Notes by Southwest: Notes from 3/8/08

I've been meaning to get my notes up from South by Southwest, but wanted to do it all at once and it has taken me a while to get them out of my notebook and into a better form! So, here’s the first set, also had several sessions on 3/7, but I’ve only posted the most interesting sessions.

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“Design Is In The Details”

Just the Gist

• Little things add up to make a big difference - sum is greater than the parts
• The little details are important
• Take the time necessary to do something good, obsession is good
• Be proud of your own work, you care more than anyone else will

Naz Hamid,
Art Director, Weightshift

Lives in Chicago, works with designers around the country.

• Gaper’s Block
• Weightshift
• Gravity Tank

View Notes

• Little things add up to make a big difference [in a project] - or, whole is greater than sum of the parts
• Within context of the design, does it make sense?
• We care, listen, solve problems, and take pride in our work

Finding inspiration in design objects and destinations:

• Hotel View NotesMax - Seattle
• Rapha Software
• Triax Vator 300 (Nike Design)

Experience

1. Choices
2. Choose simple, elegant
3. Consistent
4. Stay consistent, build up design on parts
5. Completeness
• Don’t want them to get hampered down on details [that just look wrong]
• Get it done, done (show what you want them to see, avoid making excuses or explaining missing parts)
• “Kellog view”/”Kellog insight”
• All details are important
6. Step in, step out, step back - balance
• sometimes take a two or three day break from a design
• What are your initial reactions when returning to a design?
7. Be your own critic
• Yale law school library
• Simplify it if it’s not working
8. Complexity in simplicity, less is more
• Humanized site
9. Obsession is healthy
• Thoughts, revelations, breakthroughs
• Waiting on a decision, let yourself think for the right answer
• Also, don’t be afraid to act on something

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Opening Remarks

Just the Gist

This was more of a conversation, so difficult to notate, but it will make a great podcast when it comes out.

• College of knowledge vs. encyclopedic
• More brainpower w/ collegiate vs. singular
• Lost vs. the Wire - Media differences
• Values applied in convergence out of work
• “We” vs. “I” - Language of social networking - Outside in
• Hillary vs. Obama

Henry Jenkins,
Co-Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT

Stephen Berlin Johnson,
Author, Founder of outside.in

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“Blood, Sweat and Fear: Great Design Hurts”

Just the Gist

• Design can be a present, “design for Christmas”
• There is no barrier to entry on criticism of color or design
• Pixel-perfect mockups, for each conversation
• “10 to 3 to 1” - Start with ten, go to 3, then get down to 1
• Brainstorming and “Pairing down” meetings every two weeks
• The notion that the better a design is, the less resistance it receives is simply not true
• Ideas matter more than talent

John Gruber,
Raconteur, Daring Fireball

Michael Lopp,
Senior Engineering Manager,
Apple, Inc.

View Notes

• Mentos box - the little tab makes it more than just a box, helps make it more useful
• “Design is a present”
• Apple + present - good at giving people presents to people who live to open presents on christmas
• “Packaging porn” - when was the last time you saw an unboxing of a Dell product posted online?
• “Designing for christmas”

Feedback @ Apple

• “Fear of the color blue”
• Color is tough, it has such a low point of entry for feedback - everyone has an opinion
• “Fear of critics”
• No barrier to entry on feedback of art
• “Fear of ponies”
• Q: “What is wrong with this icon? A: Steve Jobs as approved it, so nothing is wrong with it.”
• “I want a pony” - if people that feel like they should be hard are not heard, they will blindside you
• “References the spirit of the company”
• Imagination is more important than creativity

Where to Start

• Pixel-perfect mockups, every time a conversation happens. Makes a huge difference to put all the content in, then you can talk about something real.
• Don’t believe in lorem ipsum, better to remove ambiguity, that does take a lot of work
• Complete feeling for entire mockup
• 10 to 3 to 1
• Choose 10 good versions, bring down to 3, iterate down to 1
• A lot of room to design in
• Ex: Cultured Code - “Things”
• Paired design meetings
• Brainstorm (relax, no worries)
• Pair down > Production meeting (how it will work, insanity to reality)
• Brainstorm/pairing down meetings every two weeks
• The Pony Meeting
• “The meeting for the ponies”
• Once every two weeks, roughly, fitting with brainstorm and production meetings
• This is where the best ideas from the other two meetings (brainstorm and production) are presented
• They have a place to say what they want to, and just want their opinion heard
• Unexpected discovery - design as a present

John Gruber - “The Blood”

• Everyone involved in design can operate under the notion that the better the design, the less resistance there is - not true
• Ex: Beatles White Album cover - it was compared to “Meet the Beatles” at the time, and less preferred, but history regards it as a great, even classic design
• A lot of people don’t want great design, it’s uncomfortable
• Comfort vs. quality
• “Better” necessarily implies “different”
• Different = scary
• “Exactly the same, but better” = “Exactly the same, but different”, does not work

The Plea Bargain

• Want to go with great design
• It always means taking a chance
• Design that's “Pretty Good” can be guaranteed
• “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good” - Paul Rand
• Don’t create something good by trying to be original
• Try to be good, will be original

• LOGO - instantly digestible, perfectly balanced
• Example: IBM logo
• “A logo derives it’s meaning from the quality of the thing that is symbolizes, not the other way around.”
• Example: ABC logo
• “I could do that” syndrome - there’s a big difference between pushing keys and writing
• What people think of as a great design
• Idea matters more than talent
• Apple logo - impossibly perfect bite - “original sin” - temptation
• Designers are expected to be clever
• Expect something more
• “The wig problem” - If I’m going to pay all that money, I want a lot of hair (even if it doesn’t look real)
• Design problem - “more design”
• UPS logo - package tied with string (also, present)
• 2003, new logo
• Design to stand the test of time
• “Design is making decisions, and packaging them for the test of time” -John Gruber
• Saying “Wrong blue” is not designing, it's giving opinion
• Not delivering a set of decisions, it’s the design
• Alfred Hitchcock - didn’t shoot “footage for editing” - got final cut
• Meticulously planned out (storyboarded) his movies beforehand, the footage only fit together one way
• Henry Ford - asked people what they want - faster horse
• You and your design are not the same thing, be able to talk about it objectively
• Are you willing to be called an asshole? (in order to create good work)
• Small logo vs. big logo - correct answer: no
• Conflict is inherent in great design
• All great designers have reps of being assholes (another ex: Stanley Kubrick)
• More dedicated to integrity of your work, or what people think of you?
• No. (is the most important tool)
• It’s the only way to achieve great design