This is the presentation given on Wednesday 24th June 2009 to the Perth Branch of the Silverlight Developer and Designer Network.  The slidedeck isn’t going to make much sense without the transcript below. Just be aware of that if you are slide deck with out following with this transcripts.

Let’s ground this a little and get real before we even start.

To often we design web sites and applications with a limited amount of information and specifications as to what is really is required. It’s a fact. Let’s not stand around and pretend otherwise.

Designing and developing it this type of environment can be hell. Sure I can talk about how to overcome this issue and pass on a few techniques that could assist you.

But what happens when you have got almost all the information you need and things still go wrong. What then – what are the solutions?

Let’s step back away from the web and desktop applications for a moment and consider an average couple, Simon and Maria. They are a loving young 20 somethings. They both have jobs that they don’t really aspire to. Yet still they battle on to save for those overseas trips and such. And just like you and me they get to experience life and all around them, the ups and downs.

Screaming Buttons

Maria and Simon have learnt, just like you and me, that buttons in the real world go off and on. They turn on the stereo. Stop things dead and sometimes they just silence the screaming.

So why does it have to be any different on the web. Why do they have to put up with buttons that just don’t look like buttons at all. You know the ones. They are just impossible to even find out that they are buttons visually. And when you do find out, well you just aren’t that sure what they are going to do. You are always thinking they could - delete the page, make you start over or destroy the world. You are just never that sure.

Really a button should “look” like a button and be labeled as such. Not some arty thing that no one can’t find or even work how they work. Applications and the Web are functional things they have to work or they are just waste of space. Crazy arse buttons are for an art gallery.

However we break our own rules here too. Even if we have buttons that look like buttons as they should. With the maturity of the web the previous experience of people like Simon and Maria really needs to be considered. Just like in the real world they have learnt from childhood what a button is and how to use it. We have learn that the power switch or light switch (which is usually unlabeled) turns on a appliance on the plug socket or the light in a room. Previous learned experience has taught us this.

Same with the web we now have expected instances of button types and iconography that have been ingrained into our common web cultural knowledge, as to have expected outcomes. For Example (and there are many more):

• Search
• RSS feed
• Shopping Cart
• Email
• Home
• Navigational Directional Arrows

In all these cases we know what to expect from the button type or icon. Yes they don’t look like buttons, but the symbolism behind the message works for us.

So in this case we break a few eggs… Still a button should be a button. But the omelets form the eggs does taste nice.

Tools, Functionality and Bears

Back to Simon and Maria. They both use multifunctional tools like the Leatherman. Nice handing tool, bit like a modern Swiss army knife. Has all sorts of gadgets and things hanging of it that are designed for various functions. Such things as a knife, a pair of pliers, screwdriver, nail clippers, and maybe even a coffee maker.

Still besides the great multifunctional of the Leatherman, Simon and Maria still use single functional tools such as knives.

I can understand this, knives are cool. You can cut bread with a knife. Cutting bread with Leatherman is possible, but hey it’s just too hard. A knife makes a single clean cut.

A knife is also really handy when you are faced with the odd suburban random Bear attack. You know the story – you are walking down the street and suddenly in board daylight and this massive Bear out of nowhere attacks you. If you have your trusty kitchen knife you are fine. But handling a Bear with a Leatherman – I don’t think so.

The multifunction tool like the Leatherman can cut things sure, but not that well. Also it’s not that good for locks or fences is it.

On the other hand a pair of bolt cutters is ideal for the odd fence and padlock cutting. It’s also a great accessory for late night “shopping”.

So despite the great multifunctional components of Leatherman, still Simon and Maria prefer to use a Single function tool like a knife. A knife just does the one single job, but it does it so well.

So why do we insist on having these multiple function web sites and applications that are just not doing one core thing well at all. They are constantly presenting us with various different functions all over the shop. Never really doing anything that well, remaining forever average.

Is it that we enjoy having a world of mediocrity where things are always dull and the same. Are we that budget aware that average, a score of C+ is the best we can be bothered with.

Why don’t we have single function applications? I know on the web with the use of APIs this is starting to happen. But still in intranets and the like all I see are these massive over weight corporate spaghetti code fest. What gives?

