Design Thinking Digest

Why go to MIX?

It goes without saying that most of us are doing a bit less traveling today. Those of us that get to go to conferences probably have to do a lot more dancing with the corporate bean counters than ever before and, truly, the value proposition of conferences are changing.

I’ve had to make some hard choices myself this year. Such as not going to Interactions 09—but please stop by the Cafe and say hi to Manifest Digital as I’ll be living vicariously through them (If you say something nice about me they might even give you a treat).

But there are two conferences that are pretty important to me personally this year. One is SxSW. I’m a relative virgin to SxSW and this will only be my third year attending, but this is the conference that energized me and restores my spirit. I’m excited that Microsoft has been able to play a part in it for the past few years and I’m excited that the PhizzPop finale will occur here.

SxSW is a great place to have a beer, reconnect with old friends and be stimulated by the diversity of discourse and get some of that special energy and mojo that I only seem to get when I’m in Austin.

But MIX is different. It’s certainly a more serious event—and there’s far more depth to the content that is delivered there. Like SxSW, it’s also a conference with serious, sometimes exhausting, fun.

But what makes MIX special is that it’s about things that are new and things that MIicrosoft has never talked about publically before. This year, if your passions fall to design, or you’re on the fence, or even past the tipping point, on stuff like Expression Studio and Silverlight, you’re going to want to be there. Not just for the content (which, let’s be honest, you can see online later) but because you get a chance to meet, talk, argue and a give feedback to the people that invent and build this stuff at Microsoft.

You also get the opportunity for outstanding networking with your peers, and let’s face it, your competitors—sort of like when James Bond has to partner up with the Russians to foil Spectre, stuff you just can’t do when watching a keynote from a Web Browser or even when you’re at the local pub eyeing your competitors suspiciously. In this economy it’s probably safe to assume that we’ve all got lots to talk about—and what better place to that than Las Vegas.

But in truth, the most important reason to GO to MIX is that your going to learn important exciting things about Silverlight and Expression Studio that are going to impact greatly the way we all work and the expectations that folks have around the classic iron triangle and what’s possible and expected within the constraints of time, money and quality.

You’re also going to see folks that you probably won’t see speaking at other events in 2009. This includes a keynote by Microsoft’s very own Bill Buxton and design standbys like Molly, Luke W., Dan Roam, Lou Carbone and Bill Scott.

See a smattering of the speakers here.

If you’re still reading I’m gonna suspect your interesting so in the spirit of the Sham Wow guy I’m also going to offer up a special that we’re running at MIX. Register by February 13 and you can save over $400 bucks on registration.

Are you still here?

One more thing, if you can’t get to any PhizzPop events and you won’t be at SxSW you can still see videos of PhizzPop events at MIX and actually meet and interact with many of the PhizzPop teams in our PhizzPop booth. We’ll have teams and solutions from our 08 and 09 events.

Design Inspiration for my IxDA Talk

At the upcoming IxDA Interaction 08 conference in Savannah I'll be giving an abbreviated version of my classic design talk. I'll play spoiler here and say that much of what we think is pioneering today had it's roots and was even mastered far before most of us were here. In light of that of that I'll simply provide a link to this video that shows how much of our past is related to our present and our future in ways that are far more compatible than we think.

Special thanks to former colleague John Tolva, whose earlier post on his blog  served as inspiration.

There Will Be Blood: Why the Web 3.0 Will Be More 1.0 Than 2.0 by Chris Bernard

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This is an update on my 'Marketing's Perfect Storm' talk that goes deeper into the technology and economic landscape and looks at how much social media is influencing this space. It also delves a little bit into how Microsoft perceives the digital marketing landscape both on the Web and beyond it. Yes, a ScreenCast is coming.

