The most important thing I learn’t at SXSW this year is don’t mess with Cindy Li…
Thanks to Geert Leyseele for the photo
Tag Archives: sxsw
Elitism in web design
Every time I attend a web design conference the same issue raises it ugly head; elitism. This time around it seems to be targeted at the Brit Pack.
I have just gotten off the phone with Andy Clarke. I was arranging for him to come on next weeks .net podcast. While chatting he asked if he could discuss the issue of elitism because the members of the Brit Pack were coming under criticism for it at SXSW. He has just posted about it on his blog and I thought I would share my thoughts on the subject as I find myself in the strange position of having a foot in both camps.
The Brit Pack Booze Up?
As you probably already know if you listen to my podcast, Boagworld was a joint sponsor of the Great British Booze Up, a party at SXSW. It was a hugely successful evening mainly thanks to the hard work of Andy Budd and the clear:left team who put an enormous amount of effort in making the evening work. However, I did find myself getting irritated a number of times throughout the evening when people referred to it as a Brit Pack event. It wasn’t a Brit Pack event as I was one of the primary sponsors and I am not a member of the Brit Pack. Things came to a head for me when somebody said exactly the same thing yet again while I was standing next to Andy Clarke. I finally cracked and very pointedly explained that it wasn’t a Brit Pack event because I wasn’t a member. Andy, to his credit immediately turned around and said he would make sure I was added.
What was interesting was how this made me feel. On one hand I was really pleased. It made me feel like I had “made the big time” in someway and that my contribution to the community was valued. However, on the other hand it pissed me off because what Andy obviously didn’t remember was that I asked if I could join back in 2005 (when the world had yet to be exposed to the wonder that was my podcast) and he very politely said no.
Is it okay to exclude others?
So was Andy wrong to exclude me back in 2005? Am I only now being offered a place because I am more well known? Is the Brit Pack an elitist group that only allows in the select and “famous” few?
Personally I feel that there maybe an element of elitism but if there is it is certainly not intentional and it is not something we should be criticizing. Sure, back in 2005 I was somewhat annoyed that I wasn’t accepted into the “club” and felt excluded for not being “famous” enough. But I think that was my problem and not Andy’s. To him it was just a few of his mates on a mailing list chatting. I wanted to join simply to be associated with that group of people who I respected and admired. I didn’t really have much to contribute and was more interested in promoting my site through the Brit Pack than I was in adding anything of value. Andy didn’t know me from Adam and was perfectly within his rights to protect his group of friends.
Networking happens
Everybody is trying to impress somebody at SXSW. Everybody wants to speak to those who they admire and this can lead to some hurt feelings along the way. I remember speaking to a hero of mine (who shall remain nameless) and we were having a very nice conversation up until the point he spotted somebody more important. Instantly he ended the conversation and moved on to this new person. I was incredibly hurt by this until I caught myself doing exactly the same thing to somebody who listens to the show! I didn’t do it on purpose, and I suspect neither did the person with whom I was talking. It was just that this was the first time I had seen the person all week and didn’t want to miss the opportunity.
I guess what I am saying is that we need to accept that friendship groups are okay and that networking is an important part of these large conferences. It occurs in every walk of life and is not within itself a bad thing.
Maybe the guys in the Brit Pack have been a little naive about how they are perceived and the influence they have. They probably don’t realize they are in the “cool club” and to be honest I think we need to keep it that way. After all imagine how much worse it would if they knew how much we all wanted to emulate them :)
My advise is that if you feel excluded from a group like the Brit Pack you have one of three choices. Set up your own group (which is after all how the Brit Pack came about), start adding real value to the community until they finally come around and recognise your contribution, or bitch about it. The choice is yours.
Show 70: SXSW
This special episode of boagworld comes direct from SXSW. Paul and Marcus interview a whole host of webcelebs including the founder of Twitter, Ryan Carson and a gaggle of panellists.
Podcast: Download (28.8MB)
To subscribe directly within itunes click here
So here I sit in my hotel room at SXSW. Last night was the British Booze up and what a superb evening it turned out to be. In fact the conference as a whole has been incredibly enjoyable. I have been fortunate enough to meet some great people and attend some superb panels.
However, putting together this podcast has been much more challenging. The problem is that it could so easily become tedious if you didn’t manage to attend, full of in jokes and pointless drunkenness.
What we have aimed to do in this week’s show is give you a taste of the SXSW experience. So yes, there is some pointless drunkenness but there are also panellists talking about their presentations and sponsors speaking about their products. We have also tried to give you our own personal opinions of the show. We discuss exactly how useful (or not) the conference is and whether it has simply become too big.
