As many of you know, I was in New York this past week for the 2007 Future of Web Design Conference, where I had the opportunity to I had to listen to several fantastic speakers and meet a lot of the people whose work I admire.
Sadly, I couldn’t stay for the second day of workshops because I had to fly to London for meetings—which also explains why I’m posting this so late—but I did manage to learn quite a bit from the speakers on the first day of the FOWD conference. I’ve decided to put my one or two key learnings from each session here in this post, but as always, it is impossible to consolidate a whole day of sessions into one blog post. There was so much more to take away from the conference than the points below, and I strongly encourage you all to check out the conference next year.
Finding Inspiration
Joshua Davis showed us how technology lets him create things that would normally take an eternity to make.
- Difficult is easy, simple is hard: obsess the details.
- Find your voice: if you’re using someone else’s voice, you’ll run out of conversation pretty quickly.
Taking Your Site Mobile
Brian Fling helped us remember that mobile design and development is really easy.
- The mobile web will revolutionize the way we all gather and interact with information in the next three years.
- Understand your medium, and be sure to design for the user’s context.
Web Application Usability
Ryan Singer went through the steps of crafting clear user interfaces and told us about having Edward Tufte as an inspiration.
- Language is the most underrated part of interface design: language is the most powerful tool for displaying and conveying information.
- Speak your users’ language: talk like a human.
Beautifying the Web with Illustration
Cindy Li spoke about abstraction through illustration.
- Images translate content when words can not.
- Illustrations can tell more words than even a picture can.
AJAX & Design
Jonathan Snook demonstrated how Ajax helps applications mimic the desktop software experience.
- The future of the web is now, and that future is Ajax.
- If the interaction you create is not immediately obvious, it doesn’t work.
CSS3 and What Could Be
Jina Bolton showed us some of the great things that we can expect in CSS3 and how it will help designers and developers. To be honest, I don’t know much about CSS, but Jina’s presentation got me interested in learning about CSS and its future. Check out her CreatingSexyStylesheets site for more resources.
Destroying The Web 2.0 Look
Elliot Jay Stocks ranted about bevels, reflections, gradients, and other design cliches.
- Web 2.0 is not a design aesthetic.
- From now on, the only companies that can use a reflection in their logo are the ones with the word “reflect” in their company name.
- Design cliches will always exist: understand why they exist, for whom they exist, and how to avoid them.
Good Practices in Newsletter/Email Design
Matthew Patterson reminded us that the only reason HTML emails generally look so bad is because designers ignore them.
- Just because we are designers doesn’t mean we can tell people how to use technology.
- We may not like HTML emails, but that doesn’t mean they’re going away.
Flashturbation
David Martin told us how using Flash does not necessary mean a sacrifice to usability.
- In order to be successful, we need to tone down the effects and focus on value.
Community-Centered Design
Jeffrey Kalmikoff entertained us all by telling us how to make sure we keep bringing the “crazy-awesomeness.”
- Without the designers, the “internets are a snooze-fest.”
- Keeping things fun keeps your community coming back.
Building a Brand through Design
Lea Alcantara told us of how a brand is like a person, rather than just a logo.
- You build credibility for your brand through consistency.
- Branding is a conversation between you and other people: brands are made by what people say about you and not what you say about yourself.
Inside The Designer’s Studio: IMDb
Ryan Sims and Keith Robinson took a shot at redesigning the IMDb website, and talked to us about the process.
- Always have a solid, yet flexible, process for your work.
- The only things standing between you and your vision are the tools you use to realize it.
The highlight of my trip? Meeting Bronwyn Jones, by far one of the most talented writers I have ever come across. She’s just as nice in person as I had imagined her to be, and I’m happy I had the chance to tell her how much her work has inspired and influenced me in my own work.
All in all, I’m extremely glad I had the opportunity to attend FOWD 07 this year, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition. If you have any questions about what I wrote in this post, drop me an email. I promise to get back to you as soon as I return from my travels this month.