We had an amazing trip to South America, but it is so nice to be home again. A few small luxuries I missed while in Peru for 33 days: safe drinking water, reliable hot water, toilet seats, being able to flush toilet paper. Two of my new favorite fruits are granadillas (gelatinous, pulpy passionfruit) and shimbillo (sweet seed pod fruit). I kind of wish I could live in Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu town), which has natural thermal baths and serves as the gateway to the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.

Lima, the capital and largest city, is the hub of travel to anywhere in Peru, so we were there on four separate occasions. We spent the weirdest Christmas ever in the dirty jungle city of Pucallpa (including a breathtaking 360 degrees of fireworks at midnight on Christmas Eve). We spent New Year’s Eve in Lima (including dinner in Barranco in a 1909 train car with stained glass cathedral windows and wood paneling, and dangerous seaside fireworks in Miraflores).

I have almost 3,000 photos to sort through. My girlfriend is already posting her photos to Flickr, but it may take me forever to do the same. Back in Oregon, our cats definitely gained weight while we were in Peru. Even Tanuki looks chubby now. Emotional eating? Or sheer laziness plus unlimited food? Reminds me of this classic A Softer World comic.

Below is an outline of some of the places we visited. I have a journal full of handwritten notes, and there are many stories to tell, but this trip outline is all I can manage at the moment. After a weekend of recovery, I was thrust back into my pre-vacation work life today. The profound culture shock of being back in my own country—and having to return to my desk, in an office with no windows, where I stare at a computer screen for eight hours each day—is deeply troubling.

The Inca Empire: December 4-13

• Lima
• Puno/Lake Titicaca/Uros floating islands/Taquile Island
• Puca Pucará/Raqchi
• Cusco
• Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu
• Sacred Valley (Písac/Urubamba/Ollantaytambo)
• Cusco/Sacsayhuamán
• Lima

The Amazon jungle: December 13-31

• Lima
• Pucallpa
• Yarinacocha Lake/Puerto Callao/La Jungla
• San Francisco de Yarinacocha (Shipibo village)
• Pucallpa
• Lima

The high desert: December 31-January 6

• Lima
• Nasca/Nazca Lines
• Arequipa
• Lima

By the way, 2011 was the 100th anniversary of Machu Picchu’s “discovery.” And it was the first year of the Nazca Lines-inspired Peru’s New Brand. I love Peru’s new logo.

The terrible Auto-Tuned music

As a bonus, here are some dance-pop songs I remember hearing endlessly and unavoidably on Peruvian radio (mainly CPN Radio 90.5 FM Lima) while traveling. We were subjected to these Auto-Tuned sounds during all hours of the day, especially in Pucallpa. Sak Noel produces music even worse than Rebecca Black songs. Some things can’t be unheard. I ended up liking a few of these songs, possibly due to Stockholm Syndrome. This is music to rot your brain. The last video is a Shipibo song from the Amazon jungle. Listen to them all in this YouTube playlist: “Peru loves Auto-Tuned dance-pop music.”

• Michel Teló: Ai Se Eu Te Pego
• Sak Noel: Paso (The Nini Anthem) and Loca People (What The Fuck)
• LMFAO: Party Rock Anthem
• Joey Montana: La Melodia
• Usher (featuring Pitbull): DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love
• Pitbull: Give Me Everything
• Farruko: Pa Romper La Discoteca and Hola Beba
• J. Álvarez: Junto Al Amanecer and Regalame Una Noche
• Plan B: Si No Le Contesto and Es Un Secreto
• Black Eyed Peas: The Time (Dirty Bit)
• Shakira (featuring Pitbull): Rabiosa
• Jennifer Lopez (featuring Pitbull): On The Floor
• Jay-Z (featuring Alicia Keys): New York
• Britney Spears: Till The World Ends
• Katy Perry: Firework and California Gurls
• And we also heard this from some Shipibo friends:
  Los Shipis: Ishtontani Amenwe

Why is Pitbull, a Cuban-American rapper, sneering and barking on almost every track that gets played in Peru? Some things we can never know. If you’re really in love with this kind of music, check out the PERÚ Top 100 for more pop inspiration.

More updates and pixel art

For more regular updates, you may want to follow me on Twitter. Also, check out my recent Peru-themed 8-bit pixel art at Mascot Mashup.

A few weeks ago, I received a DVD screener of their latest film, Glitch in the Grid. I recently posted my 15-word review to Filmometer.com, but I want to expand on my thoughts here.

