Usually a quiet week at Mindfly expells an overwhelming amount of blog entries. By the lack of them, I can tell you that life has been pretty crazy from our little corner of the world. When we finally get past the craziness and back into the normality, well... here I am! I'm afraid that this post isn't going to be full of fantastic wit and 1980s culture tie-ins. I'm not even going to get amused looks for my horribly bad analogies (can we say garden gnomes, anyone?) this time around. What you're getting here is frank, open Janae in my own voice, mapping out an experience for you.
What do I mean by mapping out an experience?
You know I'm going to tell you right. But bear with me, as it might take me a bit to get there. I hate to give you the run around, but some stories are best when started at the beginning, and I've never been a girl really fond of flashbacks anyway. But maybe a story is a flashback? I know, I'm starting to get into the realm of theorizing here. I'll do my best to stick with cold, hard facts (Truth: I suck at cold hard facts. I'm all for emotions, moods, and crazy artsy ideas).
Last Sunday, Karina, Kyle, Rusty, and I flew out of Sea-Tac airport to head to Web Directions North in Denver. It's been about seven years since I've flown anywhere, so I have to admit that I was a bit nervous but even more excited. To make events unfortunate, however, I'd come down with a horrible head cold that culminated in a nice little fever on the flight... so, excitement be what it may, I was making my best attempt to just survive being sick as a dog and away from home.
I'm not doing a very good job at this, am I? Mapping out my experience for you, I mean. Unfortunately, I have no fabulous pictures of me dying to show you how miserable I was on Sunday, and I have no real outline for how I'm going about this post to help you connect with me as I walk you through my adventure in Denver. I know I've asked already, but bear with me, it gets better.
Monday mornings always suck (Is suck an appropriate term on a work blog? This may get crossed out), especially when you have to get up about an hour earlier than you usually do and to add insult to injury, you're an hour ahead of your regular time so it feels like you're up two hours early. Add a hastily drank cup of the Elixir of Life as well as a fruit smoothy filled with vitamin C, a dose of Dayquil, some Theraflu, and Airborne and I was high as a kite and ready to go on with my day no matter what time it was! And it started out on a fabulous foot, despite any whining on my part.
There were so many people at the conference that I could squeal over and idolize like the nerdy little fangirl that I am at heart, but the truth of the matter is that any week beginning with a workshop by Elliot Jay Stocks is the start of fabulous things, my friends. When I say "man after my own heart", I mean this because, and I quote... Elliot Jay Stocks likes to "make things pretty" (I know, all you developers out there are wincing while I grin like a goon and pump my fist in the air. YE-AH!). But more than make things pretty, Elliot gives some great tips on how to make an experience.
Next, Useability. The afternoon seemed dry to me but mainly because I felt like I wasn't in the core group of people that were being spoke to. I don't need to go back to corporate (Hey, Ruuuusty!) and beg for some money to do user testing. I have to beg my clients for that. And really, I don't have to beg. They'll either want it or they won't. But I will have a valid presentation to give them about why they need to do user testing. And so, for that, I thank Mark Trammell and Juliette Melton.
And third, accessibility. Derek Featherstone managed to pack a full day's worth of discussion into a half a day, and even then... I only have one word for what really happened there: Intense! That man is crazy passionate, and he shares his passion through so many examples I couldn't even give you a piece of them to show you how much he wants to make the web available for anyone who can possibly use it. I tried hard to be the good little college-student-wannabe that I am and pack in a ton of notes, but by the time the workshop was over, I had a handful of things tossed on my screen, and most of them wouldn't make any sense looking back at it now. What does this tell me? That I got more out of that workshop than I had ever thought I actually would.
This brings us to day three. Wait... what happened to Tuesday, you ask? That would be accessibility and shoe shopping. What can I say... I'm a girl. Okay, not just shoe shopping. We also had an absolutely fabulous invitation to Refresh Denver and enjoyed spending a great evening with other designers and developers not only from around the nation but around the world. I have to tell you... Slovenia seems like a very interesting country and I hope to visit there someday!
