@media review – Changing times

Following on from Rich’s previous post ‘@media Review’, I am looking back at day one of the conference which was creatively rich in its line up of speakers.

This was my first @media conference, and I am sorry that I only joined it five years on, in the year that Patrick Griffiths decided to call it a day and hand over to Web Directions to take up the mantle.

Attendees were spoilt from the start with an excellent and somewhat different presentation from Andy Clarke, followed by five engaging talks from Simon Collison, John Hicks, Dan Rubin, Mark Boulton, and Jason Santa Maria.

Ok, I’ll now attempt to summarise day ones thought provoking, and inspiring deliveries.

Slide from Simon Collison – The process toolbox: Traditional techniques with a twist.

Andy Clarke

Titled ‘Walls come tumbling down’ after the 1980’s Style council song, Andy focused on changes in workflow methods for efficient creative output in these changing times for the industry and global economy.

Andy talked about designing in the browser and the benefits of liquid layouts. Design within the browser is a good thing as it means you are testing right from the start. Working with real content from the outset is also important to the process and designing systems not pages is key!

A rousing point made was that sites shouldn’t look the same in all browsers. Some may think this is obvious, others may find it an education for clients.

Andy’s post conference pub talk was equally engaging. We discussed Billy Bragg and the quality of Morrissey’s latest and possibly final release, along with some industry chat of course.

Simon Collison

Talking about ‘The process toolbox’ Simon presented a visually stimulating set of slides.

He talked about the unique quality of projects, bespoke jobs which require a personal approach. However, the case in point is, how can you work this way without losing time and money? That’s ‘The process toolbox’. It’s a selection of approaches which help create a clear roadmap through a job and also ensures that every designer or developer who touches it adds value. A couple of the most notable points I took from Simon were:

Have something visual in the workspace to be able to move around and work with

and

Leave out the parts that people skip

Talk with Simon extended to the pub where his passion for design was only interrupted by “rising UK actress” Rebecca Hall walking by.

Jon Hicks

Jon’s specialist subject, ‘Icons of interaction’ saw him talking about the importance of icons on the web. They’re not merely decoration, they’re for interaction too.

Jon also talked about using conventions to make things familiar. A glaring example of familiarity is the now renowned RSS icon. Why try and change it? We all understand it. Icons overcome language barriers and should be used to summarise text.

A couple of points to take away from Jon’s expertise in icon design are, avoid too much detail and noise, and very importantly choose the right metaphor.

Dan Rubin

Titled ‘Designing virtual realism’, Dan’s delivery was particularly poignant and somewhat of an eye opener in the understanding of using real elements over digital interpretation.

Design is all about ‘look and feel’ and web designers should work on the assumption that people know how to interact with something based on its appearance.

IF AN INTERFACE NEEDS INSTRUCTION – REDESIGN IT.

He also talked of context and creating illusion, ie: gradients and drop shadows as perfectly depicted in real life. A rich quote from Donald Norman (Author of The Design of Everyday Things) was a case in point to the delivery:

ATTRACTIVE THINGS WORK BETTER

In summary, the message is use real art/life as it makes the work feel like the real thing. Showing the real thing is always going to create more texture and feeling than a digital interpretation. A real call to arms for us designer to get our cameras and scanners out!

Mark Boulton

Mark presented on font embedding and typography. Mark discussed the movement towards font embedding in the browser, and the hurdles related to this, such as font foundries and licensing. He asked the question, Should we even make this move?

He looked at the elements of the user experience, being: Layout, Colour, Content, Hierarchy, Rhythm, Language, Type Setting, Grid, and Font.

Limitations have nurtured good typographic structure, and the overriding message of Mark’s presentation was

With type, you can’t not communicate!

Jason Santa Maria

Jason’s talk was titled ‘Thinking small’, to expand on this – small decisions can have a big impact. When creating the big picture it’s important to remember that it was made up of countless important tiny decisions. To lift a few points from Jason’s talk:

Sketch books are not about being a good artist, they’re about being a good thinker. Sketching helps you get acquainted with a job.

Also, be sure there’s enough contrast in font pairs. Smiles were raised in the auditorium when he revealed a slide which said:

I love deadlines. I like the wooshing sound they make as they go by.

Last impressions

@media 2009 was a great conference and the deliveries and openness to chat after the event by the speakers only made it a better experience. Andy Clarke did say to me at the after-show party that the audience was particularly quiet. This was no reflection on the speakers. I left with thoughts on getting smart with processes, always add value – if it doesn’t leave it out; and getting some realism/texture in my design. People know how to interact with things. Let’s work with this.