Here we go again – getting post conference depression when leaving all the wonderful people at UXLX in Lisbon. To soften the blow I try to reanimate the experience in my head and dump it here. Capturing the all the impressions from a conference in a bunch of words is almost impossible. But instead of trying to recap it all, I have collected a few quotes and added some context:
Any designer plus another person is better than a designer working alone. Even a designer and their cat is better.
If your company is just in it for the money, maybe you should look for a better company
Me and Mr Alan Cooper
Well I could probably fill up this post with just quotes from Alan Cooper. He tied together his experience, moving to Monkey Ranch with our responsibility as designers. Apart from reminding me of his legendary UX work, I also understood what a genuinely good guy he is.
Thanks for all the insights in pair design and generator/synthesizer symbiosis. Designers have the power to change the world so let’s continue that work.
Alan Cooper — Twitter | Medium
Behold the dystopian kitchen of the future as we enter the era of interruptions.
The further we move into the future, the more obvious it is that the scarce resource will be our attention, being cyborgs force us to develop a lot calmer technology and Amber Case was able to help us understand the principles behind all this and how we can smoothly introduce technology that not only help us but also follows our current norms of society.
Bring out your rubber duck
Generating facial expressions
When it comes to storytelling there are so much to learn. Abi Jones provided me with some fresh tools when it comes to creating a convincing storyboard. How to build up the excitement and what’s needed to be convincing.
Added in was the cool 3×3 expression guide you see here and the rubber duck — bring it and try to explain your story to it. If you can’t be clear to a rubber duck, maybe you need to work on it a bit more…
The story about how you can make rice grow in your turquoise shoes
Well it wasn’t an actual quote, but a name tale made from the sound of my name. I realize that at heart I’m a nerd. Digging in to the subject of thinking new thoughts and all the tools used throughout history for divination, entertainment and creativity, Chris Noessel was leading our way through haruspex, poetry and cards against humanity and lots of other nerdy tools to trigger new thoughts in our minds, really lots of fun stuff here.
Chris Noessel — Twitter | Medium
Curling designers
In the provocative The Fairytale Experiences, Per Axbom took us on a trip with little red riding hood and woolly wolves. He made us understand why the right amount of friction, at the right time, in the user experiences will give is a happier users and prevent buying books while sleeping. Don’t become and A/B testing, no friction, conversion rate hunting, curling designer.
Don’t persuade — listen, introduce doubt and invite to investigate
The devil is in the details and it don’t get much more detailed than counting every single step in a web form. And sometimes it’s needed to bypass perceived logic and get real hard facts. GOMS-KLM and narratives are tools, but the takeaway is not using the tools to win an argument; but as methods of conversation and cooperative insights and understanding.
Giles Colborne — Twitter | Medium
Great animation has purpose
And animation without purpose are mostly wasted or annoying. And it’s not just moving stuff around but how you are able to bring life and character to objects. With lots of examples structured around the 12 principles of animation it gave me a lot to start working with going forward. Now if I only had a little more time…
So thanks Alan, Abi, Val, Amber, Chris, Per, Giles, Sarah, Per, Ruth, Oriana, Nico, Karen and everyone else I met and had such great discussions and insights with. Hope I’ll see you soon again soon.
Skål // Håkan