Posts by Dave Perks
More From SXSW: Merlin Mann & John Gruber
I think I finally figured it out. The reason I've started and stopped this blog post so many times is because I'm trying to wrap up everything that Merlin Mann and John Gruber had to say about blogging and social media when you can actually just listen to it for yourself right here:
This is exactly how they sat the entire time.
You can download their talk as a podcast. Total run time is about an hour (otherwise known as: Lunch).
Here are a few highlights to get you interested. Just for fun, I'm…
When there’s nothing left to do but back up.
This model of me at my desk is not to scale, nor is it accurate in color.
Man it's easy to get distracted. There's the internet, of course. Twitter. Facebook. Linkedin. A host of others and I haven't even walked away from my desk yet. That puts a whole other stream of shiny objects in your path. Co-workers who may not have seen last night's episode of The Office. Coffee that either needs to be brewed or poured, or poured out and re-brewed. Lunch. The gym. Co-workers who aren't sure if YOU saw…
The power of What If?
What if there was only scenery to look at when you drive?
When I was a kid, my parents bought a sailboat. My mom, dad and myself thought this was a very cool thing. Actually, I'm just assuming I thought it was cool because I do now and I was only three then. My sister, on the other hand, was 6 and she had A LOT of questions about our new family activity.
"What if the boat sinks?"
"What if it turns over?"
"What if I fall overboard?"
"What if we get lost?"
"What if the motor dies?"
"What if…
Opposing lessons in experience design (from outside the convention center)
Good. Really really good.
Last night, we went to dinner at a seafood and steakhouse in town called Truluck's. The food – awesome. The presentation – incredible. But the real surprise came at the end of the meal when, tucked in the folder with our bill, we got a business card from our server. Not for any hokey side business she mentioned during the night, but a professional card with her name and the restaurant's number.
Why should a server have business cards? For the same reason that they…
New City wrap up: Jared Spool – Journey to the Center of Design
Jared's talk focused on the effectiveness (or not) of designing strictly with the customer in mind, an argument he illustrated by posing Apple's success against Microsoft's. Apple has all but shut down their usability labs while Microsoft performs over 15,000 user tests per year. His question: Is Microsoft 15,000x more successful than Apple? (No response necessary)
Exploring both sides of the continuum
With his usual mix of lively stories and illustrations, Jared went on to talk about the…
Session wrap up: Behance – Tips for making ideas happen
Nothing happens if you do nothing with your ideas. Seems so simple.
Making the case for organization to a room full of creative folk isn't always easy, but it sure did make sense. Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, ran through a bit about the problems they've identified within creative organizations. Three of the big ones were what he calls the idea-to-idea syndrome, importance hording, and not sharing ideas early enough.
Idea-to-idea syndrome
This is when you generate a ton of ideas and never…
