Another SXSW-inspired post - about something that has kept me thinking at least since fall 2009: what can we learn from game designers about how to design interfaces for complex applications? The basic idea is: applications present you with their full set of features from the get-go, maybe give you a little video and their help and that is that. It’s a bit like being dropped in the middle of the jungle with a map and a pat on the back: good luck old chap, you’ll figure it out. Most users never progress beyond a simple set of tools they quickly get familiar with and never venture any further, forever using the space-bar instead of tabs to position text.

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Greetings from SXSW. Instead of telling y’all how nice and balmy and generelly brilliant it is out here, why not tell you about some talks I attended here?

Right - why not. First one is that one: Understanding Content: The Stuff We Design For. That talk by Rachel Lovinger and Karen McGrane was getting me all interested because I have just worked on a project where, as it turns out, this point did get some, but not all of the attention it deserved.

Now what is this content strategy thing all about? Rachel Lovinger began by telling the fairy tale of a project to build an art gallery where everything was taken into account - the place, how it was supposed to feel, what colours the walls should be painted - everything except…. the art that they were to display there. So: when the artist turned up with their art it kinda didn’t fit the beautiful new gallery that had been built… I.e.: in many porjects the actual content the of the site is often dealt with in the same manner as certain spots in ye olde mappe: you just write “here be dragons” and be done with it.

Instead you should take your content seriously and make it part of the design process. How?

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