Applications that do the job well and just interconnect with other single functional applications to make a suite of online applications aren’t that hard to design and code. In fact they are often easier to build. Think back look at how the MS-Office package started. Word was just for word processing. Excel was just for spreadsheets. Now look at the bloatware that it has become. Sure those two applications still do their core functions, but they also do a lot more. Things we often don’t really want in the first place. It is just endless marketing bloatware.

What we need to focus on when we code and design applications is to keep it simple.

Do one thing and do it well, shine at being the best application for that function in the world. Let’s have a little less applications that make me coffee, and comb my hair all before morning tea time.

We need to just focus on the core of the application or web site and translate that into a core message.

Okay that sounds good, in theory, but what do you do when you have lots of demands by your boss or client.

Simple – there is still only going to be a certain number of elements that are important or the core of the application at this point in time.

So like the ATO (Australian Tax Office) have done, we just focus on those elements as required.

By the way, you think you have an issue with functionality and information retrieval. Just take a moment to think about what it would be like to be in the shoes of the web team at the ATO. Still with all those issues they are just focusing on the core issues of the day.

And Now For Forms

I hate forms in real life; I can get bet you hate them too, as does Simon and Maria.

Forms are the bane of our life. I approach them with dread; they are often poorly designed and put together usually by something with no experience in the art of form design. More often than not the lowest level sectional officer gets the form design job, based off the chook scratching of some Director.

Guess what it’s the same on the Web. Yeah you’re not that surprised. The people in charge of web design project seem to have this burning desire to replicate the paper world based world with no consideration for the web.

Now I’m not going to rapid on about forms, I’m sure you are all experts a form design. But I am going to just point out a few things that people love and hate.

So why do forms suck so much.

Well usually it’s simply because of the sheer size of the form. It’s just too big… Frankly it scares the crap out of us. We look at it and think, okay there goes the next few hours of my life on this endless form.

A simple solution to all this is to just have a good look at the form. In most cases it can be segmented into functional or information related areas and you could slice it up onto separate pages.

Yes that is making the completion process longer or is it…

Consider Amazon.com, do you remember how many steps there is to in the process to buy a book once it is in the shopping cart. Is it 4 pages, 5, 7, 10…

Well really it doesn’t matter. Not at all, not one little bit!. Why? Well because of one simple factor - as long as we are seeing that we are progressing towards out goals and they are still in sight then we are usually happy.

The one exception here is a 35 page survey, mind you if you building a survey beyond 2-3 pages, expect a failure. But that is another issue, there is specialized approach to online survey forms that 90% of the surveys on the web just ignore.

It’s all about Confirmation Candy

We all love candy. The sweet tooth takes us all - we want - we lust over candy. Some would even kill for it.

Well in the world of the web, it’s the same. We love getting feedback, the visual candy the sweet and the sour type that lets us know that we are on the path to salvation that final form completion nirvana.

Giving these simple instant visual cues of positive (tick) and negative feedback (cross) let’s feel good or at least wanted for our progress through a form; even if we get it wrong.

The use of these elements is become now so common place that when they don’t appear on a web form, one really does start to question the validity of the form itself.

So why aren’t we using this instant feedback and error message technique on desktop applications. Usually at best we just get a beep or the field goes dull red.

Speaking Nicely to People

Forms are not just about the sweet and sour confirmation candy, they are also about talking nicely to people and making sense.

Take this case from Bankwest’s online banking facility. You would expect to that if I by accident put a dollar sign in the amount field it the application would have been nice about it and just removed it for me.

Well it is a bank… they have to be a little anal.

Still what would it have take to do that, code wise., not much at all.

Similarly with credit card fields, would it be that hard to filter out the spaces or dashes when you submit the form, instead of making the user do it.

It gets better. I like Bankwest, I’ll let you into a little secret they have invented a time machine, yeap it’s “Back to the Future with Bankwest!”

If you make an internal account transfer on certain days it seems that if you put in today’s date, it tells you that you are in the past or the future! Wow – I wasn’t that aware I had time traveled. Again - another error message, that will a little care could have been corrected. Clearly the system was not really independently user tested.

You know I hate stupid error messages that aren’t friendly and considerate.

What we should be doing is not leaving the error messages to the development team.

The marketing people, the copywriters, should write them. Funny thing is in the real world I can’t see that happening, can you.

Playing Hide and Seek.

Sometimes you know we make things too complex, when a simple solution would have helped.

Take this Linksys router support site. Nice design, overall UX makes me think these guys are professionals and know their stuff. Until you start the game of find the download link for the drivers.

