However, delivering on the promise is easier said than done. Moving from a great concept to an exceptional user experience proves to be more of a challenge than many people thought. What works on a small scale is a very different story, when put into production.

As Spiderman's Uncle Ben pointed out, "With great power comes great responsibility." Just because we can do all these things doesn't mean we should do them. In the early 1980's, the cheap availability of laser printers and digital fonts produced a plethora of documents that more resembled ransom notes than professional publications. We could easily imagine designers going wild with the capabilities of this new technology and not using the restraint necessary to ensure they produce an optimal experience.

In this entertaining and informative presentation, Jared will show examples of the usability challenges we face as the web continues to change and evolve. He'll discuss the implications of "The Long Tail", the introduction of a mashup mentality in business environments, and how basic techniques, such as usability testing and field studies, change when social network is at the center of the design.

Certainly style is often associated with trends and fashions, where change occurs solely for the sake of change itself, with not a care for what actually works.

But I will argue that, in fact, style is (and always has been) a powerful design tool that not only helps us communicate efficiently to users, clients, and other designers, but also acts as a rich resource for innovation and solutions to new and old problems. Style is a self-correcting system; it is a pattern language; it bridges branding and functionality; it is, in fact, the bridge between best practices and innovation.

Historically style has always been a key influence on great design. This talk will discuss how style awareness is a core aspect of "design thinking", the emerging concept of how the design process is becoming more and more integral to the development of business models and product strategies. It will provide a historical overview of how style has affected the practice of design in other fields, from writing to architecture to computer science, and it will show how interaction design, too, can benefit from a consciousness of emerging trends in interaction design style. In fact, drawing on fresh new movements and trends in interaction design style is how many of us already work, whether we realize it or not.

The split of Architects into Project Architects and Project Managers is a direct consequence of the architectural profession’s cowardice. We are increasingly averse to assuming any responsibility that might attract liability. Unfortunately, where liability goes, so goes control. To escape our self-imposed marginalization, we branded our retreat as conquest, and ran headlong into the self-referential language of Post-Modernism. We hijacked authorship, diverting it from process (the synthesis of creation and execution) to creation alone. We banished Project Managers to the realm of expertise, then derided them for succumbing to power and wealth.

If architects can reprioritize authorship of processes over authorship of things, we can reassemble Project Architects and Project Managers back into Architects. We will regain liability, but re-harvest control. And we will be able to happily navigate from concept generation, through politics, value-engineering and procurement strategies, to punch lists and opening parties. We will harbor less self-pity, make more money and construct better architecture.

Presentation files:

• Main presentation file (PPT, 15MB)
• Museum Plaza concept demonstration (SWF, 56KB)
• Seattle Public Library walkthrough (ZIP, 26.8MB)
• Museum Plaza walkthrough (ZIP, 32MB)