together. More pictures to come. Great work everyone!

The NYC sticker is still missing from Ryan’s computer in this shot

Pardon the glare from the flash on this one.
This is the eROI Wars stickers used as a patch on Noel’s sleeve. People are sporting this look all over.

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Checking in last night (Friday) we went to pick up our badges. It was pretty seamless, except that the photos we had uploaded online were lost. So they had to take new ones on the spot. Except… Meggan’s badge had her name and Mai’s picture!! The situation was quickly resolved, but funny none-the-less. Check it out:

Hey Y’all. We’re in Austin! The much anticipated SXSW interactive festival is here. Wish us good weather and stay tuned as we share the knowledge we glean!

Yee haw!

So this post may come well after the fact for you oh-so-in-the-mix Portlanders, but for those of you who don’t know about Ignite, I thought I’d share a bit.

Ignite Portland is the lovingly fostered child of the fantastic tech community here in the northwest (More history here). Now on it’s 5th appearance in P-town (usually happens twice a year), this initially small gathering has catapulted onto the national scene with a really unique idea: what would you say to your peers if you had 5 minutes on stage? Its a really fun evening where folks share everything from omelette techniques to manifestos on public broadband service (true examples). Slightly geeky but always enjoyable.

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This is going to be a killer show. It’s free and all ages, but they do ask you show some love by bringing a donation of one can of food for “your fellow Portlanders in need!” There are over 250 artists lined up.

“To Feel Love” by Remedias Rapaport, 20″ x 24″ x 1.5″
Oil alkyd painting on aluminum & wood panels

Here is the concept: “a non-juried show about love, open to everyone be they beginner or professional; to highlight the complex nature of love as a contrast to all the syrupy romantic schlock we are bombarded with leading up to Valentine’s day; to make a fun, low pressure, non-commercially oriented environment to show vulnerable, honest work.”

It will also feature “songs of Love, Death, Loss and Drunkeness” from Stumptown Sawyers at 9pm. Some of the proceeds of the show are going to the Oregon Food Bank and Buckman Arts Elementary School. The event is presented by Launch Pad Gallery and Portland City Art. Curated by Ben Pink and Chris Haberman.