I expected it to be under the drivers section on the page - but no you have to select a version then the driver will appear.

Still then you have to hunt visually for the correct link, as it’s the same colour as other page text elements. Finally you find the download link.

Simple things to fix, but for the sake of a “clever interface” the UX is lost.

Also, what if I don’t know the version or can’t find it… didn’t think of that one.

It’s all Confusing - Stepping beyond the problems

Yes it can be a little confusing. But what we are talking about is the fine detail. The things that make it a average experience to a mind blowing one.

This isn’t rocket science. It’s just thinking about the people using the application, and being considerate.

Still after you have you application perfect and it’s delivering the best user experience it can. You can still have issues. You may not be getting the conversions and sales you want. Well it maybe a few simple things that are not helping.

Are you considering AIDA – that’s number of design rules you can follow on your interface:

• Attention: get the users attention and make them feel wanted.
• Interest: now you need to spark interest in people quickly, showing of your best aspects.
• Desire: you have to spark the desire of the user for your product; this is usually a totally visual sell in most cases
• Action: finally give the user an action point that they can progress to, somewhere they can take the page to the next step.

Also consider the Gutenberg rule. Basically this maps out a thing we call reading gravity (in the western world). It tells us that people tend to end up with their eyes hovering in this Terminal Area (see below). Of course this enforces the reverse F patterns we see in eye tracking.

Still at the end of the day your application needs to be good experience at any cost. Sure you can make it average if you like, if the budget in time or dollars is just not there.

However trust me on this one, people like Simon and Maria will just consider you a roadblock and will work around you. Remember in the PC verses Mainframes conflict of the mid 80’s. The accountants brought PCs into the workplace as the Mainframes where not providing in their arrogance the needs of the corporation. Hence the mainframes became a roadblock, and the users removed it.

Don’t under estimate your users ever. They aren’t stupid people; they are just like you and me. If they are forced to use a bad system, sure they will pay lip service to it and develop their own system with the tools they can gather around them. Things will appear to be well and good, with no issues that management will see. Except in reality your users have just reworked the system to make it usable if you will not.

In summary it’s easy to remember

• Streamline the focus of your application or web site
• Segment any forms or procedures that are too long.
• Simplify things down to its core functionality

One final thing whatever we build it’s not for you or me for but for them, the unseen users.

Does small business really need online social media.   Is it really going to provide those instant  benefits that the media and some experts are raving about.

Online Social networkers (or media)  is now all the rave. It’s the new kid on the block, the dream that some many people in business are now chasing as the quick fix.  Now I have seen this wave of blind business hesteria all before, it’s nothing new.

What’s Old is New Again.

Back in last century when business really discovered that the web had benefits that could help extent and promote their business, there was a wave of businesses one after one all wanting to get online.   The primary reason was, just to be there, online, no real sound business logic was applied to any of the decisions back then.  They just wanted a web site, because it was basically there and other people had one.  It was the cool factor.  The need to follow the sheep.

No consideration was given to the on going costs in time and other resources that were required to run a successful web site.  In many cases they took up the web site challenge , had a web sites developed, placed it out on the web, and that was it.

So they walked away from the young seedling web sites and let them wither and die in the cold wilds of the brutal web.  

There was an expectation that somehow the sites would bloom and grow, flourish and dominate their environs.   The truth as we know it was far from this faerie tale that the business owners were expecting.

Have Things Really Changed.

Fast forward to 2009.  Have things really changed that much.  Sure people take a little more consideration into getting a web site now. Whether this is sign on the maturity of the web industry is another matter, still the fact is that people are considering a web site a serious venture in the most part.

However in the realm of social media, it seems as if every business now wants to leverage the likes of facebook, twitter, myspace, corporate blogging, friendfeed, linkedin or the like in order to get that edge over their competitor.  

Then the self proclaimed social media experts step up, with 5 minutes experience of dipping their toe into the online social media world (a bit like life coaches - even taxi drivers are life coaches now! - but that’s another story).    This plethora of social media experts is now urging business owners to make that final leap into the social media. Mostly will little personal experience at all in the medium.

All this without any real plan or consideration of the longer term implications that this is going to have on their business and its impact on time and resources.  

Without due consideration of what their customers are doing and if they are in the demographic of the audiences of these social networking sites at all.

Step Back, Smell the Roses.

