I stumbled upon reference to this book when looking at requirements listed around a User Experience Designer position on Craigslist (not for me – a colleague’s posting, I swear). The posting required any potential applicant to have read the book, and have an opinion on its merits. It struck me that if a complete stranger, or potential employer in this case, was so adamant about such a publication – perhaps it was worth a read. After all, it helped build a baseball stadium.

What Worked

The most important component of this book for me was discussing the context for which technology was best used, and more importantly, how it affects our ability to think or create. In a few instances, there exists slight condescension when the author makes reference towards overeager bosses and engineers, but this manifestation of snarky-ness is done in a productive stance when referring to all of one’s “unimportant emails that need addressing right-away”. Email should be turned off, or at least down during sessions of productivity.

Dan Saffer coined the term, “Topless Meeting“, to describe a mandated no-laptop policy for technology meetings and business cultures. Sit down, look someone in the eye and give them undivided attention. In my work environment, we’re light years away from this, and at times suffer because of this. Distraction of one’s phone / email / laptop pulls them out of focus and into an alternative path of a meeting where nuances are lost, details skipped and, in my case, feelings are hurt. At times, it borders on narcissism, perceiving ourselves as being too important to even be present for the job we’re being paid to do.

Another solid takeaway from Bit Literacy is around the protection of one’s attention span – turning off all sources of distraction when trying to be creative and embed oneself in the challenge. I’ve found that even the computer is a distraction for the creative process. Stripping down to a pen and an oversize tab of paper can suffice in vetting ideas much better than a distracted pushing of pixels. It is more collaborative, people can discuss examples hanging on the wall and can discuss much better than if encased within an email attachment. Finding this sweet spot of focus and concentration, while still being able to supplement with referenced information (things that computers are good at doing) is a hard thing to accomplish. It is all too easy to be thrown off into a rabbit hole by even the slightest notion of wonder.

What Didn’t Work

I’ll start by framing this criticism by saying that this book was written in 2007. Our ability to manage data was still primarily on the desktop, and certainly hadn’t seen full realization of productivity either through mobile or using the cloud devices. Perhaps a bit of product placement (and subsequent marketing opportunities for Google) but when Larry Page was asked when he deletes messages from his inbox – he curtly replied, ‘never‘ – lest the attorneys be damned. Yet despite the callousness, I agree – the concept of a zero inbox is overblown. Many of the fears around inbox management and Outlook crashes due to large archives are now obsolete. Using web-based solutions alleviate the local hardware constraints the book’s arguments are centered around. Perhaps today’s version of Bit Literacy would offer similar principles to be applied making sure data redundancy is in-place if the cloud someday dissipates, a thought that genuinely terrifies me.

A similar argument can be said about file formats and versioning, chapters that are now somewhat redundant with today’s technology allowing us to work collaboratively and a reduced need for version control and files located on the desktop. With such a huge amount of data that the technorati has to process on a daily basis, the bookmarking, tagging and referencing of these resources presents a much more taxing dilemma than the single stream of an email inbox or file folder. Prioritization of multiple professional and personal social components (which hadn’t spread widely by 2007), the filtration of key influences against the static noise surely has a place in the next generation of Bit Literacy’s hyper-organization manifesto.

I also hold a different opinion against Bit Literacy’s described methods around task completion and organization. The section on to-do lists, for example, take the stance that paper is this slow, clumsy, disorganized, meta-less experience. That there is no indexing, categorization or other advantages found within a digital experience. For this task master, paper is my point of contact – as it features all the tangibility and tactical feedback I need to feel as if I made a mark. I feel more of a emotive experience to filling in a drawn checkbox and crossing off a list than clicking a virtual box and watching a pixelated line of text disappear. This should tailor into the author’s thesis of technology being a distracting element – that we need to reserve our usage for only tasks that require digital completion. The same principles exist – group by importance, category, delegated / non-delegated task or accomplishment date.

Worth Your Valuable Time?

Absolutely. Bit Literacy is a quick read, one that you can consume on public transit over the course of a single week. It helps understand habits that we fall into as our desire to clutch bright, shiny, connected objects grows greater and greater. I had a moment of reflection when seeing my infant son consistently try to grab my phone out of my hand. This is likely because the device lights up and makes noise – an instinctual attention-grabber, but I can also see that my wife and I are constantly fiddling around with our phones, especially while he’s playing around on the floor. Look at this microcosm of time as it relates to our career, as it parallels the small child playing on the floor – gone in an instant, and shouldn’t be experienced without giving our full attention.

