29 Apr ’11
by spyke
0 comments
SXSW was everything it was hyped up to be. In a word, SXSW was “overwhelming”. There were so many people and so many great talks. It took me a few days to figure it out, but the experience was extremely enriching.
I told myself that I would transcribe my session notes from my moleskin. A month later, I’ve gone through that exercise and realize I take terrible notes. The material from each talk is still fresh in mind and I’ve done my best to translate my messy, disjointed notes to something easily digestible. Here are my key takeaways:
1. Mobile is the new black. It’s cliche, but mobile is the new thing and every session mentioned it at some point. One recurring theme, however, was: though mobile is the newest platform for development, we should build on what interaction design lessons from Web 1.0, 2.0, and even print. Mobile is new and game-changing, but we shouldn’t throw everything out the window just yet.
2. Emotional content, not clever ideas, drive engagement. It’s amazing how few tech professionals don’t get this. It’s common to try to solve problems by looking for the newest, greatest idea. That may not always be the best solution, however. Simply put: figure out what people want, then give it to them. Don’t do things because it’s cool and everyone else did it.
3. Agencies need to learn from software companies. I heard a lot of agile development ideas… especially from the UX guys. This one is simple: don’t reinvent the wheel. Software companies have decades of developing rich, interactive tools. Learn from their mistakes. Adapt. Make it your own.
4. Metrics & research should drive strategic direction. Strategy without measurement is like trying to solve algebraic equations without defining the variables. If possible, measure everything. Then analyze the data, searching for trends. That brings me to my last key takeaway…
5. Iterate quickly and often. Foster an atmosphere of testing and don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. If your analysis is wrong, change it quickly. One track and field quote that I love is: “if you improve every day by just a little bit, eventually you’ll hold the world record”. Don’t try to make drastic improvements all at once, small incremental ones are easier to make and easier to recover from if they aren’t the correct choice.
All in all, SXSW and Austin was great. I’d definitely like to go back, staying for the music and film portions next time around.
More to come…