Notes from the edge

Beyond Tellerrand, Düsseldorf, 22nd November 2011

Craftsmanship and communication are at the heart of everything we do on the web. With our ability to understand and overcome challenges, we should deliver engaging experiences without compromising our integrity or failing the end user. Still, we're often naive and we make the same mistakes over and over. We get hung up on our tools and confuse our goals. It's time to think and talk smarter, get our priorities straight, and learn from our mistakes.

Cover is a photo I took on top of Oslo opera house.

Transcript

1. NOTES FROM THE EDGE
   SIMON COLLISON
   

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5. THE DOING
   1
   

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6. What do you think you’ll be doing
   in five years?
   Interview question
   

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8. ARE YOU IN YOUR WORK?
   

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9. It took me until my 40s to realize:
   There’s no destination. There’s no
   ge ing anywhere. There’s just
   the going.
   Pa on Oswalt
   

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10. Not necessarily slowing down,
    but rather just opting out of speed.
    Frank Chimero
    

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11. SERENDIPITY
    

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12. STRENGTHS & VALUES
    2
    

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13. To progress and to create work of
    substance or even greatness, we
    each must start by knowing our
    values, our strengths, and the level
    of expertise we seek
    Strengths and values
    

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14. I have not failed 700 times. I have
    not failed once. I have succeeded
    in proving that those 700 ways
    will not work.
    Thomas Edison
    

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15. OUR STRENGTHS FIND US
    

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16. designer
    developer
    strategist
    writer
    educator
    manager
    web designer 100%
    

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17. designer
    developer
    strategist
    writer
    educator
    manager
    web designer 100%
    

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18. LEARNING
    3
    

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19. I’m self-actualised, without the stamp
    of approval from any guild, curriculum
    authority, or academic institution. I’m
    web taught. Colleague taught.
    Empirically taught.
    Jon Tan
    

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20. The sad, beautiful fact that we’re all
    going to miss almost everything
    Linda Holmes
    

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21. ORBITAL LEARNING
    

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22. FOCUS
    

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23. CRAFT
    4
    

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25. Cra smanship is a basic human
    impulse: the desire to do a job well
    for its own sake
    Richard Senne
    

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27. Discovery through doing:
    honing skills over a significant
    period of time, with substantial
    commitment.
    Our cra
    

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28. TOOLS
    5
    

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29. Tools are the scaffold for what we
    produce, the enablers. They help us
    bring our ideas to fruition.
    Our tools
    

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31. The tool doesn’t make the
    cra sman. Choosing the right
    tool for the right purpose is a
    technical and personal choice.
    Oliver Reichenstein
    

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32. INQUIRY
    6
    

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33. Inquiring beyond the “necessary”
    to explore other areas, look at
    things differently, and bring these
    findings back into our work.
    Creative inquiry
    

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35. A rich alphabet of components such as
    line and point, structure, color, shapes,
    rhythm, and movement, which we use
    to shape our messages
    Visual grammar
    

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38. A puzzle is be er than an answer
    Milton Glaser
    

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40. 7
    OUR UNIQUE WEB
    

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41. The screen brings with it different
    kinds of challenges for visual design,
    some of which occur exclusively in
    interactive media.
    Pa erns & interactions
    

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46. http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/browser-ball/
    

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47. http://wallswaps.com/
    

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49. SYSTEMS
    8
    

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50. We don’t design web pages.
    We design systems.
    Systems
    

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55. http://gregorywood.co.uk/ http://jasonsantamaria.com/
    

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56. VOCABULARY
    9
    

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57. The terms responsive and adaptive
    are distinct yet related, and have
    evolved naturally from outdated
    web-based layout terminology
    Responsive web design
    

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60. OUR MOTIVATION
    10
    

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63. Find problems and design responses.
    Not answers, not solutions.
    Responses.
    The designer
    

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65. THANKS
    @colly
    

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