Nick Cawthon is Director of Experience Architecture at Organic

This past weekend saw a great turnout for the Interaction Designers Association REDUX – a recap of talks originally presented in Dublin, Ireland in early February. The San Francisco chapter of the IxDA gathered at Adobe in China Basin on a glorious spring day. Still weary from a winter full of rain, we were all eager to let some light into our perspectives on the trends and topics of the industry, as well as soak up the eclectic line-up of talks throughout the afternoon.

I was lucky enough to be asked to arrange attendance of the speakers and host the event – giving me a front-row seat for what my peers had to fly halfway around the world to see. Much to my surprise, and without exception, each and every speaker jumped at the chance to come and present their work again. The most difficult part of the event, from my view, was trying to conceive of questions that matched the intelligence of the speakers and their presentations.

GUI, NUI and wait, what.. now OUI?

Both Rachel Hinman and August De Los Reyes presented different dimensions around the use of Natural User Interfaces (NUI) and the trending of mobile devices to reduce the explicit impact of technology. We’ve gone beyond figuring out how to get content on mobile devices – this hurdle has been overcome, successfully hurdled past the tipping point and phones being solely used for telecommunication. Our challenge today is how to insert technology ubiquitously (either physically or virtually) to the point where our phones can stay in our pockets and the capabilities of technology will remain. The emphasis on an elegant GUI is certainly not gone, but the emphasis has instead shifted from computer generated display to the positioning and context in which the technology is present in.

August De Los Reyes, who is currently working on a “top secret project” for Samsung, had previously come from the Microsoft Surface team – an early, widely-known example of the NUI. Instead of forcing a user to scan, upload or type information through a keyboard or touchscreen, the recognition of simply placing the object on a table presents a clear case of a NUI. One can see a similar implementation from Microsoft, in their success with the Kinect Gaming system – take away the controllers and let the body gestures dictate the experience. With Kinect – the hardware no longer needs to be visible as it did with Surface, an interactive experience can take place using hidden cameras and providing feedback with audible cues. Comparing these two examples from Microsoft shows how Natural UI can progress towards a more Organic UI.

Organic UI today, but Passé Tomorrow?

Talks at the TEI 2011 Workshop in Portugal centered around the discussion of what constitutes an Organic vs. Natural experience. In their initial definitions, the term “organic” refers only to a subjective of the experience. Organic qualities, as it relates to a UI, is perceived through breaking down the plastic and glass encasement of hardware – or standard feature components of software design. A paper-based computer is an obvious incarnation – we don’t expect computers to bend, or be cordless or have a tactical sense of touch.

Presentation of natural components in place of where an interface commonly located – to “trigger a suspension of disbelief and become emotionally involved in a narrative”. Today, one can easily see the novelty of innovations such as a flexible, paper-like display or the optical recognition of Kinect. But when do we cease to become emotionally involved? This suggests that we become jaded with our computer interactions, and novel methods need to be continually applied in order to suspend our disbelief. Take an interaction method as widely accepted as the multi-touch trackpad and present this to a user who has never seen a laptop before, and even this method of interaction will seem both natural and organic.

As we type with our fingers, or draw back our lungs to breathe, we are operating a machine – the external hardware that tracks the subtleties of our physical interaction. Siri on the iPhone (Apple’s implementation of voice-controlled interaction) is a good example of an Organic User Interface. Visually, it is a glowing microphone that pulses when thinking, and displays a narrative on a question and answer. M. Fauscette provides an interesting write-up on the role of voice commands in the past and how far they’ve advanced in the 30 years since introduction. It has only been in the last two or three years has this become a Natural act – where we can speak to our cars or our phones and expect a functional response.

Barriers to Progress

What could be some boundaries as we seek to present technology ubiquitously everywhere and anywhere? Centuries of text-based communication do not ‘unwrite’ themselves very easily and new interface methods will certainly present a new learning curve. The less standard our delivery methods – and initially they should lack a standard to continue this subjective novelty, the steeper that curve may be.

There may also exist a constraint on the different experiences available within the interaction itself. An extremely tailored experience in implementation presents challenges in delivering variety around the content itself. A single, Organic method of human computer interaction (dancing in front of a Kinect or recalling a phone number through Siri) may currently be perceived as elegant and efficient – but reversing the tasks for each would render each incompatible. Will walling off the ability for one size to fit all result in a loss of adoption, or is Organic UI a term and a mindset appropriated only for specialized devices?

