Learning From Las Vegas: Dan Saffer Embraces Sin City as an IxD Model at SXSW
Is less always more? Is there inspiration to be found in the bells and whistles of a Vegas casino? How about MySpace? Dan Saffer explored these burning questions and more in his talk at this year’s SXSW (which we’re proud to say just received applause from the The Register). Now you can download Dan’s presentation for yourself or read the transcript at Sam Felder’s site.
IA Wit and Wisdom: A Snippet of Bruce Sterling’s Closing Talk at IDEA
Last October’s big IDEA (“Information: Design, Experience, Access”) conference came to a rousing conclusion with a keynote address from science fiction author Bruce Sterling. Sterling summed up the Seattle gathering with a speech so insightful, so freewheeling, we had to publish a word-for-word transcript on our site.
To give you just a taste of the experience, here is Sterling’s list of “things only an information architect would say,” which he used to kick off his talk:
Bruce Sterling: As William Burroughs liked to say, “If you cut up the present, the future bleeds through.” So I have kind of a narrative here, kind of a “composite persona,” for you designers in the audience. This isn’t science fiction. These aren’t perfect quotations. I’m trying to assemble a professional zeitgeist here. Basically, I was trying to collect the kinds of things that only information architects would think to say. This is actually information architecture fiction. I like to call it the wit and wisdom of IDEA 2006. It sounds kind of like this:
- This is the moment for data visualization.
- We did a whole fake festival in Second Life to go with the real festival. And as your avatar approached the stage, it inherited new dance moves.
- On opening day, they had a beautiful exhibition with no content. We designed a process that created an exhibition.
- There’s something about being in front of the illuminated glass surface that turns part of my mind off.
- To be connected is to be alive, to be recognized, to matter, to be in an artificial sense of constant crisis.
- Technological excise, those are the technical things we force people to do that people don’t actually want to do.
- How do we deal with an explosion of choice? I’m going to do that through a series of incredibly tenuous metaphors.
- Email isn’t a tiger. Email is like a cloud of flies.
- I like to think of data as a big block of tofu. On its own, it’s devoid of all substance.
- Everything that can be located will be.
- People will run across a battlefield to spray a DJs name on a tank.
- Cities are clusters of spatial events. We want to repopulate the map with the rhythms of urban life.
- We’re thinking about all the ways people can vandalize a data set.
- These transmissions that surround us, they’re the Hertzian equivalent of land marked church steeples.
- In physical interaction spaces, people will do whatever you say — if you make it super clear and super seamless.
- Want shorter meetings? Install some white boards and remove all the chairs. […]
For more of Sterling’s insights into the unique mind of the information architect, check out the full transcript of the talk, or download the podcast (one of many podcasts now available from the IDEA Conference).
NEW! Online Seminar: Showing the Value of UX
Announcing AP’s very first online seminar — Showing the Value of UX — presented by Brandon Schauer! The presentation offers an in-depth exploration of the core principles of User Experience and provides the tools you need to connect UX to the overall success of a business. Register today and receive access to the online seminar as well as a bonus report: How ROI Changes User Experience plus a $50 discount (just for our newsletter subscribers). Enter promotional code: “NEWS.”
See You at UXI in Chicago! April 23-26
Join the UX industry’s leaders as they descend upon Chicago at the end of April for AP’s not-to-miss User Experience Intensive. The conference includes four separate full-day courses — Design Strategy, User Research, Interaction Design and Information Architecture — each specially created to deepen your understanding of the individual disciplines, arm you with practical tips and tools, and provide overarching insights into how each part fits in with the whole. Register for one day, two days, three…or the whole bunch!
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