I am not even going to try to produce normal show notes for today’s episode. Partly because the show is somewhat random and also partly because at the time of writing Marcus is still hacking the final format around. However, I am sure you will forgive this unprofessionalism on our part considering we both drank far too much at last night’s party!
Show 66: Beyond HTML
We have a bit of an audio and video theme to this week’s show with Ian Forrester talking about online video and Paul sharing some advice on creating a podcast. Marcus also continues his series on client contracts by looking at “the statement of work”.
Podcast: Download (26.9MB)
To subscribe directly within itunes click here
News and events
Mobile internet usage increasing
This week the BBC has reported that 15.9 million handsets in the UK accessed the web in December. This is an increase on over a million on the previous month. This further underlines the fact that the mobile web is going to be the big growth area in 2007.
Headscape recruiting
Headscape is expanding yet again. We are currently looking to recruit a .net developer and an experienced css/xhtml coder. If you are interested in either position send an email to [email protected].
Great British Booze Up
If you are attending SXSW this year then come along to the Great British Booze Up. ClearLeft, Boagworld and @Media 2007 are taking over a “British themed pub” (yeah right!) to bring you an evening of traditional British entertainment.
Enhance your page performance
There are two new articles on the Think Vitamin website this week. Unfortunately Chris Heilmann’s Article is far more interesting than my own. He looks at the issue of page performance, outlining some of the common problems and how to address them. He also has an interesting discussion on page performance verses best practice.
Some handy flash tips
Robert Nyman has obviously been struggling with Flash recently as he has posted two very useful tips on dealing with that pesky plugin ;) He shows you how to embed flash without invalidating your code as well as how to place an HTML element on top of a flash movie.
Client corner: The statement of work
This week Marcus takes a look at the statement of work, which is the cornerstone of the contract between client and developer. In particular he focuses on the various stages of the development cycle and what information needs to be covered in the contract. Elements covered include:
- Kick off meetings – Who will attend, what documentation will be produced?
- Information Architecture – Will there be expert reviews, stakeholder interviews or card sorting? What documentation will be provided, who will do the recruiting? What about wireframe testing?
- Design concepts – How many concepts will be produced? How many different pages will be demonstrated? What happens if the client doesn’t like the design?
- Template development – What types of pages will need designing and building? What additional style sheets are going to be produced (print, mobile, low vision)? Will the client sign off each template?
Ask the Expert: Ian Forrester on video formats
Ian Forrester from BBC backstage and the Geek Dinners joins us to talk about online video. He talks through the different formats available (quicktime, real player, windows media and flash) as well as the different delivery mechanisms (steaming, download and progressive download).
Producing a podcast
Probably the most common question I get asked is how I go about producing Boagworld. That is why in this week’s show we combine the review and agony uncle sections to talk about the whole area of podcasting.
I share some thoughts on creating the right format as well as reviewing a range of podcasting tools including:
Refresh06
So Refresh06 is now over and I am mere moments away from heading back to the UK. Although the conference suffered from the occasional hiccup it has been incredibly enjoyable and I have been inspired by the amazing people I have met.
It has been a pretty incredible time and it’s hard to know what the highlight was. A good contender is the behind the scenes tour of the Kennedy Space Centre organised by a boagworld listener Benny (who is a real life Rocket Scientist!). However, good as that was, I would have to say the top spot has to go to the people I have been fortunate enough to meet.
I am not a big conference goer or indeed even a regular member of the web design community. However I have been made to feel incredibly welcome over the last week. To a large extent this has been down to Andy and Jeremy who have both taken me under their collective wing. Despite the constant humiliation and piss taking, they have both made a point of introducing me to new people and making me feel part of the gang.
And what a gang it is. I am not even going to try and mention everybody I have met, however I would like to say a special thanks to Jina, Dan, Cindy, and Jade who seemed to endure me for longer than most.
For me conferences are all about the people. The talks are a secondary factor. I guess that is a strange thing for me to say as somebody who was speaking at Refresh06 but I honestly believe there is more to learn about web design by chatting over a pint than sitting in a conference hall.
Refresh06 wasn’t perfect. The organisation could have been tighter at times and there have been some problems with the audio recording (meaning my sessions are not going to be available). However, for me none of that matters. What matters is that I got to talk to some incredibly talented people and meet my web design superhero Cameron Moll (although I was too shy to have a long conversation with him!).
All in all a brilliant time and I cannot wait to SXSW.
Podcast 22: How your website sells
Whatever your website is about, it has to sell something. From selling an idea to a product or service, every site has its place in the sales process. This podcast looks at what that process is and how your website plays its part.
Podcast: Download (23.8MB)
News and stuff
This week we look at the new beta of Internet Explorer 7 as well as correcting a heap load of errors we have made in previous podcasts! However, most importantly we tell you about the geek dinner being held in honour of boagworld.com.