From SXSW Interactive -

After the torrential rain finally cleared up in Austin, I decided to venture across the street from the convention center towards Google Village and take in a few talks on what’s new from the “Big G”. To my surprise, the village is literally a full residential block with houses devoted to Google products — from hearing about the latest from Google Maps to hacking Android devices.

I made my way over to the “Discovery” House featuring Google’s Project Re: Brief (http://www.projectrebrief.com/coke) experiment, which is an attempt to refresh some of the most iconic ad platforms known to mankind. By adding all the bells & whistles of what digital provides, these classic marketing platforms become new again. Yet, the real litmus test is whether the addition of digital really enhances or weakens the impact of the original campaign.

Case-in-point is Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” spot from 1971, featuring a chorus of young people from around the world singing, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke”. Keep in mind that this is during the time of the Vietnam War and the growing peace movement pervading the younger generations. Needless to say, it was an enormously successful and memorable campaign. Will it resonate with today’s connected generation? Does the notion of “buying the world a Coke” actually deliver the same gesture of bringing the world closer today?

Well, Google met up with Harvey Gabor, the original art-director that created the spot, and brainstormed ways to bring the idea of buying a complete stranger a Coke a reality. While keeping the original soundtrack of the chorus intact, the song transforms into a call-to-action to invite the viewer to send a personal message to any connected Coca-Cola vending machine across the earth. On the other end, a person receives the message and gets a free Coke. Voilà!

I admit, I love seeing interesting ways to connect the digital with the physical world. Yet from a marketing sense, this execution quickly becomes a shiny object that falls flat because it allows technology to overshadow the emotional impact of the original message. Consider the gravitas of the 1971 campaign, one that delivered a message of hope and peace in a time of war. The 2012 edition simply shoots out a can of Coke to a stranger on the other side of the world and says, “Enjoy!”

If “buying the world a Coke” were tied to addressing a relevant issue happening in context of today, then perhaps the message would have become more balanced and delivered real impact. I do commend Google on taking on these challenges with Project Re: Brief – one that is quite daunting since these campaigns sit of the top of the heap of advertising history. Yet the attempt at making Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” concept contemporary sadly does not outshine the original.

Derek Scott, Group Creative Director

We’re winding down our time here in Austin, and the nerd masses are readying to vacate town to be replaced by the much hipper and edgier music crowd. Looking back on our talks and sessions over the past few days, we’ve been able to find some takeaways that will help our work practices going forward as we continue to develop our respected disciplines within Organic:

• Don’t Just Design – Make: The introduction of commercially available 3D-printers was seen across several different talks and subject matter. Just as we’re seeing interactive companies hack together perspectives on society and data through the use of connected technology, this will become more and more prevalent in the three dimensional space. Within the UX track, we saw a strong emphasis in using software simulations and interactive prototypes for the purpose of both usability and engineering, to replace what was traditionally the static information architecture process.
• Mobile First:  OK, you knew this one already – but it was never more evident than in the halls and lobbies of this conference. In comparison to the vast majority of tablets and phones that were being used, I didn’t see nearly as many laptops. Designing for the interactive metaphors of these are a must. A hoverstate is a thing of the past, as there are no more mice nor cursors, only fingers to swipe. However, amongst our group, we’re starting a trend to try and bring the Desktop back. As calls for SXSWi 2013 entries open up in only a few months, we’re scheming to showcase comparison graphs on the levels of productivity that can be found by sitting in a chair, at a desk, and doing work on a stationary computer. It’s a counter-revolutionary approach, but I like our chances of giving the keynote next year.
• Feedback on Every Level: Providing an open forum, whether it be through a company’s social media presence or using internal review forms within departments, re-emphasizes the wisdom of people-centered platforms and a user-centric approach to design. There were as many talks about properly conducting usability across different contexts (mobile, ambient, industrial design) as there were on engineering. This open-minded focus of always learning or listening to the public’s views or utilization of your product or service helps to reinforce the wisdom of the masses, and that the user is never wrong.

We found an Irishman in our boot!

