Future of Web Design (Day 2) - Aarron Walters And Sarah Parameter
Welcome to the afternoon, lunch has been consumed (at Starbucks) and we are raring to go for the third of four sessions for the day. In this session two very different presentations around the key concept of design (not development).
Aarron Walters – Learning to Love Humans
This presentation is by one of the founders of mailchimp (http://www.mailchimp.com) not a service I have thought of subscribing to but one that is recognised in the industry for its innovative design. The presentation was called amusingly “Learn to Love Humans”. It aimed to show that emotion should be a strong factor in the development of a website design. It started with the premise that the changing nature of the internet (specifically the increasing use of social media) means that people are starting to expose themselves as human beings rather that remote non-entities and that web design should reflect that.
This was followed by an glimpse of Maslow’s Pyramid of needs which Aarron indicated could be translated into an equivalent pyramid of interface design needs. Aarron stated that interface design needs to be functional, reliable, usable, pleasurable. Today’s designs tend to be able to fulfil the first three of these to varying degrees but few (if any) could be described as pleasurable. For example 37Signals designs implementations for BaseCamp are often heralded for their ease of use and functional approach to project management but they cannot be described as pleasurable. On the other hand WuFoo (a forms creation tool) brings a colour delight to forms creation so increasing the pleasure of what is basically a database interface.
In effect Interface Design needs to incorporate the concept of personality, personality is an important part of every individual. More importantly it is a platform for emotion and emoting is one of the first things we do when we are born. We quickly learn that broadcasting emotion can result in the satisfaction of needs. Interface Designs need to bathe users in emotion.
Tapbots is a company that have succeeded in this concept. Their iphone applications are a brilliant example of bringing pleasure to non-pleasureable activities. 
Weightbot, for example, brings just the right blend of function and pleasure to the tracking of weight (an activity that usually indicates a not too positive frame of mind). Designed on the concept of Wall-E, they combine clean, functional design with the basic features of a face to make their application more attractive, more pleasurable to Humans.
Aarron indicated that there were a number of approaches to the adding of pleasure including:
Treats – Providing mild amounts of humour within the site
Discovery – Using easter eggs to deliver additional pleasure when something good or bad happens
The main aim of this type of design can be used to overcome humans natural inclination to doubt, it can also have the additional benefit of bringing forgiveness when something goes wrong.
Overall this presentation was just what this conference needed. An emotion response to design issues, not steeped in the technicalities of how to deliver such experiences but a real view into how designers should be thinking when building the websites of the future.
Sarah Parmenter – 10 Tips for iPhone Interface Design
Sarah is a designer focused on the field of iPod/iPhone/iPad design. She provided 10 key thoughts crucial to successful design of an Apple App (how to get it past Apple’s approval process and into the hands of users). Sarah brought her not inconsiderable knowledge of app design and the oddities of Apple to an audience who are probably unfamiliar with many of these issues. Her ten thoughts focus on:
- Making a clear Development choice between App and Web App
- Clearly defining the purpose of the application from fun tool to serious entertainment
- Provide Inspiring design documents – do not just send designs by e-Mail
- Be Prepared for UX interjection – expect clients to have their own ideas
- Understand the orientation, dimension an hierarchy elements of iphone design
- Unravel Hi-Fidelity UI – know when to bring this into the discussion
- Take time to design a beautiful icon – it is the flagship of the product
- Understand the App approval process
This presentation was clearly targeting freelance designers (as opposed to developers or those of us who work for corporate). It talked about the right ways to approach pricing and hints on how to engage customers effective. It was concise clear and great content for this type of event.
These two presentations were by far the best of the day the presenters knew their audience, pitched their content at the right level, had a clear message and brought it forth in a commanding way. Its great to be able to attend events with this level of quality. Long may it continue.
