Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 matching your filters

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• Teaching Touch: Tapworthy Touchscreen Design

  by Josh Clark

  Discover the rules of thumb for finger-friendly design. Touch gestures are sweeping away buttons, menus and windows from mobile devices—and even from the next version of Windows. Find out why those familiar desktop widgets are weak replacements for manipulating content directly, and learn to craft touchscreen interfaces that effortlessly teach users new gesture vocabularies. The challenge: gestures are invisible, without the visual cues offered by buttons and menus. As your touchscreen app sheds buttons, how do people figure out how to use the damn thing? Learn to lead your audience by the hand (and fingers) with practical techniques that make invisible gestures obvious. Designer Josh Clark (author of O'Reilly books "Tapworthy" and "Best iPhone Apps") mines a variety of surprising sources for interface inspiration and design patterns. Along the way, discover the subtle power of animation, why you should be playing lots more video games, and why a toddler is your best beta tester.

  Questions answered:
  1. How should UI layouts evolve to accommodate the ergonomics of fingers and thumbs?
  2. Why are buttons a hack? Why aren't they as effective as more direct touch gestures?
  3. How can users understand how to use apps that have no labeled menus or buttons?
  4. What's the proper role of skeuomorphic design (realistic 3D metaphors) in teaching touch?
  5. How can animation provide contextual help to teach gestures effortlessly? How does game design point the way here?

  • Gestures
  • iPad
  • Mobile UX
  • Touchscreen UI
  • User Experience

  At 3:30pm to 4:30pm, Friday 9th March

  In Ballroom A, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage write-up write-up audio clip note write-up

• A Crash Course in Becoming SuperBetter

  by Jane McGonigal

  In 2009, a mild traumatic brain injury changed the way that game designer Jane McGonigal thought about everything -- literally. She spent a year recovering -- struggling to think clearly, be physically active, and find a new sense of purpose. Her journey back to health led her to invent a new form of game design, aimed at having a measurable positive impact on players' real lives, and fused with scientific research at every level. In this talk, you'll see the first results of that process: a game called SuperBetter. You'll hear about the game's first clinical trials, and get a crash course in getting SuperBetter yourself: Find out how to turn weak social ties into allies. Learn how to experience "gain without pain" (or what scientists call "post-ecstatic growth"). Discover the secrets of "Lazy Exercise" and "Ninja Weight Loss". Find out what a two-minute "Future Boost" is, and why it's the most important thing you can do each week for your physical and mental health. From the mind of a game designer comes a radically disruptive model for integrating breakthrough science into our daily lives.

  • Health
  • Productivity

  At 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Friday 9th March

  In Exhibit Hall 5, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage write-up sketch note note audio clip

• The Lean Startup: The Science of Entrepreneurship

  by Eric Ries

  The Lean Startup debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. This talk draws on stories and insights from the book, explaining the new science of entrepreneurship. Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counterintuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.

  • Entrepreneurship
  • Lean Startups
  • Startups

  At 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Friday 9th March

  In Ballroom D, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage note audio clip sketch note sketch note