Glitch in the Grid

Glitch in the Grid by Eric Leiser is a film about three artists—starring the filmmakers—trying to find themselves and understand the next phases of their lives. Acting quality was the main weakness of Imagination, but it is fairly solid in this film. It is apparent that these guys are basically playing themselves, which certainly lends believability to the endeavor and gives the film a documentary flavor.

However, as with any creation inherently about yourself, avoiding self-indulgence remains a challenge. By the end, this film is mired in heavy-handed religious imagery and a general lack of structure. I had wished for the film to illustrate a beautiful, spiritual transformation that would complement the charming animation—and I think it wanted to be such a work of art, but it is weighed down and muddied by a specific, contrived form of spiritual understanding.

The film progresses from an exploratory, open, allegorical animation of the struggles of modern life to what seems like a very narrow, Christian perspective of the infinite forms spirituality can take. I had been hoping for a more inclusive expression of how adults might stay in touch with their inner children and find both personal renewal and spiritual meaning. But the characters seem to believe that rejecting “our fast food society” in favor of accepting Jesus Christ as our personal savior is the only path to happiness and inner peace. Clearly, there are countless ways to leave “the grid” and rediscover childlike wonder and lighthearted humanity. I started to lose interest during the last third of the film because of the degree to which the filmmakers indulge their own personal beliefs and delusions, and aimlessly complain about being marginalized by modern society.

During the first half, I had been interested in, and excited by, the possibilities for cathartic human transformation the film seems to weave—especially as it is being deepened by magical animations of the natural environment. But I was disappointed that the conclusion—despite being one of hope and renewal—feels contrived, vain and strongly tied to conventional Christianity. This film could have held much more meaning for me if the profound power of faith supposedly being illustrated remained more allegorical, if they hadn’t unnecessarily (probably unintentionally) alienated those who might subscribe to a different form of spirituality.

I feel it is a sign of mature filmmakers (and, more broadly, human beings) to be able to move beyond their own worldviews and dogmas and reach for allegories that stretch across and illuminate all of humanity, regardless of their personal mythologies. I don’t feel these guys are quite there yet (are any of us?), but they’re trying hard—and I admire their passion and creativity, despite feeling alienated as a viewer. I also admire their desire to work on their own terms, outside of the Hollywood studio system.

Lastly, as I brought up in my review of Imagination, I selfishly wish Eric Leiser would more fully focus his filmmaking in the realm of stop-motion animation, along the lines of Jan Svankmajer or the Brothers Quay or Michel Gondry, because I feel his unique animation style is an obvious strength of both films and I would love to see more of it.

Thanks to the Leiser Brothers for the opportunity to watch their film. I look forward to their next project, as they continue to grow as people and artists. Theatrical screenings of Glitch in the Grid are coming soon to New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland and more. You can watch the Glitch in the Grid trailer at albinofawn.com.

Attention Oregonians: On Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 7 pm, there will be a Glitch in the Grid screening in Portland at the Hollywood Theatre.

I am attending the HOW Design Conference 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Below are my notes from the sessions I attended on Monday.

9:45 am-11:00 am – 36. All Your Creativity Questions Answered – Deborah Morrison, Heather Lins, Chris Chapman & Chris Elkerton
You’ve seen how Chris Chapman, Chris Elkerton, Heather Lins and Deborah Morrison keep their creative juices flowing and consistently deliver innovative concepts. Now’s your chance to ask them anything you want (preferably related to creativity). Even if you missed their earlier sessions, you’re more than welcome to come join the discussion in this panel-style session.