Basically if you are in a business and you are going down this road or have just done so.
 STOP.

Yes right now, slam on the brakes, hard!

You really have to beware that like running a web site, operating a social media presence is something that will take up full time resources for your organisation. It’s not just about putting out the odd tweet or facebook status update every week or so.

If you are serious about committing to adopting social media for your business please consider the following:

1. Look for the market.

   Is there an existing market demographic or potential one that uses the social media you are looking at.  Not much good doing a social media campaign for “turbo charged motorised wheelchair driving grannies” on a youth social networking site is there.

2. Plan ahead.

   Set out a plan of attack, as you would with any marketing campaign, you need to consider all the following aspects below as well in this plan. In a way it will be like nothing you have done before. This is not like taking out an advert in the local paper or on radio. Social networking is not like traditional media at all.

3. Be Honest.

   Ensure that you are honest and straight with your customsers online,  remember you are building trust and you online reputation.  If you are false and hollow, your customers will see through this immediately.

4. Let go.

   You have to learn that in an online world of a social network you are not in control at all.  Your customers or audience are in control, they will dictate what and when they read your information.   If you try and control them, they will build their own network online behind your back where they can discuss the truth.   Yes that is right the online world is not kind, it does not care about your business.

5. Live it.

   You need to live the social media, don’t just dip your toe in the water of the social media world every few days or so with some statement or status update.  It is the companies that are living the social media that are winning peoples hearts and dollars.  But be warned this takes time and resources, there is no magic bullet here.

6. Be real.

   The person in charge of your presence needs to project their real personality into the social media.   If they are just projecting the corporate public relations and marketing spin the audience will tire of this pretty quickly.

7. Don’t hire a Social Media Expert.

   This sounds silly, but use someone that doesn’t confess to be a  Social Media Expert. There are just too many con artists and quick fix merchants out to make a quick dollar in the market. Hire someone that is already deeply entrenched in the social media world. A person that is across all these issues discussed here and more.

8. Start small.

   In the world of online social media, it is best to start small if you are unsure of the impact or if you even have an audience.  Maybe do some blogging, build an audience. Or maybe use twitter and present a personal approach, or look into services like get satisfaction.   Don’t try it all at one time, test and evaluate as you go, especially if your organisation is learning and new to this,  Nothing worse than you stepping away from a social network when you have failed at it.  It projects to the followers you leave behind that your business has failed or is failing.   Not something you really want.

9. It’s all or none.

   Social media is the type of thing where you can’t have only one division of an organisation embracing it.   You need to have the entire enterprise taking it on board.  By which I don’t  mean just paying lip service to social media - the enterprise needs at an executive level to understand and embrace the outcomes of the use of social media. If you don’t do this then people we see you as just playing at the game and not really that serious.

10. Understand it.

    Even if you do all the above, you still may not understand the basic principles as to why people even use various social networking sites.   Mainly it comes down to the desire to share and communicate, often for free.  As a business you have to truly understand that it is about paying it forward. A social networking site is not an advertising campaign, the ROI will not be the same at all. This is not your traditional world or traditional media.

In summary, the use of social media in business is like your web site, but more of a resource hog, best to start small and be real.   Remember the lessons of the past ignore good  advice and you will waste time and money or worse simply fail.

Sometimes you come across something that you just have to share.   The other day I got the chance to go back in time.  Back in the past, to feel and  to see something of raw beauty that I personally have not experienced before.

Im talking about  the work that I found in an exercise book and the craftsmanship in some Victorian era books.

The work in the school exercise book was lovely completed by a middle class Irish 10 year old, under English rule at the time.  Those 03 dates on this work are not from 2002, but 1902, all the way back to the Edwardian era.

Look at the workmanship, the beauty in the character formation.   The level of care.  Looking through this simple school book, one can see into an era that was a lot slower. Where the time was taken to learn a skill, to master it.  Where the time was taken to do things right.  Please remember these are not preseved works, they have had no special care, so they have bled out in places, but still you can see the degree of care taken.   There is just something raw and untamed in these works, something that the digital world can’t produce.

To often we are locked in our digital design words, away from the feel of paper, the smell of ink, the texture of the canvas and the grease of the paint.  Maybe it’s time as designers from time to time we re-found this old school world of the analogue

Draft, Draft and Draft Again

However you may think that this was the first draft the student did in these books.   Not so I also have access to the draft workbook also, in which everything is drafted in pencil.   This just goes to show that even in an Edwardian era things have a parallel to present day.

