Originally presented by Andy Clarke at SXSW, Austin, Texas, 2006 How to be a web design superhero Andy Clarke is a digital designer, speaker, and writer whose designs have helped companies around the world to increase their sales pipeline and revenue, and charities to increase donations. He founded Stuff & Nonsense and has consulted and designed for clients including Disney Store UK, Fairfax Media, Home Office (UK), Greenpeace, ISO, SAP, STV, SunLife, WIPO, and WWF. He works on creative website and digital product designs and provides ongoing creative direction. He coaches agencies and mentors designers on dealing with clients, and delivering creative projects. If you’re looking to design better digital products and websites, develop a design system or style guide, or want to understand how design can help your business, you should talk to him. Stuff & Nonsense Ltd. Eversleigh, Lon Capel, Gwaenysgor, Flintshire, LL18 6EJ, UK For work enquiries go to stuffandnonsense.co.uk or call +44 (0)1745 851848

SXSW INTERACTIVE MARCH 2006 images from www.alexrossart.com andy budd and andy clarke how to be a web design superhero

what would you prefer to be? a web designer or a superhero? Q

1 85 1 4 % % % apparently a survey of 100 people asked a85% replied that they would prefer to be a superhero!

to survive in a modern world, web designers must be superheroes

learn what it takes to become a web design superhero

what makes a superhero?

EVERY HERO HAS AN ORIGIN A RADIOACTIVE SPIDER BIT PETER PARKER, BRUCE BANNER WAS BLASTED BY GAMMA RADIATION AND THE FANTASTIC FOUR WERE BATHED IN COSMIC RAYS

web design superheroes have strong morals, strong code and a strong moral code superheroes have a strong moral code, risking all for the greater good

web design superheroes share their skills and information freely superheroes are selfless as they fight crime and keep the world safe from danger

many web design superheroes have special motivations such as promoting usability or web standards superheroes have special motivations

you may have seen a web design superhero s work, but do you know what they look like? are they sitting next to you? superman is clark kent, spiderman is peter parker, many web designers too lead a secret, double life ’

superheroes often retreat to a secret hideaway web design superheroes need a secret hideaway, a source of inspiration, somewhere to store super gadgets

superheroes are easily identified by their costumes and logos

web designers also require a great logo to set them apart from the crowd

and a super website

superheroes often have a mundane job by day and exercise their super powers by night many web design superheroes are the same, exercising their skills by night on personal projects

adaptive path happy cog blue flavor sometimes superheroes group together to form powerful teams

the best designers are skilled their with tools and have a utility belt full of useful stuff: fonts, icons and images some superheroes dont have superpowers, relying instead on gadgets and special abilities

web designers also need a weapon of choice, be that photoshop, flash or the humble text editor many superheroes have a trademark weapon

what super powers do you need to become a web design superhero? a superheros main defining feature is their super power

superpowers

to keep pace with new trends and technologies super speed to react when a client says i want it tomorrow!’’ ’’

elasticity an ability to stretch ones self very thin, particularly close to a looming deadline

telepathy and clairvoyance an ability to see into a clients mind and understand what he means by i want it easy to use and other such vaguerisms ’’ ’’

mind control an ability to convince a client that he does not need a flash splash screen or pages of content nobody will read

empathy an ability to understand users, their goals and problems

ability to sense problem projects or clients danger Sense see problems and rectify them before they happen

precognition an ability to see into the future and anticipate new trends

x-ray vision the ability to see through visual presentation to the underlying semantics, to avoid making presentational markup and css

invulnerability sometimes bullets do fly in the comments of design galleries or on design forums

invisibility where ARE the women in web design?

batman has robin, superman has jimmy olsen, lois lane and krypto the super dog alongside many superheroes is a sidekick

superman s pal jimmy olsen the boy wonder robin every superhero needs a pal ’

superman has lex luthor, spiderman has the green goblin every superhero needs a villain

every superhero needs a villain evil genius who plans to take over the world green goblin

who are your heroes? Superman the batman wonder woman daredevil captain fantastic spiderman the green lantern captain america flash supergirl hulk zeldman tantek celik molly holzschlag jeff veen dave shea doug bowman shaun inman cameron moll joshua davis veerle peiters john oxton

which superpowers would you choose and why? Q

andy budd andybudd.com / sxsw06 / super .pdf andy clarke stuffandnonsense .co.uk / downloads / super .pdf all images are copyright of their original owners and all copyrights, trademarks and ownerships recognised. this presentation is for educational purposes only images from www.alexrossart.com