• Session hashtag: #howanswers.
• disneycollegeprogram.com - internship
• “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
• No idea is ever original; get as much influence as possible; the best take stuff and put their own spin on it.
• “Your ideas aren’t precious.” – Heather
• Get out of the studio to generate ideas.
• Chris C.: My office is the world … my physical office is only where I execute
• Support people getting out of the office, and make the office more open and collaborative
• Everything is a Remix video series
• Statistical proof: The more fun people have, the more productive they are
• More design inspiration (through curation):
  • Brain Pickings – Deborah’s inspiration
  • The Cool Hunter
  • Inspiration Fuse sites
  • Designboom – good to look at 3D when you’re a 2D artist
  • Trend Hunter
  • Lovely Package
  • GOOD magazine
• Be a student of the world and never stop learning
• Get yourself out of your element
• Get engineers (or business people/marketers) and designers together from day one.
• Making the whole company creative might be better than building an isolated pod of creative people.
• Pick and choose your battles wisely.
• Have non-designers describe what’s not working instead of art-directing you.
  • You are the professional designer. Don’t let them move layout. Have them rely on you.
  • It’s really them just putting their thumbprint on something because they want to be part of the process.
  • Ask them: “What is this not achieving?” Big picture, not details. (Define roles, and context.)
  • You’ve got to train them on what their role is.
  • Example question: “Does this design recommendation you’re making impact the success criteria we’ve established?”
  • Don’t let them stand over you as you work.
• Search: innovation-based culture
• Academic credentials and working for universities:
  • Chris C.: All my biggest heroes dropped out of school or didn’t go to school at all.
  • Chris E.: You can go get the letters after your name, but if you’re a dick you’re not going to get the job.
  • Chris C.: “Get them [the manager] an MBA (Manage by Absence)” – your designer doesn’t have ownership because they know they are going to be micromanaged.
  • “Creativity is change. Universities don’t like to change.”
• Find this TED talk: Pixar (at their worst) during the Toy Story 2 process

11:15 am-12:30 pm – Closing Keynote – 39. Fascinate: How to Persuade and Captivate – Sally Hogshead
Why are you captivated by some people and not others? Why do certain messages convince you to change your opinion while others go ignored? And how can you create designs that irresistibly attract attention?

Find out as Sally Hogshead reveals her secrets for creating ideas that both persuade and captivate your audience. You’ll discover:

• which of the 7 fascination triggers you naturally use to persuade and captivate
• how to provoke strong and immediate emotional connections in your design and presentations—and even in your personal life
• how to influence decisions using the 7 fascination triggers: power, lust, mystique, prestige, alarm, vice and trust

What makes your personality irresistibly fascinating? Find out by taking the F-Score Personality Test.

• Session hashtag: #howfascinate.
• Are you selling a green ticket or are you selling an orange ticket? An orange ticket is fascinating.
• We take things that have no intrinsic meaning and we make them more meaningful and valuable.
• “Hi” is the GAP khakis of online dating.
• If your message fails to captivate … you get lost in the crowd.
• 9 seconds is our attention span (BBC study) and our brains are being rewired. You’re designing to goldfish.
• “In a competitive environment, the most fascinating wins.”
• The about your name that makes it different will one day make you love it.
• What makes you different, what sets you apart.
• Free digital version of her first book, Radical Careering: 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life: sallyhogshead.com/rc
• Expressing your truest self is ultimate competitive advantage.
• You can be comfortable, or creative, but not both.
• Better to fail by going down in flames….
• Design comes in two flavors: Vanilla and Pistachio. If you want to create Pistachio, do not work at a (soul-crushing) Vanilla company.
• The 7 Triggers of Fascination (triggers are like instruments; the reasons why are almost compulsive about certain people & media).
• Mystique is almost the opposite of Passion; it is the most delicate of all the triggers.
• Rebellion is the trigger of creativity.
• Trust was the most dormant by a longshot among the HOW attendees.
• Trust is about consistency and reliability – make you work exciting and your structure boring if you want trust. Establish and repeat patterns to build trust long-term.
• Alarm is about deadlines and consequences. What is the negative consequence of not taking a particular action? If (not) X, then Y. Now your own emotional journey.
• Emotional journey of creative process: 1. possibility, 2. doubt, 3. agony (I am a hack and world is going to figure it out; I actually suck and this project is going to unveil me), 4. epiphany, 5. craft. The most important part is the agony, where you work through all the things that have already been done. Truly revolutionary ideas happen during the Throne of Agony. The worse it gets, the better the epiphany is going to be.
• Take the test: FScoreTest.com
• Mark Zuckerberg: Power and Mystique.
• HOW Design attendees:
  • 43% on the Passion trigger, secondary on the Rebellion trigger. (18% is statistically significant.)
  • You defend the world from predictability.
  • Passion is not a luxury. It is an imperative.
  • You rarely sort of care. The world is not changed by people who sort of care.
  • Use your natural fascination talent. It’s not enough to be the better (or best) unless it’s you.
• Make people fall in love with your ideas.

Thanks, Chicago. Back to Oregon.

I am attending the HOW Design Conference 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. Below are my notes from the sessions I attended on Saturday.

