Originally posted on Design.AIM.com

I know what you are thinking. Something like “Tom, are you excited about the big game this weekend?”. You haven’t been able to sleep you are so curious. My response is “Heck yeah, I’m excited about the big game. Aren’t you?”. If you happen to live on another planet, please allow me to explain. This weekend the mighty Florida Gators play the feeble UCLA Bruins in the 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournament Final Four Playoffs. It’s a rematch of last year’s final when the Bruins of course decided to spend time making sure their baby blue uniforms looked good instead of playing hoops.

What does this have to do with design you ask? Well, not much other than the fact that the University of Florida is where I received my degree in graphic design. To celebrate the big game I decided to scurry together a desktop background in honor of both teams (though primarily the Gators) and this soon to be historic event. I hope this will be the first of many desktop designs my AIM design peepz will make available in the future.

Now, I didn’t want to pick on the poor little Bruins any more than I already have so I’ve taken some liberties and changed their name to Bears. After all, a Bruin is a “baby” bear. And after the they loose, we can go back to calling them Bruins as we watch them wipe the tears away for the second time in two years.

Now, talkin’ trash is fun but in all due respect to the Bruins and their fans I wish you the best of luck. Your team will be looking for revenge which ought to make for an exciting game. May the best team win.

Without further ado, here are the desktops available for download:
Big (1600×1200)
Small (1024×768)

Special thanks to the folks who made their photos available for remix on Flickr. Here are their due credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lausanne/342796608/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackcustard/98691713/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davemorris/26347864/

Fonts used: Rusted Plastic, Trashed, Brody & Arial

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0

By day four, I abandoned my analog note taking process in favor of using my laptop for notes. The advantage of this is that I could browse web sites as they were mentioned and I can type faster than I can write. The flip side is that its too easy to wander. I would check my mail when there was a lull in the conversation. That is, of course, when bandwidth would allow. Web pages tend to hang when thousands of people are accessing content at the same time. All in all, the digital note taking process went pretty well until the end of the day when I had no battery life left and had to sit in the back near an outlet just to continue on. You tend to see handfuls of people tethered to the wall. It makes electricity seem like a narcotic for the digerati.

In terms of picking panels, my day started out great and slowly tapered worse. My first session, After Bust 2.0: Ten Years Later, Where Will We Be? was the first session I attended where the moderator didn’t really manage the flow of the panel yet the conversation was still really fluid and engaging. I believe this was due to the panel consisting of intelligent business folks.

Moderator: Lane Becker , Satisfaction Inc

Lane Becker Satisfaction Inc
Michael Sippey VP Prod, Six Apart Ltd
Gina Bianchini CEO, Ning Inc
Eric Hellweg Sr Editor, Harvard Business Review
David Hornik General Partner, August Capital
Narendra Rocherolle Co-Founder/Principal, 30 Boxes

Here are some high level points I jotted down during the discussion. I apologize in advance if I’ve misquoted anyone.

Notes:

• “when is it all going to fall apart and why?” asked by Lane Becker
• The opportunity to make money today is fundamentally different than it used to be than Web 1.0 - GB
• contrarily thinks a shake out could be on the way; thinks we will see some attrition - EH
• yahoo and google making much of the money that comes from online advertising
• people are trying to build something up and then sell it - NR
• people who invest in ideas do so because they think they are interstingly large (ideas) - DH
• there are always going to be companies that make it and companies that don’t make it;; survival of the fittest is good. - GB
• Online video is arguably the hottest market right now - EH
• Market
  is divided into 2 audiences. People with more time than money and
  people with more money than time. Serve both. (in reference to a
  question regarding ad interuptions in video experiences) - DH
• We are at a time where anyone with passion and a good idea can do amazing things - GB
• A small team of really productive people can do as much if not more as a large team - GB

Later in the day, Will Wright of soon to be SPORE fame gave a keynote on game design and story telling. I’m not much of a gaming fan, but I can tell that this new game SPORE is something beyond anything we’ve seen before. It looks highly addictive. The type of addiction that ruins marriages and people’s real life social interactions. I can see the psychologists lining up to study this. Will Wright is the kind of guy who can talk non-stop forever and he has an amazing way of articulating his points. A Midas of geekdom, the gaming world is better off with Will Wright at the throne. I didn’t take good notes during this keynote as this is where I started to get sucked away by the distractions of my computer, but I’m sure there are hundreds of posts covering this very topic. Search away.

