tankt

On the role of usability as the most important issue when designing online, Todd Wilkens of Adaptive Path saidbest:

Praising usability is like giving me a gold star for remembering that I have to put each leg in a different place in my pants to put them on. (Admittedly, I do give my 2 year old daughter a gold star for this but then she’s 2.) Usability is not a strategy for design success. … Usability is too low level, too focused on minutia. It can’t compel people to be interested in interacting with your product or service. It can’t make you compelling or really differentiate you from other organizations.

I wholeheartedly agree. I aspire to create interfaces experiences that are engaging, lively, and inspired. I do not always nail it, but I do believe I am getting closer, and much more consistent. At a minimum, they are personable, quirky, and unique; I can live with that in the interim.

Speaking of which, I have a really good one to share with you all in the next few days.

And, fwiw, I respect and truly admire the way Adaptive Path approaches their work. In my mind, AP and Cooper are the quintessential San Francisco design firms, and the only two places I would even consider should I ever tire of doing startups. =)

Without a doubt, this is the most awe inspiring thing I have ever held in my hand. And it is worth every dollar and every hour I spent waiting. Have a look at the pics from my afternoon waiting in line in San Francisco.

Though I might quibble with the music and other very small details, this is *absolutely* brilliant. If you’ve ever wondered what it is that I do, this is a very big part of it…

The entire piece just blows me away. I’m truly speechless. Apparently it’s the second draft, with more revisions to come. I can’t wait to see the finished product.

I happened to check my feedreader for the first time since early this morning. Hugh links to this brilliant post by Fredd Kambo:

I don’t bother “networking” anymore, instead, I try to build relationships with people I find interesting, and who I think are doing interesting things. And I make it my mission to help them in any way I can to achieve their mission. I find this much more satisfying, much more honorable, and much more fun. And this is the cool thing about people….When you help them out in this way, they help you out. Not because it’s a tit for tat deal, but because both parties are engaged in a mutually beneficial relationship that extends beyond the next favor.

While I have always lived like this (or at least imagined so), I don’t know that I’ve ever been this successful with it. Things are moving quickly, but everything feels slow. It’s kinda weird to say, but it seems like my talents and abilities finally match my opportunities. And more importantly, I can finally make it happen in such a short period of time…

In less than a week, I met Annie Decamp for the first time and agreed to help her with her new website. We never even talked about a fee, I never showed her any of my work, it was just something that I / we immediately knew I / we wanted to do. =)

It’s still very much a work in progress (show me something in my life that isn’t!) but I am thrilled with it so far. Her work is exquisite, and she is about to become very, very big in Hollywood (yeah, not my scene either, but it’s an absolute must for her). I am honored to be a small part of her success.

It never occured to me, prior to attending last week’s event, that all of our concentration (here, our loosely joined world of experience/interaction designers) is on the finished product. We (almost) never talk about the process, the path to greatness. To be sure, we have shared tastes and objective traits, but we as a profession we have little discussion in the process of it all…

Jeff Veen and Doug Bowman danced in and out of both worlds, and gave us an incredible glimpse into one of the most stunning redesigns in recent years.

I have a ton of notes, plenty of insight to share, but for now I think it’s best to just say thanks.