9:00 am-10:15 am – 3. Galumphing, Goats on Roofs and Other Revelations to Spark Inspiration – Sam Harrison
You come to the HOW Design Conference looking for inspiration. Jumpstart your first full day with this idea-igniting session hosted by industry veteran Sam Harrison. He’ll show you how to get up out of your chair and chase down inspiration, moving past the ordinary to discover the extraordinary. You’ll head back to the office with renewed powers of passion and play, all so you can fill your work with life—which is much more inspiring than filling your life with work.

• Session hashtag: #howgoats.
• Proficient → efficient → sufficient (at any skill)
• Galumphing (a Lewis Carroll word): proud play, to be silly, to be playful
• Nothing intelligent gets done with silliness
• Need permission to be lighthearted
• “The lightness of a beginner frees up creativity.” – Steve Jobs
• Paraphrase: “A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• Fail earlier to succeed sooner
• Does what I’m doing inspire me or tire me? Am I just doing it out of habit?
• Creativity is the encounter of the intensively conscious person with the world
• Go out there and gawk
• What we focus on is what we’re going to see
• Does your environment/mind have an “atmosphere of generosity”? (giving/receiving ideas freely)
• Related: Have a creative network
• Book: The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
  • Chicago World’s Fair and serial killer in Chicago
  • Ragtime, zipper, Walt Disney’s father
• What really inspires you?
• Money is a threshold motivator – not a strong force once your needs are met
• “Passion is not the quantity of emotion; it’s the quality of commitment.”
• “You are the greatest asset you will ever own.”

10:45 am-12:00 pm – 8. Creative Stuff: The Comprehensive Bulleted List – Chris Elkerton
Join Chris Elkerton as he divulges a wealth of secrets and ideas for staying creative when the daily grind is getting you down—amazingly, they’re all tips he gathered from friends, family, colleagues, design industry pros and everyday creative people.

You’ll see that it doesn’t take a lot of time and effort to get the creative juices flowing and you’ll leave ready to tackle your next great project with excitement and enthusiasm. Come prepared—this session will feature hands-on interaction from the audience.

• Follow Chris on Twitter: @opieshuffle. Session hashtag: #howbullets.
• Founded 3 Dogz Creative Inc.
• Get inspired
  • Theo Jansen – Kinetic Sculptor – walking on sand dunes in Holland
  • “I never lost the kid in me. I still look at design with the same eyes as when I was 10.” – Dominic Ayre
  • Homeless World Cup
  • Obituaries in the paper
• Start simple
  • “Fuck Photoshop” pencil – James Victore (2011) – “It’s a class about thinking. How the fuck do you do that in front of computer?”
  • Meridian acupuncture point energy diagram
  • Margo Chase: Keep it Fresh – emma.com
  • Line Drawing Madness exercise
• Get hands on
  • Taking photos of letters of the alphabet in the everyday
  • Refinished pinball machine
  • World maps made of type and letterpressed – Nancy McCabe
  • You have to take the time to work on your projects
• Keep a healthy mindset
  • Stay positive in order to achieve any good work in the design industry
  • You need to change your perspective sometimes – approach visuals from a different
  • Alex McClain: aerial photography to create patterns
  • Brand New website – Armin Vit (so much negativity related to design/web comments)
  • John Gabriel’s Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory
  • Cow diagram: Design → Public Relations → Marketing → Advertising → Branding
  • “HELLO my name is” sticker: 2nd most important design piece in history – according to Art
• Bring it all together
  • “Mad Men” signs
  • Force yourself to push the design
  • Collaborate!
  • “Playing for Change” video – “Gimee Shelter” cover – playingforchange.com
  • “If you hit this sign, you will hit that bridge.”
  • “Master your instrument … master your … forget all that bullshit and just play.”

2:00 pm-3:15 pm – 13. Get Out of Your Rut! – Cami Travis-Groves
Clearly picture your rut: using the same colors, patterns and fonts, falling into the same kinds of situations, doing the same kinds of projects…over and over. Are they just old habits or are you afraid of change?

Cami Travis-Groves will help you get—and stay—out of your rut by identifying what’s keeping you there in the first place. You’ll learn ways to let go of your fears and coax creativity from deep within you. You’ll even get the chance to share your pearls of wisdom with the rest of the audience.

