Rubberband Wound

This is much later than I’d intended, but here goes!

Two days in, still learning a lot of things. The ideas I’m getting from all this are more than I’d expected, and it’s really motivating.

On with the highlights from Day Two.

1000 - Designing For Convergent Devices

• What is the experience for a site/product on a Computer, TV, handheld, phone? How do they change, and what do we do differently for each?
• We should be in this for the long haul, we don’t need to get every piece of data from the user right away
• Default as many things as you can; figure out what assumptions you can make; try to do as much behind the scene as you can.
• Look for the economies that allow you to make things easier for the user.
• Take the simplest pieces of the experience, don’t assume that they know things, don’t try to introduce things they won’t know
• I’m putting something on a device that does something well - does what I’m doing fit with that?
• What are the different experiences good for? Web for creating, data entry, phone for receiving, simple data entry, etc.

1130 - Making Your Short Attention Span Pay Big Dividends

• "Because We Could"
• Many people start out trying to build A, and end up building B or D
• Need to continually be moving, trying things
• "It’s much easier to steer a moving ship" - Josh Williams (Firewheel)
• Doesn’t matter if it’s half-assed, get it out, make it happen.
• "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night" - Edgar Allan Poe
• Execution of the idea is as important as the idea itself
• "It’s easier to fall in love than it is to stay married" - not everything you try will last.

1400 - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Mobile Web…

• 3 C’s
  • Cost
  • Content
  • Context
• "Find a need and fill it"
• XHTML-MP is pratically the same as XHTML
• Wireless CSS is very different from CSS
• Keep it simple for the mobile web
• Developing for Mobile - Focus on 5 (Nokia 40 series, RAZR, Treo, LG or Samsung Freebies, Windows Mobile)

1530 - The Business Side of Web Design

• Keep your services simple - one or two things
• Don’t Trust Your Brain - Write down deadlines, make notes about everything, don’t trust yourself to remember it
• Don’t let clients follow up with you - By the time a client calls you to follow up, you should have already contacted them
• Don’t let colleagues follow up - When you tell a colleague you’ll get something done, you should keep them posted and stay on top of it.
• Think Long Term, Act Short Term

1405 - The Future of Javascript

This was mostly looking at the new versions of JS, and nothing good for bullet points. I learned a lot, though, and realized I have a lot of things to check out.

1700 - Uniting the Holy Trinity of Web Design

• Business Demands, User Experience, Development
• Three areas you have to tie together to make a kick ass website
• Why does a site fail? - If you don’t address all of these issues, take these all in to account, your site will probably fail.
• Don’t stop learning new things - you might not know everything as well as another, but it’s good to be aware.
• Empower your whole team - if someone can do something, let them do it