2. Spring Break for Geeks
John Biehler, 2009
SXSWi has been affectionately called Spring Break for Geeks. This crowd is
hanging out a large outdoor music venue not to hear a band, but to watch two guys
on a couch argue about tech stuff.
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3. SXSWi
Sessions Involving Teledildonics
Sessions in Presentation
Sessions Attended
Sessions Ne
two
rkin
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Parties
SXSWi is Parties, Networking, Keynotes, Core Conversations, Panels.
I heard that over 12,000 people attended SXSW. There were oer 200 Panels alone
in 2009.
I saw about 20. Of those, I’m going to talk about 4 or 5. At best, I’ll spend 10
minutes on a great session that kept me interested for over an hour.
So what I’m really saying is that I can give you a taste of the crack, but if you really
want to get your geek on:
- go to SXSW
- check out the links I’ll provide at the end of the presentation
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4. Alex Bogusky
Sticking Your Nose Where it Doesn’t Belong
One of the first panels I attended was a session by Alex Bogusky, of CP+B
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5. Alex Bogusky
Q: Can an Ad Guy bring bike sharing to
America?
A: “No”
image credit: Andrew Duvall
The fundamental question of the presentation was “Can an Ad Guy Bring Bike
Sharing to America?” It was a question he answered in the second slide.
And while he did go on to talk a lot about the bike sharing concept and the
subsidiary that CP+B has created, he also talked a little bit about CP+B and his
attitude toward advertising.
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6. Alex Bogusky
“I Hate Advertising”
timesheets
Which, he says he hates. He cited the painter Miro, who was often quoted as saying
he wanted to “assassinate painting.” By this, he meant that he wanted to destroy
the conventions and preconceptions that people have about painting, or in
Bogusky’s case, advertising.
He also talked about how they had done away with timesheets at CP+B and how he
hoped that his legacy in the advertising industry would be the death of timesheets.
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7. Making Ideas Happen
99%
Scott Belsky
CEO, Behance
Creativity * Organization = Impact
One of the most compelling presentations I saw was by Scott Belsky, of Behance.
Their mission is to organize the creative world. We all know the saying that genius
is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, so why does every conference on creativity,
every brainstorming session, every gathering of creative gurus focus on the 1%
rather than the 99%. Behance’s mission is to focus on that 99%.
Scott offered a formula for achieving impact: Creativity * Organization = Impact.
This is something I felt had a lot of relevance for me, for interactive and possibly for
Barkley as a whole. We have no shortage of ideas. We have lots of them. The
challenge comes in making those ideas real.
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8. Making Ideas Happen
3 Action Items
Backburner Items
Reference Items
Scott shared some of Behance’s research into high-functioning creative teams, and
one of the factors that distinguish highly productive teams is that they are organized
with a bias toward action. Most of his presentation articulated how that organization
plays out.
For example, it’s a best practice for creative groups to focus on three important
things coming out of meetings – Action Items, Backburner Items and Reference
Items. It’s important to keep the three separate and to place an emphasis on the
Action Items.
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9. Source: behance.com
In fact, Scott urged us to measure the effectiveness of our meetings in terms of
those Action Items. How many are generated, how many are captured? Another
best practice is to end the meeting by going around to each person and asking what
are your action items coming out of this meeting.
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10. Source: behance.com
Another best practice from highly productive creative teams is to share ideas
liberally. Share ideas with a lot of people. Share them before they’re fully baked.
Sharing ideas helps make you more accountable for achieving them, and it can help
make them better through critique and amplification.
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11. Source: behance.com
Scott also said that productive creative teams usually have at least one person who
acts a as a sober moderator. Someone who filters the ideas and kills some off. Far
from rejecting this negativity, great creative teams embrace it and value it.
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12. Source: behance.com
Productive Creative teams also value fighting. They have a low tolerance for
apathy. There’s constant pulling and advocating for a solution, and when someone
lets go of the rope, that section of the solution space ceases to be explored.