• Follow Cami on Twitter: @imaccami. Session hashtag: #howrut.
• Stories of quantum physics, caterpillars and cilantro to help you get—and stay—out of your rut!
• Sometimes you just need to take a step.
• Giraffes are kept in by a psychological moat. Because they are afraid of falling (from birth when they fall six feet?). Be aware of your psychological moats so can get past them.
• There’s only one flavor of you that can do what you do how you do it.
• Underpromise and overdeliver.
• Stay humble.
• Monkeys in a cage with bananas story. Try a new approach.
• Your personal economy is what you can afford to give – and very little of that has to do with money.
• Quantum designing – Aaron O’Connell, quantum physicist – the golden time between sleep and awake – in a quantum world, multiple universes are possible and probable – so, the answer is always out there and it will come to you if you look for it. Our surroundings dictate who we are – the nature of our interactions with you and other people will shape who you are. Future book: “Whatever flips your Twinkie.” Don’t hang out with people and places that don’t inspire you.
• Diffuse the emotion, restate back what the problem is, and then step out of the equation.
• You are not your designs. You are not your creations. You are not your illustrations.
• Geeking out: BaconIpsum.com
• Never, never be afraid to single yourself out. It may pay off.
• Ask questions. Especially of kids.
• STOP – Share This (yourself) with Other People.
• Download the “Get Out of Your Rut” handout.

3:45 pm-5:00 pm – 18. Turning Your Creative Obsessions into Opportunities – Armin Vit
Whether it’s collecting, drawing, imagining or writing, we all have creative obsessions that we tend to neglect for fear that they’re a waste of time—or because they’re not billable. But there are designers out there who’ve been able to turn these obsessions into profitable and well known projects through books, websites or even just an expanded client base.

UnderConsideration’s Armin Vit will take a look at the paths some of these designers took, exploring the obsessions that led to these projects and the results they generated. You’ll learn different ways to channel your own creative pursuits, along with tips for making sure they get noticed.

• Session hashtag: #howopps.
• What is creative obsession? It’s the unnecessary expense of time, energy and thought put into any given subject or object that manifests in a tangible way.
• It can last a week. It can last years.
• What is opportunity? A situation that may provide a return on investment in the form of money, exposure, or validation. Or all.
• Examples: From creative obsession to publication, Internet fame and/or business.
• To Publications:
  • Collections:
    • Lisa Congdon – A Collection a Day
    • “In the age of the Internet, good enough is pretty damn good.”
    • PK – Bibliodyssey
    • Noah Scalin – Skull-A-Day
  • Monsters: Stefan Bucher – The Daily Monster
  • Generate content ^10
  • Variety is the spice of life. Prep your pitch.
• To Internet Fame:
  • Good Taste: Tina Roth Eisenberg – swiss-miss.com
  • Color & Outfits: Jessi Arrington – luckysoandso.com
  • Type & Humor: Jessica Hische – jessicahische.is – The Daily Drop Cap
  • Data Visualization: Nicholas Felton – feltron.com
  • Mashups: Olly Moss – ollymoss.com
  • Lessons from this model: Find a niche. And explore that. And if all else fails…
    • Double Rainbows – Paul “Bear” Vasquez
  • Stupid can work.
• To Business:
  • Detail & Style: Marian Bantjes – bantjes.com – “A Wonder” book
  • Simplicity: 37 Signals – 37signals.com – “Getting Real” PDF – Basecamp – “Rework” book
  • Letterpress: Jon Selikoff – voteforletterpress.com
  • Packaging: Andrew Gibbs – thedieline.com
  • Graphic Design: Us – underconsideration.com
    • Speak Up blog
    • The Design Encyclopedia
    • Brand New blog and Brand New classroom
    • FPO (For Print Only)
    • Quipsologies blog
    • Books: The Word It Book, Women of Design, Graphic Design Referenced and Flaunt
    • Brand New Conference – September 2011
    • Brand New Awards
• Lessons: You can’t anticipate. You can react. Look for the opening. Have money in the bank.
• 2. The Secret Ingredient: Stupidity.
• Cites “The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity.” Third Basic Law: Stupid people create a loss for themselves and for others. Four quadrants: Intelligent people – Bandits/Douchebags – Helpless – Stupid.
• Stupidity can lead to creativity. Creativity can lead to your obsessions. You obsessions can lead to opportunity.
• Examples of stupidity:
  • Idiocracy
  • Matt Stevens in Charlotte, North Carolina: Dunkin Donuts rebrand → Varsity Donuts
  • Type Sandwiches by David – everyday
  • Comic Sans – Brad Gilbert, Cleveland Cavaliers: using Comic Sans in the context of his LeBron James letter was like Strawberry Shortcake saying, “Fuck off.”
  • Netflix Prize – Dyslexflix: recommending wrong since 2008
• Stupidity beats inhibition. (And inhibition is what stops us from doing things we’re afraid of doing.) Lack of inhibition prevents obsessions. Stupidity leads to creativity. Creativity leads to opportunities.
• Do something for yourself. Put it out there. Expect the pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow. Do expect the best, but prepare for the worst.
• If opportunity knocks, just open the damn door.

