SXSW Day 1

First day over at SXSW and a new day is upon us. Here’s a quick recap of the first day.

Beauty in web design

By Cennydd Bowles, Clearleft

The talk focused on created masterpieces in web design. To date we haven’t really had any - not to the measure of other masterpieces such as the IBM logo, London Tube Map or the intro credits to Se7en.

Notes

• We're kinder to attractive people
• Beauty makes things easier to use - our brains respond differently to aesthetically pleasing objects
• 3 types of beauty - universal sociacultural and subjective
• 3 modes of design - visceral, behavioural and reflective
• How to get to your masterpiece - get emotional, think bigger, lead, thing long term, broaden horizons, be brave. </ul>

  Get stoked on web typography

  By Samantha Warren Samantha's talk was about using beautiful typography on websites, pushing the boundaries and not just settling for Georgia or Arial. Very inspiring and some great examples used throughout her presentation.

  Notes

  • It's not about what font you use, it's how you use it
  • Get stoked = be completely and intensely enthusiastic about type
  • Find the emotion of your site and based the type choice around that
  • Start to experiment with modern web type solutions: Cufon, @Font-Face, TypeKit, FontDeck
  • Start to endorse CSS3 and make use of text-shadow, multiple columns and rotation
  • Create your own font for $10
  • Or create a more professional font (for a lot more)

  Simple steps to great web design

  By Matthew Smith, Squared Eye Unfortunately the fire alarm went off half way through Matthew's talk and we had to evacuate, which is a real shame as he was building up to something great. But the basis of his talk was about how it's not just about creating a lovely looking website

  Notes

  • Design around the content
  • Great web design helps content get stuff done - on the web with pleasure
  • Know your audience
  • Know your content
  • It's all about knowing the core of what you're designing for
  So far so good for SXSW. Roll on Day 2.