For more about the geek dinner check out my post
Win a ticket to SXSW by visiting the geek dinner website
Technobuster: Validation
This week’s technobuster section looks at Validation. What is it, why bother and how it work?
Read our validation post for more details
Main Feature: How your website sells
As I said at the start of this post, every website is selling something. Even the most dreary public sector site is trying to convince somebody of something (selling an idea). In many ways most of life is about sales, we are always trying to get people to see our point of view, to do something we want them to do. Unattractive though it is, sales are the cornerstone of web design and yet so often it is overlooked.
In this episode of boagworld, we explore some of the underlying sales principles that have been around for years and try applying them to the web.
Seven steps in sales
It is widely accepted that we pass through seven states in the purchasing process:
Satisfied ignorance
We do not believe we have a need and so are making no effort to fulfil that need. For example if you have just eaten, you feel no need to eat more.
Awareness of need
You are aware you have a need but have yet to take action. Gaining an awareness of your need can be triggered by external or internal sources. For example you may start to feel hungry (an internal trigger) or you might smell some food cooking, which makes you hungry (external).
Information search
You now actively look for a way to fulfil that need. Either we rely on internal sources such as a memory of a nice place to eat, or turn to external sources, such as a recommendation of a restaurant from a friend or family member.
Evaluation of alternatives
This search process will lead to a number of alternatives. Do I eat in a restaurant or cook something myself? We weigh the pros and cons of different options in order to settle on a decision.
Purchase decision
In this stage, we begin to look at the specifics of our decision. If we have decided to cook ourselves, we decide on what we will actually cook.
Purchase
This is the actual decision to act. In some cases, this will be a literal purchase while in others it might be a call to action like volunteering ones time or changing ones point of view. Understanding what your site’s objective is (your purchase point) will help you position it in the sales process outlined here.
Post purchase
This is the point where we decide if the "purchase" was the right decision and whether we intend to stick with that decision.
Applying the sales process to your site
Understanding these steps are one thing, applying them to your site is quite another. It is especially difficult if your site is not an ecommerce site. The goal is to understand which of these steps you perceive your site addressing and which are to be dealt with by other methods (such as on or offline marketing). Before you can do that, you need to understand what your ultimate goal (sale) is.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Headscape is a web design company that offers a variety of services that are tailored to individual companies needs. They do not sell a tangible off the shelf product and so the web is not an appropriate environment to complete the transaction. Instead, the actual purchase point needs to be reached from negotiation between the client and the Headscape team. Therefore, the Headscape website is primarily geared around helping prospects with the "evaluation of alternative" stage. Anything before this point in the sales process and the prospect wouldn’t have found the Headscape site, anything after this point and we would prefer to be talking to them face to face.
Knowing where your website fits in helps determine factors like supporting marketing, content requirements and general design/functionality.
Useful questions
The following questions might help you to better understand the positioning of your site:
- Does your site need to convince the user of their need before you present them with a solution? For example, the majority of visitors to the Headscape website already know they need a site and so this part of the process is unnecessary.
- Does your site need to explain the solution to the users need before selling your particular proposition?
- Does your site seek to maintain the prospects attention while they investigate alternative solutions?
- Does your site manage the purchase process online?
- Does your site provide post purchase support?
- Are there methods in place to raise awareness of their need and help in finding your site?
I realise that this is a bit of a tricky concept to explain so have a listen to the podcast and if it still isn’t clear post a comment on this site.
Web resources: Choosing a colour palette
This week Paul and Marcus looked at three sites that help you choose the right colour palette for your site.
Dark-i.com
This site lets you view example sites based on palette to see how other designers have worked with certain colour combinations
Colour blender
This site allows you to quickly and easy try out different colour combinations together as well as making suggestions of colours that will work well.
Colour Schemer studio
The colour schemer studio is the best colour theory software around. This excellent little tool helps you create the perfect colour palette. A great buy!
Podcasting and prizes
Just a quick post covering a couple of housekeeping notices about changes to my podcast RSS feed and a free ticket to SXSW. I promise I will get back to posting on web design real soon!
Podcast feed
Several people have complained that my podcast RSS feed has not been very accessible recently. As a result, I have been through it with a find toothcomb and cleaned the whole thing up. I have also rewritten a lot of the entries to make them easier to read. I hope that will solve the problems people have been having.
Get the boagworld.com podcast feed
Free ticket to SXSW
The guys over at geekdinners.co.uk have managed to get their hands on a free ticket to South By South West, probably the biggest web/tech event of the year. They will be giving the ticket away to one lucky person at the boagworld.com geek dinner on Thursday 23rd February.