Moments of Serendipity

Our quintessential SXSW moment came after we waded across town through a torrential rainstorm, for a talk that turned out to err on the side of mundane. As the third of four speakers were droning through their slides, I jumped online and reserved a car2go for the three of us to try and save some time in getting over to the next venue for the 3:30pm talk. There was an available car-sharing SMART car right outside the Sheraton – one that could take us across town to our next venue at the Omni, located a few blocks away. Here is the sequence of events, as they played out chronologically:

• 2:41pm – @ncawthon picks-up a car outside the Sheraton on 11th, reserved minutes earlier from the lecture hall.
• 2:42pm – passenger @bradmancuso tweets “Conor in the boot of the car2go at SXSW”, attaching the picture (above, right), and smartly mentioning the car2go brand.
• 2:42-2:48pm – Somewhere within this 6-minute span of us in transport, a car2go social media representative sees this tweet/picture on her laptop while monitoring instances of her company’s name across Twitter, all the while being parked on 7th and Trinity in her own SMART car.
• 2:48pm - @ncawthon, @bradmancuso and the yet-to-be implicated @cbrady park immediately behind said car2go employee and unload our clown car, ending the reservation after driving only 5 blocks.
• 2:49pm - The cheery, twenty-something car2go employee hops out of her car and playfully scolds the group about fitting a third person within the boot of the SMART car – stating that she saw the picture of us before we even pulled up.
• 2:50pm - We graciously apologize and head to our next SXSW session.
• 2:52pm – While we’re getting seated for the next talk, the car2go employee scrolls through @bradmancuso’s twitter feed, finding shared/mentioned some SXSW tweets with @cbrady. She correctly identifies him as the cohort in crime and restates to him the official car2go policy, this time publicly through his twitter handle. Conor’s hilarious virtual reply was that he had been stuck in there since last week, and just was now being let out.

The build-up, reveal and response of that short, 10-minute caper encompassed all of the great things about SXSW. Fun interactions happening through connectivity. It shows how empowering the use of technology can solve an initial problem (rented a car to avoid a walk in the rain), share joy with others (tweeted picture of the Belfast-born in boot), to monitor activity (social media coordinator seeing violation as it is occurring), discover people (finding the identity of the offending party), and finally, help influence and correct behavior (car2go informing us of their policies).

Oversubscribing Brilliance

SXSWi seems to have become a victim of its own success in the crowds and inaccessibility of the conference. Whether this is a conscious play by SXSW to generate additional income, or purposefully portray a sense of controlled chaos, I’m not sure.  It’s hard to feel like you’ve seen anything or even fulfilled that which you wanted to make sure you were going to do/learn. It’s hard to feel like you’ve been a part of an intimate group of industry leaders when throwing elbows and jumping lines. As referenced in yesterday’s post, each morning is slotted with trying to see three different talks, all occurring at the same time. Even if the chosen session turns out beneficial, your lingering thought wonders about the other two that you might have missed. A consistent feeling of regret and missed opportunity are not healthy emotions to keep reinforcing amongst attendees at SXSWi. As the legendary interaction designer Yogi Berra stated, “That place is so crowded that no one goes anymore”. Many we talked to just gave up. They stated that the purpose of their presence was to network informally, as the lines, crowds and the run-around were all too much. What they came away with was more of a holistic view of the industry, rather than furthering specific knowledge on relevant topics.

Life, Death and Tacos

One certainly feels as if they came back the following year – it would mandate wiping the slate clean and starting fresh, as our contextual use of technology and delivering devices changes so fast. There exists more of a temporal nature surrounding the presentations and nature of the Interactive track as a whole. SXSW Film may feature trending subject matters, or Music with different genres that come and go, but the break-neck pace in which Interactive has technology and their brands live-and-die over the course of a year is much, much faster. Between his harping on “laptop rockstars” and lambasting both pirates as well as the record industry who fights them, Billy Corigan’s session should have recognized that his last relevant album he put out was 10 years ago – absolute eons in interactive time. If a technology company were to sit still for 10 years, (perhaps while cogitating on how to best publish their latest emo angst?), they’d disappear completely. Admittedly, yes, the SXSW Music conference looks so much more fun to attend, but rock stars have a luxury to sit still that technologists do not. Back to work for both Billy and I.

Nick Cawthon is Director of Experience Architecture at Organic

Improvements Needed to the Wisdom of Crowds

SXSW offers a deluge of content to try and digest; it’s difficult to make sense of it all. The holy grail of the “Social/ Mobile/ Local” trinity is a tired but obvious reoccurring theme of the conference, an unavoidable trend given the history of SXSW launching the Twitters and Foursquares of the world into the wild.These are also reflected through next-year’s startup darlings; fledgling in schwag-based anonymity whilst pounding Austin’s pavement (often in bizarre costume) for some form of attention.