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13. Source: behance.com
Scott advocated developing a methodology for deciding where you’re going to focus
your energies. Realize that you can only put one or two things at the extreme to
high end of the importance spectrum. Lay them out visually and make sure
everyone is aware of the priorities.
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14. Source: behance.com
Scott also recommended surrounding yourself with signs of progress. Don’t throw
away your to-do list when it’s done. Put it up on the wall and celebrate the
achievement.
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15. More from Behance
Obviously, this is only a small taste of an hour-long, inspiring presentation, so I’d
encourage you to check out these resources from Behance:
- Actionmethod.com offers a system and products to organize creative teams for
action.
- The 99% conference is an atypical creative conference. They’ll bring in top
creative leaders, but ask them not to talk about their vision. Instead, they’ll ask them
to talk about the ways they get things done.
- Behance magazine is an online resource that showcases stories of creative
productivity.
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16. Search for a More Social Web
Image credit: (CC) Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us.
One of the most jam-packed sessions I attended was the Facebook session on
developing a more Social Web. This was mostly dealt with the Facebook Connect
API, which allows websites and applications to use your social network on
Facebook, assuming you allow them, and to read and publish status updates,
photos, videos, etc. There are over 6000 sites now using FB Connect, and they
announced APIs for desktop applications and for the iPhone.
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17. Search for a More Social Web
The biggest buzz was around FB Connect for the iPhone. Many of the app
devlopers who announced apps at the session indicated that their apps had just
been approved on the iTunes App Store that morning. One was approved five
minutes before the presenter took the stage. These games allow you to play on
your iPhone against your Facebook friends.
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18. Why Do We Play Games?
[Why We Play Games]
They’re fun!
source: xeodesign.com
Another one of my favorite sessions was Interface Design Lessons We Can
Learn from Games. In particular, panelist Nicole Lazarro from Xeodesign
presented some compelling research on how to tap into emotion in game
design.
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19. The 4 Fun Keys
30 emotions from gameplay
Hard Fun Easy Fun
Fiero Curiosity
emotion < choice < mechanic > choice > emotion
People Fun Serious
Amusement Fun
Relaxation
source: xeodesign.com
Source: xeodesign.com
The 4 Fun Keys is a PX model for how games create the emotions people
most like.
Game designers cannot design the emotions that players feel directly.
Instead they design the mechanics that offer players choices (in the center
of the diagram). It is in the making of these choices that players feel the
emotions coming from gameplay. It is this new way of creating emotion that
separates games from other media. What is most important here is
designing the center to create emotion in at least 3 of the 4 quadrants.
Turns out that by watching people play there are over 30 emotions that come
from the choices that players make in games. Designers who understand the
relationship between their game mechanics and these emotions can craft
these emotions as early as the concept stage rather than waiting for the end
of design or even production where changes are harder to make.
At XEODesign we can track how players really react to the game in context.
We looked at what create emotion in players and mapped that to what they
liked the most about games. There are seven emotions in the face and more
in the body. We look at these emotions and match them to game mechanics
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to hack the “what’s fun?” problem from the player’s perspective. Watching
emotions as people play we find that emotions are fluid and braided over
20. Hard Fun: Fiero
source: xeodesign.com
Source: xeodesign.com
Hard Fun: The opportunity for challenge and mastery
For example there is no word in English for the feel you get from winning the
Grand Prix or beating the boss monster.
At XEODesign we use the Italian word Fiero: personal triumph over
adversity.
In watching players for Fiero we often see the arms and legs punch out/jump
in victory.
During play gamers often start bored, then become frustrated, experience
fiero and then feel relief.
The emotions stream one into the other.
How many look for Fiero during play testing?
How many have changed a design to get more Fiero?
