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Posts from Molecular at SXSW

Molecular is joining the annual pilgrimage to Austin of the globe’s tech and web geeks. We’ll be reporting back on discoveries, trends, and anything that advances digital possibilities.

August 20

Vote for Molecular at SXSW 2009 and Discover the Secret Sauce

We all know that the SXSW conference rocks as perhaps the premier gathering of the brightest minds in emerging interactions. What you don’t know is that Molecular could be amongst the 2009 presenters – but we need your help to make it happen…

Molecular’s own Darryl Gehly has put together a star-studded panel featuring Joe Ventura, Senior Communications Manager, Nikon USA and Jeff Fleischman, SVP Customer Experience for Global Direct Banking, CitiBank. If selected, these experts will show you why it’s not only critical to participate, but how you can use the customer conversation to help you take the lead in your industry. But to do this, we need your vote…

Learn why you must engage your customers, and create time with them. Participating in an open and authentic dialogue with customers can not just give your brand time with customers, but also help you to better understand them and their motivations. It is this customer insight that is so critical to building a solution that that will surpass both customer expectations and the competition – creating a new landscape where your brand is the sole player.

Interested in being the sole player in your industry? Discover the secret sauce at the 2009 SXSW Interactive show by voting for Molecular’s panel. Click the button below to vote!

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March 13

The Facebook keynote debacle

by Steve Mulder

So you probably heard about the chaos and hilarity that was the Mark Zuckerberg keynote at SXSW. If you haven’t, check out the Wired News coverage or Valleywag chatter, or just watch the video.

The firsthand experience was bizarre. My take is that Zuckerberg was lucky that BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy was such a bad interviewer, because otherwise the attention would have been more on him and his utterly unengaging wall of silence. The guy had little to say and resorted to repetitive platitudes. If he were my CEO, I’d be worried. I know, I know, he’s only 23. But he needs more coaching fast.

Sarah Lacy made me wince continously. Like, she’s like a flirty 13-year-old and comes across as, like, soooo unprofessional. Like, you know? I know this informal valley girl interview style is in vogue, but the lack of content and expertise was embarrassing. Stop giggling and ask real questions.

And OK, the crowd overreacted. She deserved criticism, but not real-time cruelty. The SXSW audience is more demanding and impatient with BS, no doubt. It was fascinating to see it unfold in person.

Interesting broader coverage about the participation of the conference crowd: “SXSW: 2008, the Year the Audience Keynoted”

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March 8

SxSW 2008 – Michael Lopp, Apple

by Tom Kershaw

Michael Lopp from Apple was a good speaker and a funny guy.

A couple of interesting facts I learnt from Michael about the process at Apple:

Michael’s philosophy: There are two kinds of people. Those who open their presents on Christmas day, and those who take a sneak peak the night before. Apple designs things for people who wait to open their presents on Christmas day.
He exclaimed, ‘How many companies do you know make packaging porn?’
‘We do pixel perfect mock-ups.’
He explained that one of the directors didn’t even like lorem ipsum on mock ups, he expected to see everything in its correct place.
At Apple they have a process meeting, where they go crazy with ideas, and a production meeting, which aims to put structure around the crazy ideas. They do it every week. They don’t stifle the creative thought until it is needed.

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March 8

SxSW 2008 – Design is in the Details

by Tom Kershaw

Saturday morning, 10am
Presenter: Naz Hamid – Weightshift

Although this talk was aimed at beginners, I thought it would be interesting to listen to another designer share his experiences and reveal his creative process.

Naz was nice to listen to. You could sense he had that passion for his craft which we fellow designers share. His presentation focused on details, paying close attention to those finite aspects of a project which individually aren’t much but combined together form a complete package, a strong and elegant solution to a problem. His sentiments would be later echoed in a talk I attended given by Michael Lopp from Apple.

Naz outlined 8 key factors in his design process:

1. Experiment – play around with ideas, total creative freedom
2. Make the right choices – pick the strongest ideas, choose visual rules
3. Stay consistent – keep all comps neat and structured
4. Completeness – finish all screens, leave no open questions
5. Step in, step out, step back, balance – take a break, come back to it
6. Be your own critic – you need sound explanations for your design
7. Complexity in simplicity – less is more
8. Obsession is healthy – be dedicated, obsessive

It was interesting to me because his creative approach is very similar to my own. I like to concentrate on the details even at the early stages of a concept. In his initial experiment phase he mentioned that he didn’t sketch ideas onto paper, he collected assets and went straight into Photoshop to see what works and what doesn’t. I think our generation of designers (being much more digital) tend to do this a lot. I like to use the tools I have as much as possible, because you quickly arrive at a more finished look. Have a look at Gapers Block- a site Naz has created which provides entertainment and lifestyle information for Chicago. Good stuff.

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March 7

SXSW: We’ve landed!

by Paul Irish

The molecules have landed in Austin and we’re excited. Brandon also scored his first parking ticket so far, but compared to Boston, these Austin fines are a bargain!

Before the trip we used Sched.org to pick and organize the panels we wanted to see. It’s a clever ajax application that pulls in all the festival info and helps you get your agenda straight.
Here is the combined schedule of all of us. We’ll be employing divide and conquer to cover as much ground as possible.

Stay tuned…

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