Even within the cliquish tech community, there are several sub-sects that have formed within the conference. These circles stay stationary within their own buildings, often held across several floors of a hotel’s ballroom. The feel of these panels and tracks (as well as attendees’ behavior) were distinctly different, almost separate conferences even, with different emphases and appropriate formats for different presentation styles. Marketing and Branding held panels. Startups held meetings and workshops. Gaming did product demos. In the true form of our buckshot-like focused approach to the conference itself, we’ve seen some of the reoccurring themes across the Interactive portion of this content to be the following:

• Emerging + Convergence: how can we introduce interactivity into non-traditional formats? These often attempt to take the experience away from a traditional screen and placing it in-store, around product design in a concept car, or discussing the viability of mobile NFC payments, based upon lessons of the past. And yes, Virginia, panelists all agreed that QR codes are most definitely dead. As most votes follow the money, the influence of the web and social media within standing or upcoming democracies (or even dictatorships) had a big part to play in what a more practical implementation of the wisdom of digital crowds could play in the deciding the ruler of a modern society.
• Future of Work: As our job titles become more of a trend (or even a meme) than a more specific prescription of work, one that quickly transforms to passé over the course of less than a year. Each year presents new and interesting job titles to market oneself – Design Technologists talking with Data Scientist, mingling with Viral Advisors. Given our over extensions, productivity discussions centered around multitasking efficiency or the perils and advantages of remote working environs. Even no-talent ass clowns (not akin to rodeo clowns) had their place in the sun here at SXSW, even if it’s not across a 4-hour work week).
• Startups: Or, as this track is better known, “Anyone Under 25”, and their internets were both super-excited and everywhere at the same time. SXSW is trying to get Startups down to a science. How to first meet your Startup BFF, and then subsequently lose them, once money and fame changes you. There’s differentiation between American (or even those specifically from Chicago, for some reason), and a Latin American track from south of the Rio Grande.
• Branding + Marketing: We saw many talks on transforming the common or inane into something special and alive. Whether it was a child’s toy that was rebuilt, or transforming viral web videos into a viable business and culture, one spoken by the founders, the other by the writers (btw – download The Occasional for iPad). More cerebral talks about approaching brands as patterns throughout different platforms. We participated in discussions around the perception of the brands themselves, whether in terms of sexual fidelity (!) or narcissistic self-consciousness. Who knew that the comparison of your brand to a rap musician could invigorate in such a manner?

Respect for the Inventor

There’s a dangerous game that the attendees have been playing all weekend – trying to cram as much into their schedules as possibles, across the widest amount of space downtown. The rain made this type of multi-tasking all the more difficult to achieve. Based upon only the short descriptions from conference manuals and mobile guides, finding oneself in a good sequence of related, targeted talks was guesswork at best. We often overextended ourselves to arrive at a venue for a specific talk – only to find that it was an overly technical one, which held had very little appeal to the broader audience base.

When the source code begins flashing on projected slides, audiences tend to either glaze over or head for the exits. Thus, the ADD nature of the SXSW attendees themselves. If they’re not drawn in immediately by the speaker or content, they jettison from the room and head a few doors for something completely different. Getting trapped in the front row of a technical talk, when you’ve only got three or four bets the place each day, is a lost gamble. Mix hyper-connectivity with a dash of social anxiety and a shot of caffeine, and the result is a skittish crowd that finds it hard to sit still for anything at all.

It was an uncomfortable scene during Al Gore and Sean Parker’s talk when, in a hall of roughly 10,000, attendees began filing for the door only 20 minutes after commencement. Gore was praising the tech crowd for their focus and initiative on using the organizational power of (some of Sean Parker’s) social networks to influence political issues like the Komen Foundation, SOPA or Rush Limbaugh’s sponsors. All the while, these self motivators were heading on to the next talk / bar / taco. If you’re going to walk out on the father of the internet (especially as he’s pleading for climate regulation), other less influential speakers don’t stand a chance. However, when you’re a decadent frontman like Billy Corigan – you can use fear and intimidation to keep everyone in their seats.

Coming up tomorrow – Oversubscribed Serendipity.

Nick Cawthon is Director of Experience Architecture at Organic

Wet. Wet. Wet. There’s nothing like the smell of damp nerd to get 35,000 people in the proper mindset to learn and experience the latest in technology trends here at SXSW. The pent-up frustration felt by many who were delayed on their inbound flights due to lightning Friday night was immediately vented in the early hours of the morning, across the multitude of Austin’s cowboy-themed bars along Sixth Street. Our initial anticipation building up to this morning’s keynotes led to a heavy deluge of data pull – attendees simultaneously began checking their schedules, sending self-important emails and vigorously downloading all the apps we’ve been programmed to think are going to be the next big thing. As a result, in addition to being damp, musty and crowded, the local cellular network grids were now unusable.