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21. 1. Hard Fun: Mastery Creates
Fiero choices
player choice rewards effort
• goals
• challenge
• obstacles
• strategy
• power ups
• puzzles
• score
• levels
• monsters
feelings
• fiero
• frustration
• boredom
modified from “Flow” Csikszentmihalyi
source: xeodesign.com
Source: xeodesign.com
Let’s look into how games create Hard Fun and more emotions like Fiero* for
players.
Hard Fun: Emotions about choices from mechanics in the game.
Emotions about choices made in the game. Several game features and
mechanics enhance a player’s sense of Fiero and progress in the game.
Hard Fun is the perfect balance of player skill with game difficulty. If the
game is too easy the player quits because they are bored. If the game is too
hard players quit because they are too frustrated.
On the right are the choices and emotions players feel from the Hard Fun
activities in a game, such as working towards a goal or scoring points.
I first knew we were on to something new when I started seeing patterns in
game players not predicted by Csikszentmihalyi’s model of Flow.
First of all, emotional states for good games had to vary over time, not just
get harder. So we added a wiggly line.
Secondly, we saw a lot more emotions than boredom and frustration
(anxiety). For example for Fiero to occur players had to become so
frustrated that they were about ready to quit. To get Fiero, the player must 21
succeed just when they are on the verge of quitting. When they achieve at
22. Social Patterns & Anti-Patterns
“ Proven solutions to
common problems in
specific contexts. ”
Anti-patterns:
• Ex-boyfriend bug
• Sock puppets
• Underpants gnomes
http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/
http://www.designingsocialinterfaces.com
Another useful session was Social Patterns and Anti-Patterns. This was based on
an upcoming book, Designing Social Interfaces, and it was really an introduction to
the concept that there are already well-established solutions to common interaction
design problems. Many of these successful solutions are getting codified, so that
interaction and interface designers don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
The URLs here point to two really useful sites. One is specific to patterns in social
media settings. The other is the Yahoo developer patterns library, a more general
case interaction design pattern library. Both are really, really good resources for UX
and interface design.
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23. Making Breakthroughs Happen
Probably my favorite presenter of the entire show – Kathy Sierra. She has a blog
called Creating Passionate Users, and she speaks about ways to really engage
people. I sat in on two sessions by her.
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24. Why Don’t Breakthroughs Happen?
She first asked the question, “Why Don’t Breakthroughs Happen?” And the obvious
answer is that we keep hitting brick walls. So one of the ways to get through walls is
with super powers.
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25. Picture It On The Suit
image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/karla_k/
And one of the recommendations Sierra had was to picture it on the suit. What
power are we trying to give our users? What can they do now that they couldn’t do
before? Or what can they do better or faster? The closer it comes to a real
superpower, the bigger the breakthrough. The lamer the superpower, the less
interesting the breakthrough.
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26. Don’t Ask
Kathy also said that focusing on users is a guarantee of incrementalism. People
cannot tell you what they can’t imagine. If you want incrmental improvements, she
said, ask your users. If you want breakthroughs, ignore everybody.
BTW, Hugh MacLeod’s book comes out in June of 2009.
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27. Change the EQ
Source: http://headrush.typepad.com/
Another tip for achieving breakthroughs is this notion that Sierra calls changing the
EQ. This diagram represents the options for managing your product within a typical
market.
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28. Change the EQ
Source: http://headrush.typepad.com/
In most product development scenarios, companies fiddle with the sliders to
differentiate their products or brand. So a high-end product might look like the red
sliders, and a low-end product might look like the blue sliders.
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29. Change the EQ
Source: http://headrush.typepad.com/
Sierra drew an example from her own publishing efforts. She said that had they
relied on the standard sliders, their work may not have been terribly competitive
within their industry.
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30. Change the EQ
Source: http://headrush.typepad.com/
However, by adding sliders that nobody else had, and by touting them, they were
able to create a successful publishing brand.
