I spent last week in (not so) sunny Belfast, N. Ireland for the last ever Build Conference. As defined on their website, "Build is a design festival for web designers". The majority of the week is spent talking shop with designers and appreciators of the craft, but the main event is a day long series of talks from industry leaders.
A few talks that stood out to me were from David Cole, Paul Soulellis, Jason Scott & Frank Chimero.
David presented how he arrived at his definition of product design. David argued that "Designers are in the business of invention". He continues by talking about how designers can innovate conceptually.
According to David, the properties of a great product designer are the ability to create vision, product, interactions & visuals. He argued, because designers are such a valuable resource within teams, product designers are in a position to demand power & to work on their terms. He understands this is easier said than done, but in his eyes, this is how he sees the future role of a product designer.
You can read his whole talk here.
Paul's talk was one of my favorites. It resonated with me because of how he looked at resisting modern design culture and the values that we imbue in our work.
I will not be able to transcribe his talk without butchering it, so please read it here.
Jason was a great speaker and performer. He wore black angel wings while speaking. I'll have to share the video when Build releases it.
He discussed being a bad citizen of the web. The primary example he mentioned were startups that have been acquired & left their users without a proper way to export their data.
The tell tale sign is when you see a company's acquisition email, with boilerplate copy writing. You know, the "We're joining Dropbox because we both love to make great products that affect peoples lives" email.
When Jason sees one of these emails, him and his team of Internet activists begin to download the publicly available files in hopes of archiving newly shutdown web services
He advocated that when you create, you are responsible for supporting what you put into the world. And when you shut down what you create, think of who you are affecting in doing so and provide the necessary tools for people to make the transition comfortably.
The title of Franks talk was "What screens want". He compared interfaces to plastic with a clip from James Burke's TV show, Connections.
Watch the following youtube link until ~2:00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-bz7nYGxgo#t=35
The interesting think that Frank did was replace every mention of the word plastic with software. Doing so felt very refreshing. It reminded me that screens have begun to form their own identity. An identity that does not include the novelty of objects that came before. We as designers need to find "grain" within the screen.
Frank defines a screens "grain" as its personality, character & inherent traits. He compares a screen "grain" to wood grain. When building something with wood, the object will turn out best when you work with the grain and not against the grain. The same goes for screens. Respect the patterns users already know and do what is best for your products clarity when on screen.
His talk is not yet online, but I'll link you to it when it arrives.
Of the people I met, Nicole Jones, Max Fenton & John Ngo were ecstatic about the work we are doing here at Readmill. With the good always comes bad. Max and Nicole provided some valid feedback.
One of their biggest issues was that we do not have a complete night mode. Another thing that Nicole wanted was a global setting for turning off Community Highlights. Both Max and Nicole said, "Readmill is a beginners reading platform. It made me read on phones and now I want features that you don't offer or choose not to offer."
With everyone else, they knew what Readmill was, but were not an user. People often said, "I'm more of an article person..." or "Not much of a reader, beautiful app though."
I told a couple of people that the conference was better last year, but after writing this it made me realise how profound Build actually is. It's not a practical conference, but more of a "State of what we're doing" (whatever that may be) conference. My takeaway from Build is a new set of questions that will continue to churn through my head as I listen to chill wave music and design the future.
Thanks.
- Jeremy Keith's reflection on the Build Conference Series is superb: http://adactio.com/journal/6564/