It seems sometimes that we forget that the best way to get close to perfection is draft the work, over and over.  To this day that still holds true, even if we do tend to forget it, in our rush, rush disposable world of pixels and images that are a flicker of the eye.

For the Beauty of Old Books.

Now that we have gazed over this typical school work of the 1900’s lets roll it back with a common Victorian era  book.  If you have opened a book of this era, you will totally understand what I’m talking about, they are amazing, an artwork in themselves. The quality, even in just like the type setting, the typeface, the marbling, the binding is to behold.   Things that I love about these old books is the wood carving or plate etching artwork that  is contained within.  The level of detail is just amazing considering the handcraft process on how the books on this era where constructed.

I know some of my readers are going to say, so what, this is just a 120 year old book.  Fine yes it’s not that old in the scheme of things, but for Australia it is old, very old, it’s all relative, see we are a young country.  Still  you can turn your  nose up at it, but for me it’s a doorway to a world of wonder of fine forgotten craftsmanship.

So what things from the past inspire you, what old “design” treasures do you love to look over?

You know when you go to a networking event that is low key with no pressure, just friendly welcoming people that are just their to get to know you - networking that is a casual social affair.  No  clique snobby groups.  The kind of event where you can see strategic partnerships and people finding new opportunities  happening all the time.   All this in fun relaxed environment with your fellow industry peers.

Well this is what the Australian Web Industry Association -  Port80 Meetups are like.    All that magic that seems to have stayed too long in the West is moving East.  Next week Miles Burke (AWIA Chair) and I are taking this Port80 magic on the road to Melbourne and Sydney for a stella two city roadshow.

Port80 Melbourne - 26 May

First we are rocking into Melbourne to promote the Port80 on Tuesday,  May 26th, to be joined by fellow AWIA committee member and newly incumbent Melbournite Harriet Wakelam.

Why not come down to the Softbelly Bar and join us for some nibbles, free entry and a cash bar:

Tuesday 26th May, from 7.00pm

The Lounge @ Softbelly Bar
367 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000

Check out a Google Map for the event.

Port80 Sydney - 27 May

After Melbourne, Miles and I land in Sydney to be joined by Sydney local and fellow AWIA committee member, Marc Lehmann, for Port80 Sydney on May 27th.

Same deal, free nibbles, free entry and free drinks (thanks to our event sponsor, Saasu!) all this at the Saasu offices in the Sydney CBD.

So mark this one in your calendar now:

Wednesday 27th May, from 7.00pm

Saasu Offices
Level One, 111 Elizabeth St
Sydney NSW 2000

Check out a Google Map for the event.

Remember these Port80 events are all not have long boring speeches, it’s a casual social event. A chance for anyone in the Web Industry to get out of the office and come relax for few hours in a no pressure atmosphere.

So if you are in Sydney or Melbourne it would be really good to catch up with you all. But don’t just stop there, why not let your co-workers and colleagues know and get them to come along too more the merrier.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all in Melbourne or Sydney for a class or two.

Freelancing can be really interesting, you get to often do different types of work  that can vary widely, from very hands on mundane tasks, to consulting, research and report writing, and everything in between.  Sometimes you can even get a section of a project that you can work on  at your own leisure, as long as you meet the nominated deadlines.  Other times you are just an extra pair of multi-skilled hands.  It’s never a dull moment.

Now I  have found over the years that with most project you usually reporting back to a project manager or the firm owner. They act  as your central laision, controlling all the usual client communications and interactions.  Leaving you to focus on what you do best and provide maximum return for their dollar investment.

Now from time to time you may be have to work in close liaison with a client on an aspect of the project, but at the end of the day the profitability and final decisions on a project are not yours to make as it’s basically not your project.  You just need to bring your section of the project  in on budget and everyone will be happy.

So what really makes it freelancing, the key I’ve found is really two fold:

1. You can do the tasks on your timetable, as long as they’re done in a professional manner, on time and budget. This is the key to freelancing, the being free to set your own agenda.
2. You are not response for the project as a whole, but just a segment, for example the CSS design, the Information Architecture or the usability.  Again you are free or responsibility.

That’s Not Freelancing

So when is it not freelancing.  Well this really comes down where your start to draw the line in the sand on your own freedom as a freelancer.

