Last Wednesday I finally got over myself and registered last-minute for the final leg of the Insites Tour 2011. This Bristol event featured three of my Web heros:
Mike Kus (@mikekus), whose playful and rich Web designs detest the fact that he discovered the Web as his new favourite medium just four years ago.
Elliot Jay Stocks (@elliotjaystocks), whose quirky illustrations capture the personality of a site and who just started a brave new print adventure for the typographically inclined.
Jon Tan (@jontangerine), a typophile and globe-trotter whose advances in Web typography and map-based storytelling make the Web a more beautiful place.
Since I always get lost in Bristol I was so happy to find the Watershed in time. This turned out to be a great venue, taking full advantage of the crazy weather sound effects that we experience last week. ;)
It took me some time to reconcile the fact that these accomplished guys are human beings after all. The realisation got me into productive mode and I started capturing some of the insights the speakers shared during the discussion and interviews. Here are a few of my sketchy notes and take aways from the evening:
Mike Kus
- work begets more of the same work, because you build up a reputation in that specific thing
- ergo: put stuff into your portfolio that you want to work in / produce more of
- showcase your best work in your portfolio
- things Mike considers when designing a Web site: (among others)
- personality of a site
- process has to be seamless (for the user)
- flow of use
- user journey
- no tech restrictions
- do something visually interesting with a sites
- visual vs functional aspects
Jon Tan
- for any site of substance you have to work with other people
- Collaboration is key
- Mapalong.com is a personal mnemonic & storytelling service
- quality (in Web design) ➔ a long term, close-up thing (multi-layered experience)
- example: perception of ebook quality; poorly typeset ebooks ➔ bad experience is associated with the value of the content
- familiarity & use over time influence the experience of a Web site
- Amygdala (part of the limbic system, i.e. the old, reptile brain, which provides rapid, emotional reactions) understands design / music / … where there is no language
- appeal on an emotional level ➔ visceral reaction ➔ one part of a relationship / design experience, the other, rational part is the multi-layered
- on (design) manifestos: design is more than selling stuff, i.e. advertising (make design matter!); everybody should have/create their own manifesto about what is important to them (about design)
- style = formal
- tone = is the emotional side: designers set the tone through the design
Elliot Jay Stock
- writing, speaking, embracing the community raise the profile
- expressing an opinion raises the profile
- getting the name out there through blogging & speaking
- speak & blog for yourself
- side projects are important
- 8Faces started out as a side project
- giving back to the community is important & fun
The speakers talked about much more and the audience contributed to the conversation by asking further questions. These are just the titbits I managed to type into my phone in between chatting to people, eating pizza and listening to the speakers.
During the goodie give-away I was blessed with a Deploy account which, Insites co-host Keir Whitaker (@keirwhitaker) assured me, will change my life. (I will report on that in time…) As I am usually not lucky when it comes to winning stuff, I was super surprised and look forward to checking the service out. In addition to some delicious pizza & drinks the organisers bestowed gorgeous letterpressed coasters designed by Aaron Robbs (@aaronrobbs) upon the audience.
I met some lovely folks from the Bristol Web community and enjoyed the first instalment of the tour!
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