The remaining topics of the day were lost on me. My interest faded as I seemed to have misfired on the session selections. I thought The Imago Effect: Avatar Psychology would be more about avatars outside the world of gaming. There were hints of it but Harvey Smith, the moderator, is a gamer as were much of the audience. I chose to attend The Ultimate Music Recommendation Smackdown thinking my interest in music would make this the pinacle of all the panels I attended. It wasn’t and I left halfway through to hear the angry rants of Bruce Sterling who, by the way, brings new meaning to the term “snarky”. I wish I had the thought of mind to write down the few one liners that were classics for the ages.

And thus, SXSW Interactive 2007 came to an end. Even though some of the sessions were hit or miss, attending the conference was an invaluable experience. It was great to see so many co-workers there and have the opportunity to get to know them better and to meet other industry folks in this little parallel universe of ours. Austin is a really friendly city as I can attest from the friendly cab driver who returned my cell phone. This was an opportunity of a lifetime for me and one that I’m extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in.

Oh, I almost forgot… music highlights of the day included Two Cow Garage w/ special guest Tim Easton, Grand Champeen, The Explorer’s Club and The Lemurs.

-Tom

Reposted from design.aim.com.

Day 3 couldn’t have started any crazier for me. For brief moment in time, I was totally disconnected from the world. I left my cell phone in the cab that dropped me off at the convention center. As soon as I realized that this happened, I accosted another cab driver to help me track him down. He was helpful in getting me in touch with dispatch but also said that people don’t usually get their phones back. That would be devastating. My cell phone has been my primary means of communication here at SXSW. I’ve even learned how to effectively text message people. Though, admittedly, I still have not mastered the T9 word recognition as Jenna can atest. Long story short, thanks to the help of a good friend, a friendly dispatch lady named Dee and the best cab driver in the world I recovered my phone in less than an hour. Too bad that nice tip I left him isn’t a tax write off, but at least I have my phone back.

Finally, the morning panels started off on the right foot. For the first time at this year’s event, I attended a panel of designers that were effective communicators. One thing I learned by day 3 is that you cannot attend a panel based on title alone. Its much more valuable to see if there are recognizable names or companies listed as panelists. Seeing that Jefrey Zeldman and Luke Wroblewski (whom I’ve never seen but adore in written word) were on a panel called Get Unstuck: Move from 1.0 to 2.0 I thought it would be worth the gamble even if I’ve struck out on most of the previous design panels. Moderated by Liz Danzico of Bobulate.com, it turns out this was the model panel I had been looking for for 2 days. Not only were each of the panelists able to articulate their individual points, the conversation was funny and engaging. One thing that Danzico did that I wish I’d seen at other panels was to give everyone in the audience an index card to write questions on. During the last 15 minutes, they collected the cards (over 150 of them) with questions and read 15 of them with no more than a minute for the panelists to respond. This prevented crazy audience members from abusing the microphone and allowed the panel to go through a fair amount of questions. Bravo, Danzico! A couple of interesting points came out of this session.

• Everyone is the design team. In other words, everyone has an opinion on design.
• You set up a wall by referring to yourself as the “design team” (see above)
• Make your team feel loved.
• Road shows to educate company about design can be less effective than just doing great design.
• Consider creating a persona to represent the user when negotiating features and user experience needs.

Soon after, I followed my new method of picking panels by attending one called Convergence Culture: A Conversation with Henry Jenkins whom I didn’t know but Jenkins was being interviewed by Danah Boyd whom I did know and had the utmost respect for. Score, this was another great session. Jenkins dominated the hour and probably could have spoken on topic for another 2 hours. Much of his talk was about the shift of culture from spectators to participants. It covered fandom, politics, morality and more. If you ever have the chance to see Henry Jenkins speak, I highly recommend it. For that matter, Danah Boyd offers amazing insight as well.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty good with the exception of a panel called Bullet Tooth Design led by Andy Clarke and Jason Santa Maria which was a total waste of a half hour. A good presentation needs more than an interesting theme (heists) and slides with good typography. Andy Clarke, I want my half hour back. Another bad one, which was once again a design panel led by designers, was How to Create A Kickass In-house Design Team. This was a total yawn fest even though the topic had all the promise in the world. Thanks to Dan Rather and Luke Wroblewski, the afternoon was not a total wash. Rather’s interview offered an insightful look at how media has changed over the course of his looooooong career. And Luke W. always keeps it real with his talks about design patterns.