Still let’s consider a few examples, these in general I feel are not freelancing at all but its sibling contracting:

1. You are working 9-5 at the firms own or their clients offices filling in a role as directed. Just like an employee, but with none of the benefits.  No real freedom here, eh.
2. You are in complete control of the project, client liaison, profit, the lot.  All your boss (client) does is bill for it.   Even queries after the launch are your responsibility.   It’s like having a pseudo client.  Would be interesting to see where the liability angle lies on this one.

Hence with contracting the freedom disappears, as you are just like  another employee, but with different hiring and firing conditions.

What do you think is there a difference in the way you hire or are hired as freelancers or contractors.  Or are they one in the same as far as you are concerned?

Well yes there are lots if good reasons to open up a twitter stream to the public, here are a few:

• It’s really easy for people to decide to connect with you if they can read your previous tweets.
• It can be handy for the odd self promotion and the digital footprint if people can connect with you easily.
• You can build a better community around you of like minded people if you are easy to connect to.
• You can have more conversations with a greater community.
• You can integrate your twitter stream with all sorts of cool tools using the twitter API  with ease.

It’s Not that I Don’t Like You

Okay that’s good, yes you can engage with people easier if you have a public twitter stream.  But there is also a good number of reasons for not having a public  twitter stream such as:

• Google - This is the primary reason that my stream is private, I don’t want any Google bots spidering and indexing my tweets.  I don’t what any of my tweets being used out of context or being lodged in the grand Google repository of knowledge for evermore.   Of course this would be solved if Twitter had a no index option for each  account.
• SpamBots - Whether they are real people or bots, you get other twitter accounts following you just so they can direct message spam you.  With an open stream you get this a lot more than a closed on.   Easiest thing to do is restrict their access.
• Auto Follow Bots - It’s amazing, If I tweet about coffee, suddenly ten coffee bots start to follow me, this auto following trend on an open stream is a real pain.  These are not real people, just some programing script..  Sure the twitter crew cull them from time to time, but really I just don’t want some random non person following me.
• Auto Publish Bots -  Just like Auto Follow bots there are now auto publish bots that detect various keywords in the public stream and retweet your tweet they have  detected or even quote the tweet in a blog style entry somewhere.   Now that means we can all be constantly taken out of context  even more. Now this doesn’t happen with a private account.
• The Creeps -  Now I don’t get this much, but I know a lot of my female friends on twitter get some weird creeps following them, some just outright digitally stalking them.  These people are often just end up being blocked.  With a private stream you restrict who follows you.
• Social Media Experts - These are another breed of experts people that have suddenly appeared on Twitter. Seems they are out to teach me how to use online social networks, with their all of five minutes experience.  I really think these people need to reconsider their approach to social media.  Maybe folks like me that have been around for a while do get it.  It’s just we don’t be blowing our trumpet all over the relevant social networking sites about it.   Best way to  avoid these people is control their connection into you community, like the creeps above.
• My Community - I know it’s all about community, but the social network is centered around me, it’s my social network.   It would be nice if I had control who can easily listen in on my network.  Who is in that community.   I want to ensure that they are relevant to me.   I want to know the people in my conversation, I want to select the people around me.  Seems a little anal or self centered, is it really. Consider all the other social networking sites, you get to select who you can connect with, so why should Twitter be any different.  Think about it, your social network isn’t for your neighbour or the kid down the road it is for you.   So you should have a say in it.

It’s Private, but Just Ask.

Sure my twitter stream is set to private.   Yes its not that private, as my followers can access my tweets so my privacy is only as good as my community.  But my followers aren’t the nasties listed above.  They are the reason I’m on twitter for the community.

So if you think you belong in my community and we have a common interest, go on request to follow me.   I don’t bite.

Now Perth can be busy place, with lots of professional networking events every month, seems that there are even more now with this financial hiccup, as people scramble for those networking contacts.

Funny thing is that most of the new ones  now want to sell me something or get me to join some exclusive networking group that will bring me riches and world domination by afternoon teatime.  All I have to do is just sign over a few thousand dollars a year and  feed thew group them all my business contacts for good measure.   Now I don’t know about you but the only bugger getting rich here is the person that set that scheme up in the first place.  Pyramid anyone, just without money.