I know what you're thinking. The title of this blog should be "Janae's Babblepost".
Day three and four were a whirl of activity. If you want an idea of what I'm talking about, check out one of David Fling's talks in the future. Who can take notes when it's a slide ever 15 seconds?!
So... what did I bring back to Mindfly? How do you take an experience, make it your own, and then share it with your company, your clients, or even more importantly: make it mean something to yourself? Good. Questions.
The answer is: It Matters
Pretty Matters
But it matters more for the people who really care about it (I'm looking at you, Safari users).
A few things about "pretty", that I got out of WDN09 and would like to share with you. I'm repeating some of what was said, for sure, but I'm hoping that for any of you who were there and may be reading this, that you'll hear it in my voice with my heart as someone else who really believes that the web isn't just another gadget out there in a gadget heavy world, but something that really, truly matters.
- ... because it's real. And websites need to be real, too. They need to be an experience that a user goes through, not just a document they read. It needs to hold real photographs, real textures, and real feelings. Like a book, or art, the web is an expression of you, of your business, and of your life. It matters because it's real.
- ... because it shows and tells. Pictures give you a story as much as words, and if there is one thing that I learned from this adventure it's that typography is important and that we, as designers or developers, need to learn more about typography and the ways it can be used and the legalities of it. I have to tell you, I do not know far enough about what makes embedding a font on your site legal or not. I'm not sure the people who make fonts know (lying), but I'm now determined to find out.
- ... because it lets you feel. The colors, textures, fonts, and words of a site all tie in to tell a story, craft an (yes) experience, and allow a user to connect not only with thought but with emotion. Designs need to evoke what our clients (even if we're designing for ourselves, it has to be viewed that way) want their users to feel when they come to the site, as much as what they want their users to learn, purchase, or discover.
- ... because less can be more. What am I talking about? Graceful degradation and progressive enrichment. Learn these terms, use them. Not everyone needs to have the same experience when they come to your website. But no matter what experience they get, it needs to be a good one.
Obviously, I'm passionate about pretty, and perhaps not quite as passionate about useability or accessibility, but... as usual, I have something to say.
Usability Matters
And it matters most for everyone.
Simple truth. If people can't use your site, then they're not going to get any of what you're trying to tell them.
- ... because if you can't use it, then what? As I said, I'm passionate about pretty, so for this one I really only have one thing (lying). Whether it's a document, an experience, a story, or a ridiculously long blog post by a rambling web designer... we all want to get our voice out there, and we want people to understand it. I can't help but remember what my favorite English professor in college told me for every essay I ever wrote... remember your audience! Which brings us to...
- ... because if you aren't talking their language, you're not really talking at all. Understand your users. Test your users. Do whatever you have to, and for crying out loud, please research your users. Don't go out onto the web speaking Slovenian only to realize that the rest of us only read French. If people can't navigate your site, then it doesn't matter and it needs to!
Accessibility Matters
And it matters most to those you least expect.
I have to admit, going into this conference, I had never once wondered "What would happen if someone who was blind went to look at one of my sites"? Because... I like pretty, and pretty is something you see... isn't it? Wrong!
- ... because everyone is different. Every day, we expect people to conform to our personal rules, our lifestyles, and our habits. We expect tolerance, forgiveness, and understanding from those around it. So... shouldn't we be giving it back? Frankly, at this point in time, I would hate to have someone with any type of disability go to one of my sites because I know for a fact that no matter how much of it I'm doing right, there's something else I'm doing wrong. Where is my tolerance, forgiveness, and understanding for the differences in others?
- ... because you can't expect applause from an audience that can't hear you. Simple statement, simple fact. I know I've spoken about voice, emotion, and intent in this post and I'm merely pounding it in with a hammer. A site has to be useable, but it also has to be accessible. Your audience has to be able to find you to be able to be your audience in the first place. Make yourself available to them!
And so... all whining aside, all coughing up a lung (tumor? No, seriously, just a cold), all shoe shopping, and all workshops aside, did I have a fantasticly fun time?
Yes, yes I did. It was a great experience!