If this is the reality that surrounds an event built up to be tech’s pantheon, it casts a skepticism over the viability to be a participant in this constantly connected, interactive experience we try to sell as the future. We’ve built ourselves up to depend upon a virtual world of discovery and insight around our shared friends, locations and experiences, providing us instantaneous direction and immediate confirmation of value.

Herein lies initial the lesson of SXSW – give up, get your head out of your phone and look around you. There are plenty of unforeseen experiences with people that you’re crammed shoulder to shoulder with on the shuttle, or waiting in line with to the get into an overcrowded venue, or possibly having a nightcap alongside the bar at the Hotel Driskell. Both the rain and the agoraphobic level of population density here in the small town of SXSW presents attendees with the opportunity to actually talk with one another to solve logistical problems – yet we all try to continue to force the technology enhancement with unresponsive signals and useless wet fingers swiping streaks on smeared glass. The enormity of this conference has, in fact, forced human-to-human interaction for a group of people that are not necessarily used to coming out from behind screens of various shapes and sizes to deal with living, breathing human beings. Now, chatting in huddled masses under a taco trailer’s awning to avoid the latest thunderstorm – we’re no longer having to revert to using a (now inaccessible) search engine for directions, nor needing to discover an interesting trend by the use of a cryptic hashtag. Shared suffrage has it’s benefits.

Battle for Relevance & Resources

As SXSWi has increased their corporate presence exponentially in the past few years, the need to at least appear relevant is becoming increasingly difficult for large corporations. The mystical allure of a start-up (and SXSWi, in part) lies in its’ exclusivity of concept, perhaps a novel use of technology where others haven’t yet tread. These large enterprise companies don’t often bring the same buzz, but try to achieve this by throwing money or celebrity at the masses and hope something sticks.

The worst example of a misguided corporate presence done wrong has been Microsoft’s Bing Industrial Complex tent, located in the center of town and occupying just under half a city block. Why the need for Microsoft to advertise their search engine in such an opulent manner is unclear. There is not a single attendee here that is unaware of Bing, and the awkward eyeball blasting shows no innovation nor distinction for the product itself. Case in point will occur on Sunday evening, as the Bing tent is teaming with the sophisticated folks of icanhascheezburger, a partnership that will likely attract only the best and brightest of the intellectual minds here at SXSW. Microsoft’s overplay of presence feels like a college student coming back to attend a high school party, still trying to remain cool and relevant, but only causing themselves to stand out even more.

This is not to say that these enterprise-class companies don’t have a place here in Austin – as we’ve seen some phenomenal products from Microsoft showcased here. An unexpected surprise from the third of four speakers on an afternoon panel publicly introduced Microsoft’s Chronozoom browser – a data visualization of history, presenting a Wikipedia-like timeline of events in a three-dimensional space. Yet, it is not this innovative research that Microsoft promotes through their public marketing spends, resulting in a missed opportunity for the software behemoth. This juxtaposition is telling of where they think the soul of this conference lies. The hardest thing to do for any company here at SXSW, large or small, is to maintain a sense of intelligence and relevancy – thereby attracting attention and prospective employees. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the attention is for all the wrong reasons; Bing is becoming the running joke of the conference, in that as many people are inside their tent, as those who actually use the product. Blame it on the rain.

Next: SXSW Trends in Talks & Panels

Nick Cawthon is Director of Experience Architecture at Organic

Prior to attending Strata, I had participated and presented in several data visualization programs that housed within larger, related conferences. The first for me was BayCHI – a conference specialized towards Human Computer Interaction, followed by DUX – more geared towards Interaction Design. Both touched on data visualization as more of a niche than anything else. The only pure data visualization conferences I attended in these years (the late aughts) were always academic in nature, geared towards progressing the methodology and research to further this burgeoning field. At the time, companies specializing in data visualization, or any commercially viable software applications were few and far between. Most of the public-facing examples still existed within academia, as the industry had not yet matured.

This year’s Strata couldn’t have been more of a departure from those humble beginnings. Not just data visualization and their interfaces, but every aspect of the discipline now had vibrancy. From the business of selling data to the pontification of price-points surrounding a marketplace for curated, maintained feeds. One-off student projects had become viable business models, researchers were now Chief Data Officers; opportunity was – and is – everywhere. The conference was augmented by legions of engineers, familiar to handling enterprise-class datasets and building applications on a massive scale. One couldn’t walk five steps without hearing the word “Hadoop”, and infrastructure behind big data had its own program. The visualization and interface components were overwhelmed, as an impetus for harvest, acquire, and process this exponential spike in business and personal data became a priority.

