Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 about Product Design with slides

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Friday 9th March 2012

• We Made This, and It's Not an Ad

  by Robbie Whiting

  What if agencies and marketers created products and services, not just ads? And what if they made these things for themselves, not just for clients? They do. But tackling things like product design, creating new businesses or building complex real-world experiences requires a creative, technical, managerial and entrepreneurial spirit more associated with Silicon Valley than Madison Avenue. It demands new roles, agile approaches, external partnerships, technologies, investments and compensation models that can drive even the most hardened finance director crazy. And in some cases, it may even require a complete reboot from the ground up. The ability to make something that isn’t an “ad” is no longer optional in modern advertising. But it's certainly not easy, either. So what can we learn from the makers, technologists and agencies already playing in this space? Turns out, a whole heckuva lot.

  • Advertising
  • Business
  • Marketing
  • Product Design
  • Startups

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

  In Capital Ballroom B, InterContinental Stephen F. Austin

  Coverage slide deck

Saturday 10th March 2012

• Mind Reading: Seeing Needs Users Don’t Articulate

  by Leslie Feinzaig

  When your product is facing serious competition, knowing what unmet need still exists is crucial to planning your next move. But in surveys you find that everyone is reasonably satisfied with all of the key features in your competitor’s products and they do not perceive that their experience could be better than it currently is. So how do you identify opportunities that seem not to exist? In this session, using Bing’s insight development practices as a case study, we will discuss techniques for gaining deep understanding of and empathy with customer’s pain to spur product innovations. We will share insights that we’ve identified that point to broad cultural shifts in how people think about knowledge that impact what is perceived as trustworthy and what is complete information required to make important decisions. We will share both how we were able to identify these needs and specifically what these needs are in an effort to encourage thinking about how to better meet them. This session is sponsored by Bing.

  • Competition
  • Design
  • Product Design
  • Psychology
  • User Experience

  At 9:30am to 10:30am, Saturday 10th March

  In Town Lake Ballroom, Radisson Hotel & Suites Austin-Town Lake

  Coverage slide deck

• Does Your Product Have a Plot?

  by David Womack

  What makes an experience—any experience—compelling? A well–told story transcends any particular medium and this presentation will focus on principles of narrative—such as plot, setting, and point–of–view—as they apply to designing digital products, websites, social media, and apps.

  By the end of the presentation, you will have a solid understanding of the principles of creating compelling stories and will be able to apply narrative techniques to the processes of creating and analyzing interactions. We’ll talk about why some digital experiences take off while others fizzle, how to define systems without using site maps, and innovative uses for user journeys.

  • Product Design
  • Storytelling

  At 3:30pm to 4:30pm, Saturday 10th March

  In Ballroom BC, Austin Convention Center

  Coverage audio clip slide deck