Bring on the Coffee

Still all the these usual events, either cost ($10 to $90) or are very industry specific and top that off with that they are all at night.   Now that is great for the average punter that is working the 9-5 treadmill.  The evening networking events suit these people - just pop along to the event after work.

However things are a little different for freelancers, so this got me thinking.  Why not have an event that freelancers and solo workers can attend, that is  not in the evenings when family ties can hold you back from coming along.

Make it easy to get to, cheap, causal and relaxing.   Now everyone loves going to a coffee shop, even if it’s not for coffee.   So why not have a regular event that people can relax, socialise and network at the same time at a coffee shop.

Hence Freelancers Coffee was born.

It’s just really a concept, to help freelancers get out and meet people and stop being isolated, nothing more than that.   No pimping of other networking or marketing snake oil groups.  Just a simple meetup, ideally across all industries from bookkeeping, photography, marketing, graphic design, web design and so on. The more diverse the better.

Perth Freelancer Coffee

In Perth , we have a monthly Freelancers Coffee meetup, each one being at a different place each time, always near a train line, or good public transport.   Such that it moves around the suburbs, attracting different people.

This month it’s on Thursday 7th May from 10:30am at Mooba Central, 3/22 Railway Rd (near Outridge Crs), Subiaco.  If you are a freelancer of solo worker why not come along, it’ free. Well you do have to pay for your coffee.  No registration, no rsvp, no hassles, just rock up,   friendly people.

What would be ideal is if the concept of Freelancer’s Coffee were to taken up in other places around Australia if not the world.   All it takes is a few freelancers to get together and spread the word to others.

The other day I went to get my business cards reprinted, you know it’s a thing you do from time to time, and with that process you naturally review the information on them.

Now I have two sets of business cards.  One set I hand out to the general business owners, potential clients and so on.  The other set I distribute to agencies, the web industry and IT people.

Why do I go to all this  trouble.  To start with business cards are cheap, ($88 for 1000).  I also discovered years ago that non industry people just didn’t get the specialist roles in which I worked.   Sure you can explain it to them, but at the end of the day unless you make an impression,  they will no understand the specialist terms, or job title on the business card.

So I have one set that is generic, I’m Gary Barber, Director, of  radharc a web design consultancy.   Then I have cards that are for  the web and related industries that understands, at least in part, what user experience, information architecture and usability is.

It’s interesting that the A List Apart 2008 survey shows tell us what we are calling ourselves, and it’s all over the shop, as you would expect.   As Craig Buckler points out it doesn’t really matter that much what we call ourselves, in the longer term, as there just isn’t established job titles in our young industry anyway.

Combine this point with Jesse James Garrett’s comments in his closing plenary at IASummit 2009, that have caused a little bit of a stir in the information architecture and interactive design community:

Information architecture does not exist as a profession. As an area of interest and inquiry? Sure. As your favorite part of your job? Absolutely. But it’s not a profession.

…there’s no such thing as an interaction designer either. Not as a profession. Anyone who claims to specialize in one or the other is a fool or a liar. The fools are fooling themselves into thinking that one aspect of their work is somehow paramount. And the liars seek to align themselves with a tribe that will convey upon them status and power.

There are no information architects. There are no interaction designers. There are only, and only ever have been, user experience designers…

…We are not information architects. We are not interaction designers. We are user experience designers. This is the identity we must embrace. Any other will only hold back the progress of the field by marginalizing an important dimension of our work and misleading those outside our field about what is most important and valuable about what we do. Because it’s not information, and it’s not interaction.

We’re in the experience business. User experience. We create things that people use…. - Jesse James Garrett

As you can see, seems Jessie thinks we should all be User Experience Designers. After listening in full to the audio [M4A file] of this session, I tend to agree with him, I can see his point, in part.

However  I do find this debate very amusing.

Perth, Western Australia, the city which I operate from is not really on the leading edge with the latest trends in design. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful place, great lifestyle.  Just not Sydney, New York or London.

Just the other day I was quizzed by a friend over the term Web Architect.   He was 100% verbatain that I was pulling the wool over peoples eyes, as he knew I was not an Architect.   That’s true I don’t have a degree in Architecture, but we are not talking about the construction industry are we.   Then there is the term User Experience Designer, yeah that gets the same reaction.   So in my local business community anything other than web designer, as a title, is going to be looked on as being a little pretentious.