Classic Design and Web Design by Chris Bernard

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This is a presentation (and somewhat popular SlideShare presentation that I reposted in a downloadale format) that I gave at Webmaster Jam Sessions in Dallas in the Fall of 2007. In this talk (also in need of a screencast for context) I talk about how much classic design movements influence Web design. I'll be giving a variation on this talk at the IxDA design conference called Interactions08 in Savannah on February 8th that talk about this concept from the perspective of interaction design.

What Chris Bernard is doing at MIX

Aside from having a great time at one of my most favorite conferences of the year I'll be doing three panels at MIX this year. MIX sells out EVERY year so if you're thinking of going book your travels soon. You'll get the latest and greatest on the following topics plus you'll be able to see some great panels that I'm moderating.

Learn about:

• IE 8
• IIS 7.0
• ASP.NET (including ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.NET Dynamic Data) 
• VS 2008 and Expression Studio
• WPF
• Silverlight 2
• And much more....

And join me for the following panels.

Real World Design: Working with Silverlight and WPF in the Design Studio

Silverlight and WPF represent a new way for designers and developers work together. But what happens in a professional practice that's focused more on employing designers than developers and using Macs versus PCs for much of their daily design work? Join us as we find out how practitioners from companies like Tribal, Metaliq and Identity Mine discuss the learning curves and the workflow that they adapted with their visual designers and rich interactive developers to get up to speed with Expression Studio, XAML and Silverlight. You'll hear the unvarnished truth about the challenges and rewards of how Silverlight is enabling the digital design practice.

Will have panelists from Metaliq, Tribal DDB and Idenity Mine and we'll get down and dirty about how Web agencies use our tools in the real world. We might have a few surprises up our sleeve with the addition of some surprise panelists.

My second panel?

What is the face of the next Web?

The Web 2.0 appeared almost overnight from innovative uses of technology to break through the traditional HTML/JS browser ceilings. But what comes next? What is the face of the next web? What are the expectations for user interaction and experience and the intersection of digital marketing, social media and services? What’s next, mobile, the living room, everything?

My panelists include:

• Anthony Franco is the president of EffectiveUI
• Paul Dain is the Director of Technology for Tribal DDB in Chicago
• Tjeerd Hoek is one of the principal creative leads for Frog Design (and former lead designer for Windows at Microsoft)
• Mark Kurtz is a former technology director at IdeaPark and who’s next gig is VP of Interactive Technology at Gage.
• Garrick Schmitt is the author of the Avenue A Razorfish Digital Technology Outlook

My final panel?

Touch Me: Where are interfaces going?

The keyboard and mouse are aging input devices. Where are the future of computing and our experiences with  technology going? Are touch interfaces the wave of the future? Are they enough? Is touch-screen Surface/iPhone/iPod Touch just a gimmick? How will human and machine interfaces evolve?

My panelists include:

• Doug Cook, an interaction designer from Thirteen23.com
• August de lost Reyes and Daniel Makoski from the Microsoft Surface team
• Saito-San from Japanese Web Agency and UX pioneer 2nd Factory
• Dale Herigstad from Schmatic (If you've seen Minority Report you've seen Dale's incredible work).

Chris Bernard's NEW Panel at SxSW. The Web Agency: There Will Be Blood

So I gave up one panel but get to do another and it's about another topic I'm passionate about, the future of the Web Agency. We've lined up some great folks to sit on this panel For those of you that follow my talks I promise to get off the 'perfect storm' and 'there will be blood' kick at SxSW : ). This new panel is:

The Web Agency: There Will Be Blood

Social media and a transition to digital marketing combined with an economic slowdown just might be the ingredients for a perfect storm in the world of marketing, advertising and Web agencies. There will be winners and losers when this happens. Learn what it means for you and folks in the middle and on the periphery.

• How social media, Web standards and the switch to digital is changing advertising and marketing.
• Learn how big and small companies, both new and old, are adapting.
• Hear about what is coming next and how you can take advantage of it.