Music highlights of the evening included performances by Matt the Electrician, Bob Scheider’s Lonelyland, What Made Milwaukee Famous and VoxTrot. All good stuff.

-Tom

Reposted from design.aim.com.

I’m not a fan of the panel format. I find more often than not, panels are only as good as the people moderating them. But also, it takes a well selected group of panelists to really make a panel good. I’m much more captivated by a single presenter who has pulled together a presentation that keeps me captivated and always ready to catch that next big point. Panelists tend to ramble and sometimes the conversation can run astray. This seems to be happening quite often at this year’s SXSW conference. Let me offer a few thoughts to consider for future panelists.

1. Don’t show up to your panel hungover. Being a panelist is a privilege that many other people would like to have. I don’t care how smart and clever you are. If you show up to your panel and you use a hangover as an excuse, its a poor reflection of you and a huge disappointment to those who have paid there hard earned dollars to come see you.
2. Show up. See above. If you don’t get bombed the night before. Your chances of being there to present are much greater.
3. Know your topic. Think about the subject matter before hand and have at least one or two points available to share. This is your time to help others get insight that has given you success.
4. Let the moderator do their job. The moderator’s job is to maintain a good flow of the conversation, ask good questions and allow every panelist to have a fair share of time to talk. Far too often one panelist will dominate the conversation. This isn’t a soap box. Don’t use it that way.

For the moderator:

1. Pick good panelists. If you have the opportunity to select people to be on your panel, reach outside of your friends and pick folks who are articulate and diverse.
2. Lead. Watch the clock. Keep a natural flow. Break the session up into a few subtopics and manage the time for each well.

For the audience:

• Ask your question and then get out of the way. Don’t use open questions as your forum to plug yourself or abuse the time of other people who want to ask questions. There is usually only 5 minutes for questions and there are usually several people who want to ask them.

Now that I got that off my chest, here’s are some highlights from Day 2 at SXSW. Frankly, the first three sessions I attended on Sunday inspired my rant. For the moderators and panelists for Every Breath You Take: Identity, Design Workflows and the Keynote Conversation: Phil Torrone & Limor Fried, you wasted my morning and probably did the same for many other folks. I say this with the utmost respect. I know your job isn’t easy and I’m not sure I could do a better job put in your shoes. Regardless, maybe a little negative feedback will help your format in the future.

It wasn’t until the Building an Online Fan Base panel moderated by Scott Kirsner from Variety that the day was redeemed and this didn’t happen until 3pm. If there weren’t 2 more days of the festival, I would have felt cheated at this point. To offer an explanation of this panel, one of the themes of the discussion was that filmmakers own the responsibility for creating a fan base for their films. I think this applies to all fan fueled programming. Another point made was for filmmakers and their equivalents to reach out to fan bases with creative means by getting people involved with the films before release. Joe Swanberg of Hannah Takes the Stairs says that a new movie is the best advertisment for an old movie. Lance Weiler of Workbook Project built a web experience to promote his movie at HeadTraumaMovie.com on a tight budget along with a component that allows the fan to call in and receive a creepy callback. Ian Schafer’s group at Deep Focus allowed the first Clerks II fans to become “friends” on MySpace to be added to the movie’s credits. This was the best panel I attended on Sunday which provided redemption for an otherwise lame day.

I did attend one more panel of worth this day titled The Rise of the Blogebrity moderated by Kyle Bunch of Blogebrity. Panelists included Amanda Congdon of AmandaCongdon.com, Henry Copeland of Blogads, Nick Douglas of LookShiny.com, Karina Longworth of Vidiocy.com and Casey McKinnon of Galacticast.com.

Music of the day… VoxTrot at the Come Mashup With Us party held at Austin City Limits.

Here’s to high hopes for Day 3.

-Tom

Reposted from design.aim.com.

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