Sure it’s an education issue,  from a business view point it’s about educating people as to what an Information Architect or User Experience Designer is.   But after all these years, it’s just easier to call myself  a Web Designer and then explain my various specialisations that I can offer.

So it may work for you, Jessie, but locally I don’t think the term User Experience Designer is going to work outside of the web industry and large organisations.

Sometimes I do wonder about if I really fit in this User Experience community at all.   I  love to do the user research, the planning, the designing and building of user tested web interfaces, even down to the graphical design elements.  Being creative is in my blood.

Maybe I’m just a fool or a liar, or just a Web Designer.   All I know is I don’t develop  web sites, I can plan, design, implement and project manage them, just no server coding for me -  the rest  of the deal I do.

So what do we call all that?

Rating:

4

If you have read as many web design books as I have you find that they fall into basically two categories:

1. The ones in which the author waxes on about how wonderful they are at design, show off page after page of their own portfolio. The entire book becomes a publicity fest.
2. Then there is the type of book that is presented in a level headed manner, it is a great reference of the step by step process that web designers go through to product a web site.

Well Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks is the latter, a well balanced guide that takes you through a clean conversation on how to create that next awesome web site.

The thing that I really like about this book is that it is to the point, it’s not overly weighty on the design theory, as it assumes you already have some of that skill locked away already. However  this book would still be ideal for a beginning designer.

Was it personally useful for me, well I’ll be honest, no it wasn’t. While I was reading this book I was just ticking off the points made one by one, noting that in reality there was nothing that I hadn’t already gained from experience. Now I have been doing this a long time, so I do get this a lot.  But it is good to know that Elliot in mu mind has covered off all the aspects of web design.

The book is divided into 6 chapters.

1. Overview of the design process, in which the design goals of an interface and the overall process are discussed.
2. Design Research, this chapter was so welcome, explaining why the brief is important, moving onto the  design inspirational process.
3. Site Structure, being involved with information architecture, I’m going to have a little bit of a bias here. It’s nice to see the  consideration of this design element before jumping into the high resolution design.
4. Navigation and Interaction, again I’m bias here, Elliot runs through a whistle stop tour of the common web interactive elements, and what works where and when.
5. Aesthetics, in this solid chapter Elliot looks at the usual design techniques, the grid, layout types (fixed, fluid, flexible, etc), color, mood boards, imagery types, typography  and the impact of emotion on the overall user experience.  In  a way this book is well worth its cost for  this chapter alone.
6. Final wrap is with the Deliverables,  so now you have that sexy design, how do you organise your Photoshop layers,  deliver that mockup, slice the design quickly and write that style guide, well in this chapter Elliot tells us how.

I have yet to read the perfect book. This one had a few things that annoyed me,  there was one instance where I thought the layout of the pages could have been executed in a different manor.  But overall that was a minor point.  Nothing that I would discount the book for.

Sexy Web Design is by in large a good reference book.

Full of little hints and tips that will help  all but crusty old designers like me.  And even then if you have had your eye off the ball  for an instant,  I bet you will still get something out of this book.

Now if you are looking for a Photoshop guide or a CSS design book, this is not for you, this is about design!

So if  you have a design flare, and need to know how to design web sites then this is the book for you.

The Australian Web Industry Association is doing it again.  Putting on one of those must go to educational web events.  This one goes under the moniker of Ideas 5.

They are having an evening of discussions with leading Australian accessibility experts Roger Hudson and Andrew Downie.   Roger will be giving the low down on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2 (WCAG 2), while Andrew will be presenting some practical advice on PDF Accessibility.   There is also the usual round of networking with your web industry peers and a cash bar.

When: Wednesday 22nd April, from 7:00pm

Where: The Melbourne Hotel, 942 Hay Street, Perth

Cost: $40 for AWIA Members

Now if you are fully up to date, you will know that WCAG 2 has been ratified by the W3C, but it yet to be adopted here in Australia.  However I can say that it is very close to happening.   So this event would be an ideal time to get your brain space around the new accessibility guidelines.

Okay I know there is lot of PDF use out there as a cheap web publishing means, so it would also be a good idea to also come along and see first hand what type of issues that our bad PDF documents are causing accessibility wise on the web.   So you get two must see events for one!  Cool, eh.

Now what you waiting for go on, go get a ticket, yes right now. I hope to see you at Ideas5 to learn all about WCAG 2, PDF Accessibility and to have a drink or two.