An Event Apart Chicago 2008 - Day 1
10.13.08 | 11:13 PM CDT
The first day of An Event Apart Chicago is in the books. Think Jeffery Zeldman, Eric Meyer, and Dan Cederholm. As I headed home from the first day, making the tough choice to bypass the opening night party, I thought of what the conference meant to me at this point. More specifically, what I learned differently from last year.
Allow me to recap some of the more interesting points the speakers presented.
Jeffrey Zeldman - Understanding Web Design
Many designers fail to have empathy towards their audience. As a designers and web architects, we need to put ourselves in the users’ shoes, or as Jeffery described, moccasins.
Award winning design can be such a controversial topic. Even websites who have garnered some public award, such as the Communication Arts Interaction Design Annual, or the Webby Awards fail to lack even some aspect of the user’s needs. Take the Coke website for example. The front page tells nothing of the brand on first glimpse. After choosing your location, and are directed, a survey popup window appears. You’re not even into the site yet, and they would like you to take a survey? Um, sorry, no, I’ll be moving on. It’s also interesting when guys like David Bowie get recognized for lifetime achievement awards. Wow, I guess I didn’t realize that Bowie was such the web guru. Guess he spends time wrangling PHP when not thinking about music.
He mentions that good design is invisible. You want to create a comfortable, memorable experience for the users. This isn’t the time to throw down on some mad Photoshop skills and go wild with your bevel & emboss. Keep it simple, and if the users remember your site because of its simplicity, then I don’t have to tell you about the benefits.
Eric Meyer - Debug/Reboot
Mr. Meyer always brings the detailed coding aspect to the event. I’m always a fan of getting down to the nitty gritty of the code and learning new ways to do things, especially in CSS, this was no different.
He talks about using debug style sheets to help you find elements in your site that may otherwise be hidden. A diagnostic style sheet can help you find things like empty space that is hidden as text, missing alt tags, images without title attributes, etc. While not a new concept, he discusses how to put it into action. The “reboot” style sheet is used to set a baseline for a site in which to build upon. It’s a great idea, and one more web designers would benefit from using. Since it’s more technical than I’d like to get into here, read his article on it.
Jason Santa Maria - Storytelling by Design
Websites need to have a graphic resonance in a way that images provide a supporting effort of stronger meaning and message. The designer in this sense is ultimately the narrator of the story, just in a graphical sense. Typography and graphics can be used just as effectively together as they can apart.
A great design related quote:
...there is an urgent need for communication, based upon precision and clarity - Ladislav Sutnar 1964
There are many design factors or constraints that are commonly used such as the golden ratio and of course, the rule of thirds. These can be looked at as constraints, but often great designers look to constraints as a positive rather than another obstacle.
Robert Hoekman, Jr
Robert gave some live usability critiques for some audience submitted sites. One site that he did mention was www.fivesecondtest.com. A great and simple site used to check your usability goals for your website. You upload a screen shot of your website; send out the generated url to your participating members, they will then give you the results of what they saw as the most memorable part to your site. It worked well, and I can’t wait to try it out on my site.
Jason Fried - Web App UI Design
Copywriting is interface design. He points out that graphics can be replaced with text to aid the users experience. He talked a lot about doing the simple things to help the user feel more comfortable. For example, if you select multiple items on a form, it will say “3 items selected” rather than “1 items selected.” He showed off 37 Signal’s Basecamp and how simple bits of AJAX can really help the user in their experience. Timing and the attention to detail will set your website apart from the masses. His talk really made me want to become more proficient in AJAX. Hey, I want to play too!
One of the more resounding aspects I gathered from the first day was that content is king. The words on your site will do far more than you, as a web designer, may know at first. I know sometimes we all get caught up on the visualizations, but we really need to take a step back and consider our message. A clear, concise message reins superior over flashy, graphically intense productions.
I’ll be anticipating another very motivating day tomorrow. Until then.
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