Top 15 Takeaways from SXSW

Top 15 Takeaways from SXSW 19.March.2007

This year’s South by Southwest Interactive Conference was my first trip to Austin. I enjoyed the trip and the city, and what my employer is most excited about, I learned a lot too. I’d love to share what I learned, but to spare you my forty pages of notes, I’ll just list out the top things I learned at the 15 best sessions I attended:

  • Writing, Better
    Each medium has its own voice. The web’s is conversational. Write for the as if you were sitting at the kitchen table telling a story. A List Apart doesn’t reject articles based on bad semicolon use etc.. They reject articles because its not right for their audience, or is unclear. To aide in collaboration with other contributors, set up a Wiki which allows multiple people to edit at the same time and is excellent for version control. (Something simpler such as Google Docs or Writeboard may also serve the same need).
  • Web App Autopsy
    Less form fields = More Registrants. One of the panel members said that if they receive too many support requests they’ll just pull the feature. They evidently didn’t design it simple enough to use. Another panelist said that in his company they share tech support responsibilities among all employees, in all departments.
  • Spirituality Online
    You can say anything about yourself. It is when you talk about someone else that you encounter opposition.
  • Grids are Good
    One of their hypothetical requirements as they redesigned their hypothetical portal site was that it had to include a big ol ad (much like real life). So instead of letting that be a roadblock (and fighting it), they used it as their starting block (and it fit in beautifully).
  • Designing for Global Audiences
    Translating into another language is just the first step. Different cultures have different aesthetics and needs. Good companies adapt their products and brands to fit the culture. For example, the Honda Civic, has a first car, 20 something feel here in the US. In India, its marketed as a luxury brand. Other good examples that the panel noted were Ikea and Nokia for adapting their colors and functionality.
  • Get Unstuck
    Clients don’t understand their problem, but we have to if we are going to win their business. Jeffery Zeldman told a story about the first website he ever worked on. They were in a competitive pitch meeting with another company. The other, more experienced, company pitched first and just when they were getting too the point where Batman swoops in and says “Hi, I’m Batman”, Zeldman blurts out “Batman” doesn’t talk. He got a look from the client right than that basically told him they had won the gig.
  • American Cancer Society: Applying Tech to Non-Profits
    The American Cancer Society nurtures their volunteers expressions on the web and doesn’t try to own them all. They use existing technology their volunteers already use like Flickr as the central repository for Relay for Life photos as opposed to trying to control everything on their own site.
  • Bullet Tooth Web Design: Pulling off a website is like pulling off a robbery
    1. Do your homework: note everything and everybody. How you’re going to get in and out
    2. Put a crew together: made up of specialists. You also have to have muscle on your team: The person who has authority and can take control in a client meeting
    3. Plan for everything: milestones, everyone knows every part of the plan, even if their not involved yet.
    4. Pulling the job. remember, things come at you from behind and you have to be ready.
    5. The Payoff: hopefully its a big payoff.
    6. Make sure there are no loose ends
    7. You have to have a bullet proof plan
  • Virtual Teaming
    To manage a team without a physical office takes lots of communication, since you don’t have those “in the hall” times. Find ways to meet on the phone and have regular meeting times. Give time to account for cabin fever, most people just can’t sit inside all day and all night. Worry about getting projects done, not getting hours in. Find a system to handle phone calls, and transfers, professionally. Connect as a team via collaboration software electronically but bring everyone together in person for team building. It takes lots of managing but don’t micromanage.
  • Non-Profit Organizations 2.0
    An informal survey of the session attendees indicated that people want: transparency, easy ways to tell a friend, a feeling that you can actually make a difference, fun, recognition, and clearly defineded ways to contribute time and money. People will invest a lot of time in things they care about. A couple of good sites they mentioned in the session were Kiva and NetSquared.
  • Easily Attract your Ideal Clients
    Tarket = a singular persona that you are marking to. (I guess it stands for “target market”).
    “Nobody give a crap about how great your company is” – Carlon Hass
  • Search Engine Marketing and Usability Crossroads
    Good SEO will drive the right users to your website. Good usability with naturally help your SEO (ie. Section headers and content written for humans). Three big usability things they hit on were: have a clear call to action above the fold, promote trust, and have benefit statements.
  • Web Typography Sucks
    Use proper quotes and hyphens, en dashes and em dashes. The session also has a great website.
  • Can Social Marking Build Your Brand
    Social media sites broadcast user preferences. It’s cheaper than market research.
  • A Field Guide to Design Inspiration
    This was the best session I attended. Luckily the full audio is available from SXSW’s website. Follow-along slides are also available.

Speaking of full audio, many sessions I mentioned and many more I didn’t are available at the SXSW Podcast Page and they promise they will add almost all of them over the next few months. Small video clips of some sessions are also available.