Yesterday’s Day Two HOW Interactive Design Conference programming brought an all-star lineup of design experts – all talking about the components and processes that lead us to good design. Industry minds like David Sherwin, Maciej Ceglowski and Andy Fitzgerald covered topics from information architecture to changing behavior through design.
SmashLAB founder and partner Eric Karjaluoto wowed us by demystifying and debunking the myths that permeate the creative world. Ideas like, “The idea will come to me.” (So why plan or prepare until it arrives?) Karjaluoto dug into why holding on to these myths can actually limit our creativity and overall results.
No need for the Don Draper approach of “the big reveal.” The speakers shared best practices of working together WITH the client for user experience strategy and design intent, to plan, prepare and execute the process of design.
Designing for Success with Client Involvement
Taking the idea of how designers can best collaborate with clients further, today Happy Cog’s Chris Cashdollar so insightfully shared, “Design battles are taking place in the trenches of artifact creation.”
You don’t want to have a cultural war in the midst of your UX strategy development. It’s important to work with the client and establish the process and goals in advance.
Designing with Intention. Cashdollar’s talk hinged on the idea of getting on the same page as the client/client team. But with very intentional steps and process.
Get the language right. “Work hard to codify the words during the design processes,” Cashdollar adds (echoing Eric Karjaluoto’s talk).
Translation: Speak the same language as your client and school them in the concepts they need to know. It’s a little like “designer as teacher.”
Some Memorable Moments from HOW Interactive Design Conference D.C.
“To close the empathy gap, you must understand what the clients problem is in the first place – not just try to fix it.” -Dan Hon
“Front-end work is being commoditized. Build systems, not pages.” -Christopher Butler
“It’s the gap in understanding between an organization and its audience.” -Dan Hon
“Google Glass is the segway of the face …” -Karen McGrane
“Your design solution is only as strong as your ability to communicate its merits.” – Chris Cashdollar
“I still see a soul in the internet…”.-Dan Hon
Couldn’t make it to D.C. for the show? Not to worry, you can catch all of the excitement in Chicago and San Francisco ….
