Morning!

Today is the first…day…ahem…sorry, still fuzzy from @Madpow’s killer party last night at National Mechanics. We are ready to kick off IDEA2010! I will do my best to live blog through the sessions, there will be part observations, part candor, part humor and as much knowledge as I can absorb and type. I will do my best, I hope you enjoy.

First up, a Welcome and then we’re into Ubiquitous Architecture and Gamestorming.

Ubiquitous Architecture and Gamestorming

Peter Morville is up first.

• Dichotomy Alert! Information Architects and User Experience Designer
• Already in love with Peter as he makes CS a part of the conversation.
• The tactical and strategic roles may be separating, but they are still held closely together.
• visuals can often break down barriers
• Search involves an insane attention to detail.
• Will innovation redefine search, ongoing discussion.
• You can now search by sketching or singing
• We can’t ignore the possibility of sensory search.
• Cross Media Integration – what is the right balance?
• iTunes led the way with this (duh), but we are finally seeing other areas (Nike, Zipcar etc)
• REI has worked to bring all content creators together, eliminating silos (yay!)
• Mike Kuniavsky – don’t worry, he’s already thinking light years ahead of us (whew…)
• Service blueprints are the key parts of Service Design, they identify the touchpoints (Peter feels they are not enough)
• User Service Map – The Intertwingularity (buzzword alert!) The mix of digital and physical (how would you view a movie, download, movie theater…)
• What is the perceived distance in the physical world, but when you apply the same thought to digital, it has more to do with the experience.
• IA is about building bridges, but the work doesn’t stop, there are always more bridges to be built.
• Peter makes the brilliant point that Ken Burns is GOD (ok, maybe I made that up, but COME ON, the man is fabulous!)
• Panel discussion time!
• What the hell is gamestorming!? – Disruptive way of explaining problem solving (Sunni) Collection of things that work (James) Making the information more shareable (Dave)
• Gamestorming = visual thinking people (Peter’s interpretation)
• Confession: As a writer, designing anything visually scares the crap out of me.
• Visual thinking = Gamestorming
• Gamestorming reminds me a lot of discovery writing. Visually working through a problem, much like writing through a problem.
• Peter makes the point that Gamestorming is just IA in disguise.
• The best way to describing gamestorming is to do it.

Hey oh, just had a break out session where Sunni Brown taught us visually challenged “drawers” a new way to not be afraid to sketch out our ideas visually. She had a great way of using a visual alphabet (lines, circles, basically crap we can all draw to represent a image. It was basically a speed round of Pictionary where we drew a coffee cup (easy), charisma (not so much) and a pervert (priests abound). Insanely fun, interactive and a great way to meet some new people.

Next up, Going Native: The Anthropology of Mobile App Design with Josh Clark

• Mobile can be thought of as cultures.
• Anthropology – how or why we act the way we act.
• Still very much in the discovery phase of mobile platforms.
• (Lego graphic backdrop is S.I.C.K.)
• text interfaces were initially such a crummy experience.
• Suddenly wondering if my mother threw away all of our Legos. I think I’ll call her at lunch.
• Defining a culture, defines the mobile appearance
• 87% of AA and English speaking latinos compared to 80% of white peeps.
• Nokia = Symbian. I did not know that.
• BB os is still king in America (40%) For now…
• BB heavy on texting and email, but lacking on web browsing.
• iPhone = super active user
• Sorry, nanny is texting me. The power is out and I am trying to tell her how to reset the breaker in the electrical panel. Good god.
• For Android, it’s the technology, skews for younger users. “good enough”
• Android is for tinkerers, so apparently Tinker Bell is ALL over this phone.
• Windows mobile slide draws a good laugh from the crowd. Oh, Redmond, you have fallen so far.
• Satisfaction index shows that iPhone/Android lead the way while BB and Windows (giggle/snort) lacks big time.
• Cultures love rivalry. Great analogy.
• It’s really not about tools. Emotional connection means more now in the mobile universe.
• Appropriate Technologies – basically pairing cultures with the right technologies
• There is a market for SMS apps (think of voting for AI)
• Mobile culture goverance is partially regulation and part of the social experience.
• Wait, whut? Content Strategy doesn’t own the term governance.
• Governance shapes our experience.
• Sorry, twitter distraction, bad Matthew.
• Can the web entertain this circus?
• Mobile web can sidestep the governance issue.
• Praying there is a stack of legos at lunch.
• You cannot satiate everyone, so there cannot be only one silver bullet mobile OS
• We are all cloud developers now (I have no idea what this means)
• Build device specific app, not an all encompassing app.
• Lunch time!

Stay tuned…