I'll be moderating this panel and joining me will be Kevin Flatt, Executive Creative Director of Tribal DDB in Chicago, Brooke Nanburg, SVP of Creative at IP Pixel, Peter Eckert, Chief Creative Officer of Projekt202, and Garrick Schmitt, VP and author of AARF's annual digital outlook report. In the coming weeks I'll post up bios of who the panelists are (although SxSW might beat me to it on their site).

Chris Bernard is speaking at SxSW Interative

To be honest my speaking opportunities at SxSW are only going to be one part of the excitement. Between PhizzPop and some other things we are doing with are doing with SxSW we are going to have a surprising and fun presence at this event. But...even though I'm a designer I'm still a bit of a geek too and that's why this panel that I've submitted to SxSW is so exciting to me.

Hollywood and Design and Literature: Just who is inspiring who?

Gattaca, Minority Report, Children of Men, Battlestar Galatica. Cinema and television inspire technologists and vice versa. Who’s driving who these days? Join interaction designers and some of Hollywood’s best special effects artists and story tellers and discover how convergence in these two worlds is already happening.

A review of Hollywood inspiration.

A debate on what’s really coming in the future.

A discussion on how science fiction and Hollywood inspires us.

Chris Bernard is speaking at MIX 2008

So MIX is probably my favorite event that Microsoft hosts all year. This year the 72 hour conversation gets far most interesting with the additional of a focused MIX UX track that will feature folks like Lou Carbone, David Armano, the fine folks from Adaptive Path and designers  from our Office, Surface and Media and Entertainment teams.

In addition, I'll be moderating a panel at MIX called:

 

Touch Me: Where are interfaces going?

The Keyboard and Mouse are aging input devices. For the future of computing and UX where are interfaces going? Are these enough? Is touch-screen Surface/iPhone/iPod Touch just a gimmick? Where should Man Machine Interface (MMI) go?

Seat are filling up fast at MIX and this is a conference that is selling out fast. Click the pretty picture below to get signed up.

Chris Bernard is speaking at IxDA Interaction 08

So this is the conference I've been most interested in all year. It's got an absolutely outstanding line-up of speakers and I'm humbled to be one of them.

Interaction 08 will be held from February 8-10, 2008 in historic and festive Savannah, Georgia, on the campus of The Savannah College of Art and Design. Join several hundred Interaction Designers from around the world as we address the design of interactive systems of all types: applications (web and desktop), mobile, consumer electronics, digitally enhanced environments, and more. Start your year off with stimulating talk, fun parties, and smart discussions about our growing field.

On Sunday I'll present a lightning round of a longer talk I gave at Web Master Jams last December, those of you that know me well will recognize that this subject is one of my passions and it should be interesting too as many of the contemporary luminaries that I call out will actually be at the event!

Classic Design Movements and IxD: Kissing Cousins?

De Stijl, Bauhaus, Futurism. The short history of design is filled with a lexicon of terms and movements that inspire designers of today. What do these classic movements in design history have to do with User Experience and Interaction Design in the creation of software, Web sites, products and services design?

See how much our past is influencing present and future conventions around form, function and simplicity in design and how and why you should incorporate these principals into your own work. This session will highlight the most influential design movements that impact our work and give a foundation of the language and patterns that emerged from these movements.

Chris Bernard is speaking at Got Social Media?

On January 24th I'll be in Houston at the Got Social Media? A conference about communication event. My talk will be entitled:

There will be blood. Why Web 3.0 will feel a lot more like Web 1.0 than Web 2.0

A perfect storm is brewing in the world of technology that will profoundly impact how social media and community marketing continue to evolve and radically impact and alter how we use technology and electronic media. There will be winners, there will be losers. There will be blood. Why? What trends around Web standards, defacto standards, social media, marketing, advertising, design, development, technology, journalism and business are going to profoundly shape how we continue to create, consume, share, distribute and archive media and content.

This talk will build off of memes I've spoken about last fall around digital marketing but will be greatly expanded.