Alla Gringaus

SXSW – when it’s dark…

The CNET Buzz Out Loud’s Molly Wood and Brian Tong give a sneak peek about the night life of Austin during the SXSW 2011 Interactive. This event takes place every year around the same time in the same place – March, Austin, TX. It used to be called Festival; they now call it Technology summit. During that week, on a daily basis, you do your best trying to attend 6 sessions, one after another, 9:30am to 6pm, then everything in between – meetups, lounges, book reading, trade show, screenburns, hands-on classes, meetings. And then…. the magic of the night begins… but, dead or live, you have to jump back in the loop at 9:30am of the very next morning:

Curb Your Experience: Pushing the UX to Extreme

Mar 15, 5, ACC BL B
“You have to start with the most complex, and find a simple solution. Then you have to make it work.” – IM Pei The critical path to excellent usability design begins with a fundamental understanding of how an application or interface is broken. In a variety of ways, UX designers take their cues from organizations like Consumer Reports which for example, use machines and robotics to repeatedly pound luggage to test for durability with the overall objective to try to make it rip, tear or break. UX engineers persistently attempt to ‘break’ the application, by often pushing it to its most extreme edges in order to find a solution for the fix. This presentation will extend beyond the physical design, Web or digital application interface and venture out into the world of human interactions and interpersonal communications, the original source where all interaction is based and inspired. The presentation will use video clips from the comedic series, Curb Your Enthusiasm, where Larry David, the protagonist of the show is shown to persistently test, provoke and extreme push society and conventional behavior to humorously illustrate where human interactions are broken and ways that they can or (why bother?) be fixed.
Presenter: Jenine Lurie

Anatomy of a Design Decision – Jared Spool!

Mar 14, 5:00, ACC, Ballroom D
What separates a good design from a bad design are the decisions that the designer made. Jared will explore the five styles of design decisions, showing you when gut instinct produces the right results and when designers need to look to more user-focused research. You’ll see how informed decisions play out against rule-based techniques, such as guidelines and templates. And Jared will show you the latest research showing how to hire great decision makers and find opportunities that match your style. Of course, Jared will use his unforgettable presentation style to deliver an extremely entertaining and informative presentation.

For my SXSWi schedule for March 11-15 click here. The overlaps reflect my options.

Moving the Web onto Mobile Devices

Mar 14, 3:30, ACC, Salon J
Take a look at how the complexity of design has increased exponentially with the web moving onto today’s mobile devices. There are so many more considerations when thinking about a design or a campaign that go beyond the basic, “who is my target audience….how do I reach them?” Now it’s also, “what devices do they use…what browsers…..do I use Flash in my designs….what about HTML5?” Hear from a panel of industry experts about how they are dealing with these questions and what winning strategies they have found to be most successful for them.

For my SXSWi schedule for March 11-15 click here. The overlaps reflect my options.

Keynote Simulcast: Felicia Day

Mar 14, 2:00, Ballroom A
The future of entertainment is one of uncertainty and opportunity. As traditional formats like television and movies lose eyeballs to video games and user-generated content, where is this creative revolution taking us? Join one of leading voices in scripted internet content, Felicia Day, in discussing the journey that took her from a video shot in her garage to a four season production deal with Xbox and Sprint. She will speak about harnessing social media to build her show “The Guild” to over 100 million views, and building upon her success to produce her upcoming web series with EA/Bioware, “Dragon Age: Redemption”. There has never been a better time to be an independent creator, learn from one of the innovators. Bottom Line: The time to break through traditional barriers is now.