Continue to HOW Design 2011 in review: Part three »

On Wednesday through Friday, May 25-27, I attended the WebVisions 2011 conference at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Below is a quick overview of all sessions I attended on Friday, with links. Many of the slides from these sessions and others are available at SlideShare. See Twitter updates using #wv11.

Design Camp: What’s Next for Web Fonts in CSS3 – Thomas Phinney
(8:45 am to 9:30 am | session details)

• @font-face – choose whatever name you like: BodyFont
• Many font formats required, but converging on WOFF
• Self-hosting vs. web font services
• CSS3 typography:
• Text module: Hyphenation, Grid-based layout, various wrap options, handing punctuation, multiple columns
• Fonts Module: kerning and ligatures (turn on optimized legibility in CSS in Firefox), full OpenType features and alternates
• Firefox OpenType font feature support: mzl.la/ff4-ot
• OpenType in Action
• Ligatures: multiple letters colliding: f-i collision – use standard ligatures all the time – happens via alternate glyphs (built into many fonts)
• Tabular lining, proportional lining, proportional oldstyle, tabular oldstyle
• Stylistic sets for levels of swashiness (swashes)
• Contextual alternates of glyphs plus ligatures

Ambient Location and the Future of the Interface – Amber Case, Aaron Parecki
(9:15 am to 9:30 am)

• Geolocation: MapAttack!
• Invisible location-based where you can actually live; the best interface is invisible.
• See slides.

30-Minute Prototyping – Brad Nunnally
(9:30 am to 10:00 am)

• Sketching starts out with defining the real estate of your site. 70% of my design is done on paper before I start using software.
• Protyping software: Axure
• Define the visual hierarchies; define the location of the navigation bar
• Can turn it into a navigable prototype and can user feedback on how the navigation is behaving
• Annotate placeholders (or representative content) to then hand over to a visual designer to fill in
• Gray-box aspects of the design out
• Lorem ipsum is a technique I try to avoid as much as possible
• [skipping the rest of this Axure demo for the sci-fi/interface design presentation]

Make it So: The Uncanny Relationship Between Science Fiction and Interface Design – Nathan Shedroff | session details)
(9:30 am to 10:00 am)

• Science fiction television shows and films yield practical lessons that apply to online, social, mobile and other media interfaces.
• Sci-fi interfaces allow us to see current issues from fresh perspectives.
• Sci-fi is a good and legitimate way to prototype and design.
• “Businesspeople are fiction writers.”
• “R2-D2 is probably the best-acted character in Star Wars.” Simple beeps and buzzes carry the anthropomorphic effect.

The Mobile Frontier – Rachel Hinman
(10:30 am to 11:00 am)

• Summary coming soon.
• See slides.

Experience Design: Getting a Seat at the Strategy Table – Samantha Starmer
(11:00 am to 11:15 am)

• Business/marketing speak: Pre-sell, pick your battles, offer solutions, talk the talk, walk the walk
• See slides.

Deep Tissue Massage: 6 Tips for Alignment Across Device Form Factors & Input Models – Nate Koechley
(11:15 am to 11:30 pm)

• Yahoo (design prototypers and design architects)
• 6. Balance: Device vs. brand; custom vs. native
• 5. Create familiar experiences: familiar ≠ same; experience = familiar; platform = natural
• 4. Balance your research: understand your medium (learn your medium); conventions
• 3. Align your designs over time: prototypes feed architectures feed prototypes
• 2. Quest for magic: in different devices; newer web standards for gloss, transitions, skew
• 1. Generous hit areas (for mobile)

On-Demand User Research – Nate Bolt
(11:30 am to 11:45 am)

• See slides.

