An Event Apart, Boston, April 2014

Here are some thoughts on talks at the recent An Event Apart, in Boston.

Web Design is held to the expectations of other media. Often ignoring the intrinsic strengths of web
Like typography, web design’s primary focus is communicating content
Technology is often a hangup for people, when the user and their needs should be the primary focus of designers. “Design for people, not browsers!”
Design is about detail
A great website will subtly guide the user to their desired destination

Design is no longer a differentiator. Making things look nice is common. The differentiator today is designing with purpose — answer the question ‘why?’
When the right metrics are studied, data offers objective and actionable feedback
Data should allow a team to unite behind an objective goal — such as: Increase clicks etc.
Customer facing advertising is most effective when honest and transparent
Iterative design allows you to be flexible and try new things

Frameworks rather than processes, mean you define a set of constraints within which a project exists, and within this you find out what you can do that’s unexpected
Be active within your framework and volunteer/get involved with stages of production outside of your discipline
Each member of a team will have divergent perspectives at the start of each project cycle, they should become convergent by the end. These are focal points
Rinse and repeat the cycle, getting smaller each time to increase team involvement
Extensive preparation should make the assembly part of the process the shortest

Mobile is the dominant web browser worldwide
Responsive design includes additional considerations than just screen size (multiple input types, variable ambient lighting etc)
Screen size is a poor proxy for many of these considerations (screen size does not reveal input type)
A user’s posture or distance from device will also affect it’s design, independent of screen size or number of pixels
Design for human proportions, not pixels.

5 key points for working with a client:

Principles: these are internal motivators based on our better intentions. They can unify a team
Strategy: pinpoint your goals and provide helpful constraints with which to execute
Process: the process is not God, it should change and grow as needs change. Regular post mortems are encouraged
Roles: RACI key for each agent on the client end. Responsible. Accountable. Consulted. Informed
Perceptions: Translate to facilitate communication between different disciplines

Design is the rendering of intent. Both user and provider
Content delivery is as important as the content itself and vice versa. Great UX cannot exist without great content
Advertising is unhelpful for all parties involved
Strategic priorities in business can inform design considerations (increase revenue, reduce cost etc)
There are a variety of models for monetizing the web

HTML allows for fantastic accessibility, deprecation and backward compatibility
New HTML specifications can be adopted early as they will be skipped over when unsupported
Progressive enhancement means you start with the lowest common denominator and then enhance as much as you like
Progressive enhancement protects the experience from unaccountable errors such as unrelated javascript errors
Text formats will last longer than binaries. Binaries are forever changing and becoming outdated

Mobile users expect their content to load faster than the desktop
Web growing is latency limited. The nature of requesting many small files means that a user’s experience is improved by reducing the number requests
UX can be greatly enhanced by prioritizing critical data and rendering early on
Separate the critical CSS from non-critical. Load non-critical at the end of the page. Aim for main content to load in 1 sec (< 14kb)
The number of higher latency users is increasing

Colors in web browsers have many nuances and limitations
Hex and RGB are poor representations for human reading
HSL and HSLa are better although they are not perceptually uniform (we perceive 50% yellow as much lighter than 50% blue)
New color properties in CSS level 4 will make color coding more human readable (HWB = Hue Whiteness Blackness)
There is room for much more improvement in web colors

Designing for the space between screens. Not content but tasks. Verbs not nouns
The technology is available today, we just haven’t imagined the possibilities yet
Interfacing with machine is likely not going to change much (touch and mouse are great interfaces)
Physical things are beginning to have digital representations (avatars)
How about affecting how we interface with physical world and communicating that to our devices.
Software makes hardware scale, The endless possibilities

Web technology has inherent strengths, despite the popularity of native apps
Web tech should not try to replicate — though it can learn from native. Build to the strengths of web
Progressive enhancement and interoperability make web accessible and global. Always accessible by everyone
Widgets failed as they were a poor imitation of native apps. They existed as a snapshot without the ability to update
W3C is built for accessibility and interoperability. This means that it is designed for low level functions. - Can be complicated but powerful

Great things are achieved in difficult circumstances
Success and acclaim only arrive once a project is complete
Charm and convincing people of your ideas is important!
A network increases your potential. Reach out and get advice to harness that potential
To enact change, start small with something you can excel at and expand from there

This post originally appeared on The Mechanism’s Blog.

Written on May 8, 2014