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31. Presenting Straight to the Brain
Present to the brain,
not to the mind.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hurleygurley/
But my favorite session of SXSWi was presenting straight to the brain. Sierra was a
panelist in this session, and the moderator was someone I met through the SXSW
runners group. BTW, if you have a chance to do that kind of sweatworking, I highly
recommend it. We ran for an hour or so at a time, and I had the chance to have
three or four really good conversations as we ran.
Sierra’s primary thrust is that too many people present to the mind, but the brain is
really in control. The brain and mind are locked in an epic battle. The mind wants to
control what is retained and wants you to be able to pay attention to abstract,
theoretically important and useful things, but the brain is in control. The brain
basically still thinks we’re living in caves, and it cares about pretty basic, primitive
stuff.
Basically, the brain only cares about chemistry. When something causes it to give a
little jolt of neurotransmitters, that’s what causes us to be able to pass information
from short term to long term memory.
So the Key Point of Sierra’s presentation is this: Present to the brain, not to the
mind.
So what does the brain care about?
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34. And also, puppies.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/piratescott/
And also, puppies.
Interesting to note that the puppy gets a bigger reaction than the baby. Not sure
what that says about us.
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35. The brain also cares about mystery. Things that are obscured or partially obscured.
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39. WTF?
Source: Creating Passionate Users
In fact, Sierra calls this the What the Fuck Learning Principle. Surprise brings
powerful learning. Predictability stifles retention.
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40. Think Sexy
If you want to create
passionate users, you
need to understand
passion. . . . But we can't
just study it; we have to
feel it. . . .
The brain cares deeply,
profoundly, passionately
about survival of the
species. And that means
sex.
Source: Creating Passionate Users
Most of all, the brain cares about sex. The brain is most definitely concerned with
survival of the species, and that means sex.
Which is a really good seque to the promised section on sex and teledildonics.
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41. “Intimate Computing”
Some of you will recognize this as the Orgasmatron from Woody Allen’s Sleeper.
As you know, Woody Allen is a famed technological visionary, and he predicted in
1973 that we would eventually use technology as an intermediary for sex. Well, I’m
happy to report that based on what I saw at SXSWi, that glorious future is now a
reality.
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42. Source: Whisper[s] Research Group
But before I get to the the sex part of the panel, I will say that there were some
interesting, non-sexual applications of touch technology. The Whisper[s] project is
one example of this. These are wearable computers, clothing that includes
embedded sensors, transmitters and haptic devices that allow wearers to transmit
their sensations, movements and other environmental data to other wearers and to
display systems that become part of an environmental art project.
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43. Tune In. Turn on.
Source: OhMiBod.com
But enough of that high-minded art stuff. Let’s get to the sex.
This device is an iPod-linked personal massager that uses the beat and volume of
your playlists to provide stimulation. Here’s the inventor of the doing a work-safe
demo:
http://www.ohmibod.com/suki.html
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44. Teledildonics
Virtual Sex Machine The Real Touch
Of course, interactive sex devices aren’t just for the women. Guys, there are
interactive sex toys for you too.
The Virtual Sex Machine hooks up to a video and reads cues from a specially
recorded audio track. So the action of the device is synched to the action on the
video screen. The signals control up and down motion, pressure and suction.
The Real Touch is a sex machine that plugs into the USB port of your computer.
While the VSM is synched with video, The Real Touch is intended for use with
software or virtual words. It synchs to the movements of your virtual lover’s avatar.
I would show you a video of these devices, but I’d certainly get fired. There’s
absolutely nothing work safe about any of these.
But if you really want to see a sex machine in action, I recommend this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI_JuLtGjJM&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.googl
e.com%2Fvideosearch%3Fq%3Dvirtual%2520sex%2520machine%26oe%3Dutf-
8%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26cl&feature=player_embedded
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45. Back to School
SXSW Podcasts
Behance: www.behance.com
Kathy Sierra: headrush.typepad.com
Xeodesign: www.xeodesign.com
Social Patterns: www.designingsocialinterfaces.com
Yahoo Patterns: http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/
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46. And also, puppies.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/piratescott/
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