Leaky’s adventure to #naconf – part 2
Because my experience at the New Adventures in Web Design conference was some-what overwhelming, I’ve had to write an absolute mammoth-sized blog post and split it into two separate posts to sum up my experience. So if you haven’t read Part 1 (an overview of the morning session) then really, you should do that first.
So without further ado, let’s get to it.
The afternoon session kicked off with Tim Van Damme, who talked about web apps and how it’s important that they should be kept simple (and he’s totally right!)
He also gave some extremely good advice to designers. He said, on each project create a list of pros and cons of the finished piece and keep it. Then, on your next project have that piece of paper with you and try and correct the cons. Personally, I think that’s what every designer should be doing anyway, it’s the only way you’re really going to better your skill set as a designer.
ps. His work on Gowalla is amazing…
Next up, it’s Greg Wood. His talk about Art Direction on the Web was great, and thinking about it now, it was also a bit of an eye opener. He based his talk on a series of tests that he carried out by testing the none-designers’ response to Art Direction on the Web.
His first test was a web page containing information about the T-Rex. He had two versions of the same text, one version was formatted in a very simple way and the other was an art directed post containing diagrams and pictures which aimed to attract more interest.
His second test was based on a Jamie Oliver recipe, and he did exactly the same thing as test 1. One recipe, two versions, one formatted in a simple way, and the other an art directed post.
His conclusion (as expected) was that Art Directed posts are generally more well received, but the Web is full of consumers who don’t really care for Art Direction on the Web and take the nice sites they see for granted.
… “Art direction is about evoking the right emotion. It’s about creating that connection to what you’re seeing and experiencing.” …
Veerle Pieters was up next talking about inspiration and how to become inspired. Like most designers, I’m always looking for inspiration when working on projects and so I was eager to hear what she had to say, and the stuff that she did have to say, well, it was so true.
I don’t really know how to put her main points into a paragraph so I’m just gonna quote them directly.
… “Inspiration is Everywhere” …
… “Don’t focus too much on finding the answer. It will come when you least expect it” …
… “By using trial and error on one idea, it could inspire another” …
… “Experiment!” …
Andy Clarke was up next who compared the Web to Comic books. He said that Comic books could help with pacing in web design. In comics, the size of the comic strip / panel indicates the amount of time you will spend reading. The larger the panel, the longer you’ll spend reading on that panel and the shorter / more broken the panel, the less time you’ll spend reading.
…”Getting the reader to think can be a very good thing in the right context.” …
This guy’s talk was another eye opener and made so much sense (as you’d hope) so I went and bought his book, Hardboiled. I’ve been recommended by many to buy this book and I’m glad I did. I’m only 50 pages or so in and I’m already hooked. I recommend you buy the book too if you haven’t already done so and you’re a fellow web geek.
Fuck me, what a great end to a brain-mashing day. This guy is hilarious, a Legend, and a stationary-obsessed fellow Mancunian. This guy really put on the perfect end to a great day. When I saw the title of his talk, “Produced for Use”, I kind of expected his talk to be about good User Interfaces and stuff, but no, it was about a fucking spaghetti measurer. Genius. (his talk that is, not the idea of a spaghetti measurer).
I emailed Magnetic North in the Summer asking if they had any work or anything going. I got a reply from the agency saying that they liked my work, but there was nothing available at that moment. If I’d have known how cool this guy actually is, I’d have worked for biscuits.
In a sad but cool way, I really do wish that this guy was my Dad.
I know I’ve already said this, but I just wanna say another Thanks to @Colly for putting together an amazing event. You can really tell how much ball ache he put into organising the event, so yeah, Thank You. This was my first conference that I’ve attended and I don’t think it’s going to be the last. I hope #naconf will return next year…
ps. the newspaper is mint.
This one goes to @craftedemz, who, after talking to for a while on Twitter, I finally met at #naconf. He’s actually quite funny and a nice all round chap.
Unfortunately though, I did miss the opportunity to catch up with @chrisspooner who I’ve been meaning to catch up with for a while now. He must be a ninja with a power to turn invisible or something because I could never see him during the breaks – Maybe next time, ey?