Superconsumers – Michael Claypool
(11:45 am to 12:00 pm)

• Huge digital marketing agency: “Design with the intern in mind.”
• The “superconsumer” demographic creates and consumes an enormous amount of content
• Email is waning in its power from a social standpoint
• Digitally dependent: life is “unbearable” without
• Their brains are literally wired differently
• Daily documentation is the norm
• How to earn the superconsumer’s very short attention span?
• Gaming mechanics: make the product extremely addictive
• Be authentic; don’t bullshit them; they can see through marketing ploys
• They’re looking for genuine; be careful about stock photography (skeptical)
• Design. Fail. Evolve.
• Follow on Twitter: @m_claypool

From Muppets to Mastery: Core UX Principles from Mr. Jim Henson – Ross Unger
(1:30 pm to 1:45 pm)

• Jim Henson’s Wilkins Coffee commercials
• A good experience is invisible – give the audience enough to work with and they’ll do the rest for you. (Suspension of disbelief.)
• Visual thinking book: Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers
• Storyboarding and sketches as applied to UX design.
• UX is a very young field. We are just making this shit up as we go along.
• See slides and follow on Twitter: @russu.

Hacking RSS: Filtering & Processing Obscene Amounts of Information – Dawn Foster
(1:45 pm to 2:00 pm)

• The real magic is in filtering RSS
• RSS filtering tools: Yahoo Pipes (my favorite). Others like FeedRinse. Many RSS filtering services have gone out of business
• Hacking RSS using Yahoo Pipes, Twitter API and BackType.
• Nice Yahoo Pipes article.
• See slides and follow on Twitter: @geekygirldawn

Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive Enhancement – Aaron Gustafson
(2:00 pm to 2:30 pm)

• Relating finch evolution on the Galapagos Islands
• HTML and CSS designed to be forward and backward compatible—the perfect finch: take advantage of whatever situation they’re placed in
• Fault tolerance: the ability to adapt
• Browsers ignore what they don’t understand
• Graceful degradation actually undermines the accessibility of content. Progressive enhancement instead.
• Progressive enhancement is focused on creating a positive, useful experience regardless of device or browser.
• All progressive enhancement is graceful degradation, but not all graceful degradation is progressive enhancement.
• Progressive enhancement isn’t about browsers. It’s about crafting the experience—working from the content and moving out. Improve the overall user experience based on the advanced features of browsers.
• Start with content, layer on semantics (plus optional microformats), then design (HTML/CSS), JavaScript and accessibility.
• Text/HTTP → HTML → CSS → JavaScript → ARIA (accessibility)
• See slides and follow on Twitter: @AaronGustafson.

Can Media Queries Save Us All? – Tim Kadlec
(3:00 pm to 3:30 pm)

• 35 billion devices connected to the Internet
• Mobile device vs. context. Small screen vs. out and about.
• Defining a device as mobile had become very difficult. Mobile location vs. mobile usage.
• Form does not equal function.
• The device doesn’t necessary equal the function anymore.
• Make separate sites or adapt.
• The three things in this “Responsive Web Design” article are not enough anymore: Fluid girds, flexible images, media queries
• Device classification: by device type, capabilities, UI mode (touch, pointer), etc.
• Slides by Bryan Rieger: rethinking-the-mobile-web-by-yiibu
• Respond.js – fixes IE’s lack of support for @media queries
• Article by Jason Grigsby: css-media-query-for-mobile-is-fools-gold
• Use responsive images, not flexible images. One way: use Sench.io
• Another way: Responsive images script: filamentgroup/Responsive-Images
• Responsive assets (not images)
• By Media jQuery: paulirish/matchMedia.js
• Device Detection vs. Responsive Approach – do a little UA sniffing, then use progressive enhancement, use feature detection to build on
• Summary: Start with Device Classification; Mobile First; Resize Images – don’t just scale; Responsive assets; Pair with device detection; Challenge traditional assumptions
• See slides and follow on Twitter: @tkadlec.

Progressive Enhancement with ARIA – Aaron Gustafson
(3:30 pm to 3:45 pm)

• Accessibility on the web – three blind men and the elephant fable
• Semantics not be followed
• Accessible Rich Internet Applications spec
• How does ARIA work?
• ARIA landmarks are a way to tell assistive technology what a region of the page is for
• Define roles: <nav role=”navigation”>
• Redundancy in HTML5 is necessary at this point because not all assistive tech understand HTML5 semantics
• ARIA live regions – notify user of frequently updated parts of page: <span aria-live=”polite”>
• See slides and follow on Twitter: @AaronGustafson.

