BLi Blog

SXSWi: A first timer’s account

On March 12th, Alison Fassl and I traveled down to Austin, Texas to participate in the annual South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. As a first time attendee of SXSWi I had no idea what to expect. I knew it was the biggest and best interactive conference of the year so I was extremely excited. SXSWi turned out to be the ultimate experience in terms of learning, fun, and of course socializing. The amount of people I met, knowledge I gained, and ability to revel in my obsession with design can’t be had anywhere else. As a recently converted (from print) web design addict I made sure to hit every web design panel possible. Being new to the interactive field overall I wanted to learn everything I could about web design from the best and brightest in the field.

UnNatural Experiments

Paul Annett is an excellent designer from Clearleft, a well known design studio from the UK best known for Silverback App (resize the window and watch the vines). Annett’s presentation showcased numerous brilliant ideas within website design. Annett showcased sites that all had something different and brilliant, from quality and crazy design choices to small easter eggs that made people smile when they found them. These things allowed companies sites to be exposed quickly and more widespread because people love original ideas. Annett made me realize that I should strive for that clever brilliant idea in my design. Instead of creating just a simple and clean site (which i love), but also incorporating something new and brilliant.

Being a UX Team of One

One of the most valuable presentations I attended was Leah Buley’s (Adaptive Path) on “Being a UX Team of One.” At first I did not realize how this panel applied to me and my current position here at Brightline. Although I have a creative director/project manager above me and a development team around me, I tend to design and program throughout the entire production process. Leah gave an overview of her previous job and how she was the sole designer, information architect, coder, tester, etc.  Leah gave numerous tips on how to brainstorm, and get past the wall that all designers experience. How you can form an ad-hoc team to brainstorm and gather more ideas from, whether they are designers or not. Lastly, she told us how some of the best projects are designed from the ground up using the best ideas. Although most of her tips pertained to small one person operations they can be applied to larger environments as well.

Leah’s presentation opened my eyes to numerous techniques I could use to gather feedback and grow as a designer in our small, but specialized team here at Brightline. I recommend checking out her slides available online here, because almost anyone can apply her techniques to become a stronger designer/developer.

Beyond these two presentations I learned a great deal from Jason Santa Maria, Samantha Warren, Ian Coyle,and Gary Vaynerchuk. Topics such as the need for art direction in online content, web typography, CSS3, wireframing, and why I need to “hustle my face off” to become successful.

I met a lot of designers and even some of my design heroes i’ve looked up to for inspiration and to model myself after. To me they are heroes/celebrities but most of all they were approachable and excited to hear about a young designer with web standards in mind. Whether it’s a structured panel with some of the best in the field, or at 3AM in an Ihop after an open bar, you can learn so much from other designers. I remember hearing someone say how SXSWi refreshes them to go back into the real world, and it definitely did for me. It made me excited about design, the possibilities, and ways i could grow as a designer. I know that I am completely sold on SXSWi and will be attending it for as long as I can, I suggest everyone else do the same.

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