However, given my background, I gravitated toward Strata’s Interface track, which discussed the output, the end result of big data. Presentations centered on the best practices for the development of effective visualizations, principals that developers should hold true for the most efficient design and distribution of their work. Citing elements such as cross-browser compatibility, server-side scripting, or mobile compatibility – these technical heuristics applied not only to data visualizations, but any interactive project as a whole. Although a initially seeming like an introductory lesson to successful interactive project planning, these mandates were well received, as dictation to designers, as they begin to craft meaningful data experiences.

I found the non-traditional extensions extremely engaging. Exposing data from out of the browser onto the television, as was the case with Sportvision’s use within major sports broadcasts, and presenting data visualization in a unique, lean-back context. Expanding on the non-traditional delivery, real-time collaborative data analysis was presented as a way to improve productivity for Formula One racing teams. The modularity of data analysis was everywhere at Strata, from augmented reality showing the historical evolution of the bohemian Haight Street, to embedding sensors within children’s toys, logging hours of play and tracking levels of cognitive learning.

The greatest level of juxtaposition – that which stood out the most in comparison to the others, were the student presentations by self-titled ‘Creative Technologists’. These blew the doors off the building. Masquerading as a talk on the front-end coding frameworks, the focus became placed on technologies that could go about beautifying (as opposed to just displaying, or visualizing) data, brought the dimension of aesthetic into the conversation for the first time. In comparison to the more logistical and tactical presentations, the application of beauty and subjective measure stood out as a finished, crafted product. Even though the data visualization landscape has changed considerably, I was glad to see academia could still show some vibrancy.

Nick Cawthon is Director of Experience Architecture at Organic

Our first venture, the Awards Meter App launched today. It is perfect for your iPad (but works on your phone and PC) as you follow the run up to the Oscars and take in the event on Sunday night on your sofa. The App is a joint project between Organic (idea, interface design and front end dev) and HP Labs (amazing back-end computing power and analysis). It will allow you to track in real-time who we all think should actually be winning at the Oscars, by analyzing the social stream. We will be taking the sentiment generated in all Tweets about the Oscars and the nominees, and feeding it back live into a simple, at-a-glance data visualization. In real-time you will be able to see the populist vote, making it essentially the peoples’ Oscars.

Check it out and see how your own vote is trending against what the social stream thinks.

To gain insight into where we’ve been in 2011 and what from this past year can help us in the future, SHOOT posed the following pair of survey questions to a cross-section of industry folk:

1. What do you regard as being the most important industry lesson or lessons learned by your company this past year?
2. What industry trends or developments were most significant in 2011?

Here’s a sampling of the feedback we received:

Conor Brady, Chief Creative Officer, Organic

Lessons learned, trends & developments

HUNCH OR CRUNCH: As we move into the era of big data with more and more to crunch, the real skill will be in what is the data telling us. Will we just use the data to replicate what we are already doing, but a little better—or will we use it to make an educated hunch on what will be the next big thing?

MOBILE FIRST: Big brands will adopt a mobile first marketing and design philosophy. Mobile will continue to grow into the platform that is the most useful and timely interaction with a brand for a consumer.

RESPONSIVE DESIGN: We are going to have to get smarter with how we approach user experience and marketing. As budgets shrink and the number of platforms we are expected to deliver on increases, we will have to adopt the design once and deploy many approach. This will more than ever require a close relationship between design and technology.

OPTING OUT: I believe a lot of us, especially the younger generation, is really struggling with “social openness” —that idea that your life and all aspects of it are just broadcast to everyone. The result being our social feeds are becoming more and more junked, with randomness and brands taking advantage of the openness. We have seen everything from the extremes of people holding farewell parties as they resign their Facebook accounts, to others limiting who is exposed to their social feed.

BUDGET WARS: Clients are really starting to embrace an all agency at once briefing model, but that has created an interesting scenario when the client steps back and allows the agencies to come together. As Traditional agencies say they do digital and agencies like ourselves shoot TV spots and print, it is becoming harder and harder to define who should lead, and who should own the budget.

ARTISAN BRANDS: At Cannes this year on the Design Jury, it was really interesting to see small brands and self-promotion pieces pick up Lions. Their attention to detail and their ability to use unique and interesting design solutions to make up for lack of budget presented an interesting rise of the craft and attention to detail.

See the full story at Shoot Online here.

As the community manager for Kimberly-Clark’s U by Kotex brand, I’ve spent whole days talking about the different colors your period blood might be. In fact, I’m so desensitized to all things period/vagina that I’ve been known to whip out tampons in the middle of a restaurant in response to the question, “So, what do you do?” Not that I think that’s a bad thing. Break the cycle, right?

