An inspiring presentations from Jeremy Keith

Interaction is the secret sauce of the web. Understanding interaction is key to understanding the web as its own medium—it’s not print, it’s not television, and it’s certainly not the desktop.

Presentation Notes:

When creating iconography often times language is better then a standalone icon. When icons have language they start have personality, and actually speak to the users. People find these icons with personality more endearing and creditable. A none web based sample of this can be seen at existentialist chalkboard. The chalkboard is the icon but the language creates the iconography.

Links. In the javascript heavy web world the most basic hyper link can be the best solution as it is the most direct interaction with your site. Don’t every place data behind hidden functionality, however, adding simple design elements to no critical functionality can heighten the user experience.

Forms on the web suck. The problem is we take the day to day paper forms and slap them on the web. Forms in the real world are never associated with good times. We fill out boring and dry forms for taxes, drivers licenses, and credit card applications. There is nothing intrinsic about the way paper form elements should look on the web. Generating unique forms that display personality/functionality can lead to an increase in form conversations.

Recognize patterns, different users navigate the same. Identifying these patterns and repeating them in layouts across multiple websites will start to set a series of universal standards. These universal standards will help to grow usability over the web as a whole.

Feedback, you have to provide feedback to users. A simple indication of where they are in a process. Lightly inform the user without getting in their way. Don’t interrupt the users from continuing onto another interaction.

Emulate, find inspiration in print, desktop application, and digital media but realize that the web is not print, a desktop application, or digital media. Rich experiences are not pixels, shapes, and gimmicks. Authentic user generated materials connect people to create true “rich experiences”.

Douglas Adams on the word “Interactivity”

The reason we suddenly need such a word is that during this century we have for the 1rst time been dominated by non-interactive forms of entertainment: cinema, radio, recorded music and television. Before they came along all entertainment was interactive: theatre, music, sport…

We didn’t need a special word for interactivity in the same way that we don’t (yet) need a special word for people with only one head.

—Douglas Adams, August 29th 1999