Lessons from Webstock ‘12

Subtitle: stuff we could do a little betterSub-subtitle: why are there more questions than answers in this presentation?

This is just a tiny little sample of what’s on offer

Flickr: sean_hickin

Kathy Sierra:MBU: Building the Minimum Badass User

“The key attributes of a desirable product don't live in the product. They live in the users. Find out how to design and build the MBU”

Flickr: webstock

People don’t buy your product because they like you. They buy the product because they like themselves.

Flickr: kalavinka

Likewise, people don’t tell people about your products because they love you. They do it because they love their friends.

Flickr: DaBok

A really amazing pair of headphones will make people hear things they haven’t heard before in music.

Flickr: pauladupont

How can we make people become more interesting at dinner parties?

Flickr: abbyladybug

It doesn’t matter how much time people spend on your site. All that matters is what happens when the clicking stops.

Flickr: aaronjacobs

Flickr: Zen

EMBRACE THE SUCKING! You’re not an idiot, you’re a learner!  

Upgrade your users. Activate people’s super powers! Make people feel awesome!

Flickr:thegreengirl

Dana Chisnall:Deconstructing Delight: Pleasure, Flow, and Meaning

“There’s a vast difference between designing an experience that doesn’t suck and one that drives engagement.” Flickr: Webstock

If you create something that is consistently pleasant and thoughtful, that creates delight. Create a remarkable experience by being nice!

Flickr: krystianmajewski

Learn from earlier versions of sites and mistakes of others.

Think about where does your design fit into a beautiful day?

Flickr: Yourdon

Erin Kissane:Little Big Systems

“Via the craft of content strategy and its intertwinglements with design and code, this talk follows the connections between making small-scale, handcrafted artifacts and designing big, juicy systems (editorial and otherwise) that encourage both liveliness and excellence.”

Flickr: wasabicube

“A craftsman’s hands are awake to possibility.”

Flickr: tonyjcase

We can’t let our craftspeople be separate from our systems people

Flickr: richardmessenger

We need to return to a workshop approach rather than a factory.

Anyone inside a system is a user, not just the customer. If we don’t serve the makers, we’re doing a disservice to the end user as well.

If I ever meet TYP03 in a dark alley, it will

be in SO MUCH trouble…

Refine your content model!

1. “We will serve world-class content for plant lovers” becomes…

2. “Publish uniquely helpful content for first-time plant buyers” becomes…

3. “We’ll tell you what plants won’t die easily, which ones you may like, and profile a different plant every week.”

Flickr: verzo

Lauren Beukes:Kinking Reality

“Fantastical storytelling is at its most potent when it's anchored to reality. Lauren Beukes talks how storytelling that re-imagines where we are has the ability to tell us more about who we are.”

Flickr: wasabicube

We understand the world through story-telling.Fiction is a way of modelling behaviour.

Flickr: prathambooks

“Those who cannot image the future are doomed to fuck it up.”

Adam Lisagor:Being creative for people who pay you money

Flickr: wasabicube

Work with people who are better.

Form a justice league.

Flickr: Budha-jeans

There’s a difference between opinions, and people who identify problems and want to find answers.

Flickr: hunter0405

If you’re the spokesperson for a committee, speak with one voice!

Flickr: tanakawho

Amy Hoy:Change the Game

If anyone's ever told you, "You can't do that," you're playing the game. If you've ever had a flash of insight, a sudden desire to do something, and then told yourself "That'll never work," you're playing the game. If you feel like you're being nibbled to death by ducks — slowly, painfully, irritatingly — then chances are high you're playing the game. We all play the game. It's just that most of us never realize we're playing it. But when you learn to spot the game in all its manifestations, you can change it. You can change everything.

Flickr: Webstock

Talk about the mundane stories of conquering! Much more relevant than talking about Steve Jobs

Flickr: portorikan

It doesn’t have to be “all or nothing”. Flickr: theeerin

Listen to stories! Tell stories!

Flickr: wickenden

Natasha Lampard writes the best communications in the world. FACT.

Tash was told that her writing is unprofessional and like bubblegum… Dear you,

Thank you for coming last week. It's a real privilege for us to put Webstock on and an honour to have you there. That you allow us to create Webstock each year - well, we're deeply, madly, truly grateful. We so hope you liked it.

Flickr: DrWave

It’s good to have rolemodels.

If you take nothing else from this:• Let’s talk about Powerpoint presentations.• Why does everyone put so much information on one screen?• And then they read it all out to us as they go through each point one by one. • I can listen to you, or I can read. • By now, chances are I’ve tuned out. • My gosh, are you still talking about this one thing?• You lost my attention ages ago. Now I am focussing on your misplaced apostrophe. • Are you just reading your notes off a piece of paper? • Did you consider maybe adapting your presentation to be more appropriate to your

audience and how they are reacting to you? • Oh no, there’s still more bullet points to go!• If there is this much information that is vital to convey to me, perhaps a handout that I

could read in my own time would be more useful. • Seriously, there’s a reason it’s nice to meet face to face. Having to read a screen is not that

reason. • So maybe we could use fewer words in Powerpoint, and more actual presenting in our

presentations?

Remember you will die.

Flickr: ladoblea_producers