Dan Promotes Gestural Interface Patterns on Read/WriteWeb
Back in August, Dan Saffer posted A Call to Arms for Interaction Designers, asking this generation’s interaction designers to develop standard gestural and touch interactions. He even launched a wiki to give the movement some momentum. Recently, Read/WriteWeb blogged about and interviewed Dan to learn more about his manifesto.
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Henning Asks Chris Conley About Building a Creative Culture
Henning Fischer had a chance to speak with Chris Conley of Gravity Tank and the Institute of Design about his upcoming MX East presentation, Building a Creative Culture.
Henning Fischer [HF]: Hi, Chris. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. This is my chance to ask you the questions I wish I had while I was at the Institute of Design. My first question is why is a creative and productive organizational culture so hard to create?
Chris Conley [CC]: I think there are a few issues. The first is people have a lack of alignment in an organization around achieving a specific objective. And I’m not talking military clarity here, but a sense of shared purpose. Most organizations have a very sketchy idea of the broader purpose they have as a group. A company may be making mobile phones, but how is their ultimate purpose different than their best competitors? Young companies often start with this strong sense of purpose. But by the time a company grows in any significant way, it is harder and harder to maintain.
A second reason is that in the absence of a strong purpose, individuals simply try to do their job really well so they can advance. And there is nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately, prioritizing your job does not necessarily maximize the benefit to the organization overall.
Finally, organizations have simply lost a sense of what it actually means to be creative. For some reason, thinking and speaking are accepted as a more important work than thinking and making.
There is a tacit assumption that making is a production activity rather than a critical, informative one. Anyone who has ever been a part of a productive R&D team realizes that trying things and doing experiments is the fastest way to break into new territory. By putting a priority on thinking and talking (through email, meetings, and PowerPoint) our work activities and environments have become sterile and devoid of the tangible aspects of what were in business to create! You can’t tell by going into the offices of most companies what business they are actually in! Consider how challenging that inherently makes it for new people in the organization to understand and contribute creatively.
Read the rest of Henning’s interview of Chris Conley and register for MX East, our conference on managing experience through creative leadership. Use discount code “NEWS” for 15% off of the registration price.
Hurry! MX East is Filling Up Fast
MX East is just around the corner and it is filling up fast. Our last Managing Experience Through Creative Leadership conference sold out, so now is the time to register and get your seat. Use discount code “NEWS” for 15% off of the registration price.
Here’s a sneak peak of the companies already signed up: Target, Amazon.com, Best Buy, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Vanguard Investments, R/GA, HSBC, Scripps Networks (HGTV, Food Network et al), ING Direct, Simon and Schuster, Akamai, State Farm Insurance, TD Ameritrade, Hitachi, Comcast, and more.
Microsoft Sponsors MX East
We’re pleased to announce that Microsoft is the Platinum sponsor for MX East. This year, Microsoft launched Microsoft Expression Studio, a suite of design and interaction tools for user experience and web designers to bring vision to reality through designer-developer collaboration in the delivery of rich internet applications to the web. At MX East 2007, you can visit the Microsoft Silverlight Lounge to learn more about this and other innovations that will bring richer experiences to the web. Stay tuned for special offers Microsoft will have for MX East 2007 attendees.
We’d like to thank Microsoft for their support of MX East.
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