“Portlandia”: The Story Behind the Series – Marie Moore, Andrew Singer, Colin Moore, Carrie Brownstein
(3:45 pm to 4:30 pm)

• Interesting panel discussion with the @ifcportlandia team on the origin and marketing strategy for IFC’s “Portlandia” television show. Lots of clips. #putabirdonit

Thinking Visually – David Armano
(4:30 pm to 5:30 pm)

• Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand – Chinese proverb
• His blog: darmano.typepad.com
• Awesome graphic: Wheel of Marketing Misfortune
• The eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing.
• 1957: when computer era began; video: History of the Internet (PICOL)
• The 4 M’s: metaphor, model (metaphor & model), mind maps, manifest (make obvious)
• Six steps to getting visual:
  1. Empathize: See the world as a child
  2. Memorize: Commit thoughts to memory
  3. Analyze: Take a step back
  4. Synthesize: Filter signal from noise
  5. Visualize: See it, then do it
  6. Materialize: Make it tangible, make it stick
• The 4 C’s of community
• Tools/software don’t matter as much as ideas.
• Flowtown infographic: What is the ROI of your Mom?
• Venn diagram: Skate & Fall on Ass (can’t skate without falling on ass)
• Resources:
  • Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
  • Selling To the VP of No by David Gray
  • The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
  • Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
• See slides and follow on Twitter: @armano.

That is all. Time to bring some Voodoo Doughnuts up to my sister who is currently visiting Seattle.

But you can still follow @iancavalier on Twitter or Flickr or 8tracks or Yelp or blah blah social media blah whatever.

(The hiatus monkey is courtesy of Squidsicle.)

Below is a large dump of random, interesting and useful links I had been storing for future posts or for future personal reference. Most of them were collected this spring. I may or may not have tweeted some of these in the past. Just flushing them out of my system now.

Web development & graphic design

• Less Framework: An adaptive CSS grid system
• HTML5 Reset Stylesheet
• CSS3 Generator
• WhatTheFont! font identifier from MyFonts
• Open Source Templates
• 15 Useful CSS3 and HTML5 Templates and Frameworks (April 2010)
• IE 5-8 CSS3 pseudo-class selector emulation: ie-css3.js (January 2010)
• 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less (February 2010)
• How to Code up a Web Design from PSD to HTML (February 2010)
• 50 Inspiring Examples of Minimalism in Web Design (June 2009) and a university (Loyola University Chicago) that actually has a nice, uncluttered website
• 30 Beautifully Textured Web Designs (February 2009)
• Making a website iPhone-friendly using CSS (June 2009)
• 20+ Websites Optimized For The iPhone (January 2008)

WordPress themes

• WordPress Themes » Mobile Themes
• 40 WordPress-Powered Websites With Awesome Designs (April 2010)
• Using Facebook’s “Like” Button in Your Wordpress Blog (April 2010)
• 17 Really Useful Wordpress Plugins That Probably Are Essential (January 2009)

Music

• Jenny Owen Youngs – “Fuck Was I“
• Erik Hassle – “Nothing Else Matters (Metallica Cover)” and “The Thanks I Get“
• A Knife in a Gunfight – Ian Stillmunks from Des Moines, Iowa
• Synth Britannia – great BBC documentary about synth

Animals

• Orca Guardians – free documentary film
• Melanism: “More Black Penguin Sightings” and “Today’s Pic: Rare Black Penguin” (March 2010)

Games & cartoons

• Dino Run – 8-bit-style Flash game from Adult Swim
• Robot Unicorn Attack – Flash game from Adult Swim
• “Creating a Video Game’s World With Real People: Bright Falls” (April 2010)
• “After Warning, ‘South Park’ Episode Is Altered” (April 2010)
• 10 Most Ridiculous Cartoon Character Makeovers (February 2010)
• Younger and junior versions of cartoon characters

Random interest

• “Five Reasons Werner Herzog is More Badass Than Chuck Norris” (November 2009)
• 25 Bizarre Buildings in photos (February 2010)
• “The story behind sex and the city of Portland” (April 2010)
• The Babes of #Boobquake (April 2010)
• Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos and Marc’s Distinctive College Mascot Collection
• Institution Size and Brand Community (April 2010, University Business)
• Tilt-Shift and Lomography Photoshop actions (January 2009) and the Helpless video by Keith Loutit
• “Your new passport has a computer chip inside. Should you worry?” (October 2008)
• BBC – Languages – Spanish – Spanish Steps
• Glidden Paint Versus Behr Paint

I like this quote (read more at quotedump.com):

“What I try to do to maintain my sanity is alternate between artist and whore. If I was just an artist I’d be broke, and if I was just a whore I’d be sad.”
—Jonathan Lemkin, More Tales From the Script (2010)

See you back here in 2011, sometime. Maybe.