Sessions at Webstock 2011 with notes on Friday 18th February

Many common patterns, rules, and trends in web and app development aren't universally applicable, or come with downsides that few people ever mention. I'll talk about several trends that I've resisted for Tumblr and Instapaper, the often-great alternatives that are available, and how to make appropriate choices for your work.

Fingers and thumbs turn design conventions on their head. Touchscreen interfaces create ergonomic, contextual, and even emotional demands that are unfamiliar to desktop designers. Find out why our beloved desktop windows, buttons, and widgets are weak replacements for manipulating content directly, and learn practical principles for designing mobile interfaces that are both more fun and more intuitive. Along the way, discover why buttons are a hack, how to develop your gesture vocabulary, and why toys and toddlers provide eye-opening lessons in this new style of design.

As a geek who has started three successful companies, I’ve had to move from “coder” to everything else — salesman, designer, marketer, accountant, and changer of the pellets in the urinals. In the process, I’ve found that some widely accepted advice lead to failure while trusting my inexperienced gut lead to success. Through stories I’ll show you five ways to deal with the cacophony of advice on the web, from friends, and from customers, so you know whether specific advice is right for your situation, and then workshop those lessons against the 37signals philosophy.