The title “community manager” has achieved buzzword-level notoriety. Most brands believe they need a community manager, though I’m guessing very few understand what exactly one does, or why they need one.

My hope is that by demystifying the day-to-day operations of a community manager, I can help people understand just why they’re so important – and even vital – to a brand. So without further ado, here’s a sample day in the life of a community manager:

7:00am: Alarm goes off. I reach for my laptop instinctively and navigate to Facebook, briefly scanning the U by Kotex Facebook page for any comments that need urgent responses.

8:30am: Arrive at Organic’s Detroit office. I fire up my work laptop and immediately open Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Tumblr. I know getting paid to play on Facebook and Twitter all day is pretty much living the dream, but part of that is also tackling questions other people and brands won’t even touch. (“Why is my discharge so chunky?!” for example.)

9:30am: Go through all of the questions submitted via Real Answers the previous evening/overnight. Questions range from, “How can I tell my dad I started my period?” to “Am I still a virgin if I use a tampon?” to “Do you have Justin Bieber’s phone number?” (a real question we’ve gotten more than once). Every question gets a response either on the U by Kotex site or via email.

10:30am: Comb through the U by Kotex site to find comments that need a response. There’s tons of content on the site to sift through, so I play traffic cop and direct people to the pages and info they’re seeking.

11:30am: Queue up a few Tumblr posts. You’d be amazed at how much period discussion goes on there. Or maybe you wouldn’t. I’m impressed at how open girls are about their periods on Tumblr, so there’s plenty to reblog/respond to. (Sidenote: Who knew there were so many pad and tampon craft projects?!) We also have plenty of content from the U by Kotex site to post there when things are slow.

1:00pm: Edit answers and articles from the U by Kotex panelists (peers, moms, and health experts) and advocates for the U by Kotex site. I love that our site is a constant stream of new content, and a big part of job is disseminating it in relevant ways all over the web.

2:00pm: Peruse mentions of U by Kotex and related search terms through a social listening tool (I use Sysomos). Since my job as a community manager isn’t about promoting the product, I’m never commenting on blogs to plug tampons. I’ll thank people for their feedback, direct them to Kimberly-Clark Consumer Services if they have product questions, or just generally let them know I’m listening. One thing I’ve learned as a community manager is that people just want to be heard.

3:30pm: Write a Facebook post. Where Twitter is forgiving with frequent or off-topic tweets, Facebook isn’t. I think about every post before it goes live. I’ve learned that the best Facebook posts 1) let people talk about themselves/their experiences; 2) don’t require a lot of effort to respond to; and 3) are relatable to the largest possible audience. That said, one of my favorite Facebook posts (presented as a poll) was: “If your period were a song, which song would it be?” One of the answer choices was “Bleeding Love,” by Leona Lewis.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
4:00pm: Read and comment on a few blog posts about periods. Maybe you won’t be shocked to learn that people love to complain about their period, so I try to encourage people who think periods are something other than a monthly nuisance. Rock on, periods!

4:30pm: Peruse my Google reader full of social media blogs. I always have about 500 unread items, so it can be a daunting task. But I like to be the first to know when Facebook makes a small to change to their interface (and pisses off millions in the process).

5:15pm: Do a final sweep of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube. I’ll post links to new articles or Q&A from the U by Kotex site, reply to @UGetsReal mentions, “like” relevant posts on Tumblr, and chime in on the Facebook post thread.

5:30pm: Pack up and leave the office. The cliché thing to say about social media is that it never sleeps, but it’s so true. I’m constantly checking the U by Kotex Facebook page and website to make sure there aren’t urgent issues (those seem to be the most visible channels where people comment). Recently, Kotex had a product recall, so I had to be on the lookout for any backlash throughout the evening.

~~~

In any given day, this schedule could change dramatically. One week, someone posted a poor review of U by Kotex tampons on YouTube, and we spent a big chunk of the day crafting a response. Depending on the day, I might be dealing with spammers (one particularly feisty one kept posting about wanting to become a pad), contests, U by Kotex-sponsored Twitter chats, or a girl who just really wants to know when she might get her period.

From my perspective, deep in the trenches of the U by Kotex community, I feel like I have a pretty good grip on what our demographic wants and needs. I know the kind of language they respond to, what they find funny, what might push their boundaries of openness, and what they’re secretly hoping someone will ask them. I don’t think I could know all that if I wasn’t able to devote my whole day to it.

Leah Sipher-Mann is a Conversation Manager at Organic