OUGD602: Networking - Dot York

I went to the Dot York conference this week, where there were 10 speakers speaking about a range of topics from design to development, and it was a really good experience.

There was a really good turn out, of about 300 people - I didn't realise it was going to be such a big event! Luckily as a student, you get free entry, and you have to pay £110 if not.

I actually enjoyed all of the talks, but the ones that stood out the most for me were Allison House and Phil. 

Allison just had this really positive and productive energy that was clear to see, and it was obvious how hard she works at what she does. She has worked at Treehouse, Codecademy and Dropbox!!! So has been part of some of the best design teams in the world which is pretty impressive, and she gave some good advice of how she got to that stage. 

She works two shifts a day - her day job, then 2nd shift which is a side project she wants to work on. She does this everyday, and is really strict with it. 

The second talk that I was most impressed with was Phil Hawksworth, as he was just such a confident, humorous and good speaker. What I noticed throughout his talk is that he had edited his slides and spoke about things to include what the previous speakers had said. To me, this showed what a great listener he is and how up to date and pro active he is as a professional. It kept us all engaged as well.

I met a woman called Maryam at the event, and she flew from New York to be here! We got talking, and I found out that she is a web designer for Victoria Secret in New York - dream job right there!! She was so lovely to speak to, and we went for dinner after the event and exchanged details. I was glad I went and met her as she was such a lovely person and had a lot of positive energy. I would love to work for Victoria Secret in their design department in New York one day... I love that company!! And design.. so combining the two would be a dream.

Here are my notes from some of the talks

Mr Joe - Design for Science

• Don't need to cram everything above the fold - but need to show evidence of that
• Have to advocate choices you've made to prove your thinking
• Using terms like 'I feel' allows someone to give opposing opinion - uses personal views rather than data so sets people up
• Don't confuse design with art. Design is about having an effect and doing something
• Subliminal advertising doesn't work
• Cognitive Lode
• Understanding psychology will make my approach stronger as I have the theory to back it up
• You'll always have an answer

Bonnie Colville-Hyde - Learning From Comics

• How do we make stuff people want to share
• We need to change the way we present deliverables as they are boring. Documentation is full of text if we don't engage decision makers, we fail
• People love stories. We can engage people with experiences
• Comics can provide a positive disrupter
• They get shared, and people are attracted to them - they have a novelty value
• Create helpful and productive discussions
• What makes a comic - single panels, pages, gutters, speech, machine voice, thought bubble, normal speech
• Eyebrows and mouths are very expressive
• Characters are important
• Alex Dukal - photoshop texture brushes
• Comci life - $30/40 programme to create this
• Planning is so important

Anna Debenham - Styleguides, Pattern Libraries and Code Standards

• Interface inventory - useful for existing sites
• Style tiles - in between moodboards/mockups
• A good tool for conversation at start of project to see what the client wants
• Element collages - ui elements

Allison House - Making it Happen

• Being around people who are better than you is key
• When someone produces more work than all their peers, hire them
• Name all of the elements that will be on the site, prioritise elements
• Done is better than perfect
• How to get in something like Dropbox etc - prolificness - do lots of work!! Doing more work means you can push off bad work from your site

Brendan Dawes - Paper, Plastic and Pixels

• Everyday reset to zero
• Look and read about other stuff not in industry for inspiration. Being challenged, curious and talking to people