SXSW Day 1: Respect – Happy Cog, Google

What is the value of what we do?

There tends to be hundreds of projects but it’s tricky to get the right people in to participate – designers, UX, etc.

Often you present your work and what you are doing to non-web people and you lack a connection. It’s hard to communicate. Typical for non-web users to try and design and architect solutions but without context or full knowledge.

Bad communication seems to be universal.

Design seems to be the big piece that people think is so easy and tend to relegate.

Decorator vs. a designer.

Including outside people and a wider group into the process seems to smooth a lot out. You want to reveal pieces of the picture and the solution over time, rather than just drop it on them at the last minute.

It is difficult for people to respect what they do not understand. Not understanding what goes into something causes a big problem.

Cross functional teams that are truly integrated from the beginning are best.

When working with clients change orders tend to cause hostility. If you can judge the situation and squeeze in the right changes and manage the wrong ones you are more likely to be respected.

Winning awards is one way to have clients find you rather than you having to hunt them down. The problem is that they are not really all that meaningful in the web world.

There are infinite numbers of potential clients, but very few are the ones you really want.

The web is still very new compared to other mediums like print and as a result non-web people don’t always have a solid understanding of good design and good web execution.

It’s not uncommon for web people to marginalized and kept away from the rest of the business. You need to fight for stuff everyday in many cases.

Process is critical and you need to hammer it into them. It’s like the Alzheimer’s approach where you continually reinforce the principles and process.

Clients tend to know their business well but they do not understand the web very well. There can and usually is a huge gap. You ned to sell yourself appropriately.

Clients tend to be interested in IA but many do not really understand what it is until they get deeply into it. Stakeholder interviews and the touchy-feely part of the interviews pre IA work tend to be like therapy for the client and they start to respect you.

You need to make sure you set yourself up as the expert of web and walk the walk, talk the talk, and be confident.