After a 2 hour delay at the airport, I arrived in Austin just in time to make it to the Kathy Sierra Opening Remarks. Sidebar… For some reason, I want to say her name as if Oprah were saying it, or rather Tracy Morgan imitating Oprah saying it, Kathy Sieeeeeerrrrraaaaaa… Anyway, I’m so glad I made it for her presentation because of the other sessions I attended on Saturday, this one hit closest to home. Have you ever run into a problem with your computer or a web site and tried to go to the FAQs or Help section and found them anything but helpful? Well, her presentation was all about this. Her point was that help is typically written by people in “writer” mode and fails to have a human touch. Why do we forget this when we address FAQs and Help text? But it is so true. Her joking suggestion was to have a button which reads “WTF?”. I guess this is a panic button for the web generation and perhaps not a bad suggestion after all. Another term she used was “canyon of pain” which apparently is the gap between having a problem and solving it. I think I’ve been stuck in that canyon many times. She also made the point that computers can’t read our expressions and that if they could, they might understand the human aspect of frustration and be able to solve our problems from an emotional standpoint rather than computer speak or white lab coat help text. Well done, Kathy Sierra, I hope you inspire people to make the changes you propose.

Other random highlights…

Some other sessions I attended on the first day included Grids are Good, Web Hacks, and AOL’er Cindy Li’s panel From Tags to Riches. As it turns out, Cindy was quite the SXSWi celebrity. There must have been 50 or so people in the room wearing her “Geeks Love” t-shirt.

Celebrity sighting of the day… A few of us had dinner at the Ironworks BBQ where we saw Bill Paxton and his family enjoying some tasty BBQ. Sorry, no pics, I don’t mess with people when they are with their families.

Music regret of the day… Apparently, I went to bed to early and missed Grand Champeen performing. I think this was a CD release party. Grrr.

-Tom

Reposted from design.aim.com

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