Ever wonder why bad site design succeeds?

Well, here’s one man’s opinion on the subject (mine!).

The slide deck for my Voices That Matter presentation, “Redefining User-Centered Design”, is now available.

Thanks very much to all who came to the session!

The Voices That Matter web design conference ended yesterday, and I must say, it was probably the best event I’ve been to this year. The speakers were excellent, the content was compelling and valuable, and everything went off without a hitch.

Among other unforgettable moments, the legendary Steve Krug had a conversation with Peachpit’s Nancy Ruenzel in front of 200 people, and he even critiqued Jakob Nielsen’s web site during his session later that day.

Nancy also led a conversation with Jakob Nielsen, who had some interesting insights on his next book, which is about the use of eye-tracking as a usability testing tool. (I still haven’t decided if eye-tracking is going to be a useful tool or not, but I’ll check out the book to learn more.)

Dan Brown’s session was particularly excellent - he’s very funny and has so much experience it’s impossible not to believe every word he says. Nathan Shedroff was also amazing. He’s gotta be one of the smartest interaction designers on the block.

I could go on all day about the incredible sessions, fantastic conversations I got to have with other speakers and attendees, or the endless opportunities there were for attendees to meet with speakers and get their questions answered (including several round-table breakfast discussions). But one moment in particular was the most memorable for me.

Just before my editor, the amazing Wendy Sharp, introduced me at the beginning of my session, she quietly asked me a very simple question.

“Does it make you nervous that Steve Krug is sitting in the second row?”

I paused and looked around the room. Yup - there he was.
“It does now. Thanks for pointing that out.”

Krug’s classic Don’t Make Me Think was the first book I ever read on web usability, and it is a large part of what inspired me to head down the crazy road that has become my career. Several years after first reading it, there I was, presenting a session at Voices That Matter while the man himself sat in the audience.

My, how strangely the wind blows.

New Riders is going to do this again next year. Start saving your nickels now. You simply can’t beat this conference.

As part of Blog Action Day, I’ve chosen to tell you about something I’m doing to offset some of the environmental effects of attending a conference.

I’ve spoken at a lot of conferences lately, and every one of them has offered me a lovely conference bag filled with goodies from event sponsors. Most of these things are trinkets designed to get you to remember the name of a company, and many of them come in the form of printed ads. Ads use paper and ink and occasionally even bleach, and most of them are deposited directly into the trash can. Next to junk mail, this has become my #1 source of waster paper (and I’ve all but cured the junk mail issue through GreenDimes).

So for the Voices That Matter web design conference, Miskeeto is adding some paper of its own: a small, 2-fold card that tells attendees that we’ve invested into alternative energy projects via The Green Office to offset the carbon imprint of the conference bag and its contents.

Of course, our 2-fold card is printed on post-consumer recycled paper (no new trees were used to create it), and no bleach was used to make the paper white.

Instead of a flashing yo-yo or rubber bracelet, we’re sticking some peace of mind into the bag.

Considering how incredibly inexpensive it was to do this, here’s my official call-to-action for conference sponsors:

If you must waste all that paper and ink, do something good for the environment to counter balance the damage. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and if you don’t do it, you’re just going to make yourself look bad to someone like me. And if you hadn’t noticed, I like to talk.

(On a related note, Miskeeto is a completely carbon-neutral company, and in doing this, we also invested to offset our plane travel and hotel stays for all these conferences for the span of one year. We’ll do this again when the year is up.)

Adobe MAX is always the event of the year when it comes to networking, catching up with old friends, making new friends, and connecting with the web community, and this year was no exception. Because of the hectic pace of MAX, I invariably end up sleeping and eating way too little, and doing way too much, so I expected this when I arrived in Chicago. What I didn’t realize was just how crazy it would get, and how much I would pack into the days leading up to my 34th birthday.

Here’s a quick rundown of how my week went.

Sunday, September 30th

• 2pm - 5pm: Arrived in Chicago after a flight that took off at 8am from Phoenix, bolted to the hotel, dropped off my stuff, and got signed in to the conference and got to the event for O’Reilly Ignite by 5pm, struggling to memorize my 5-minute Ignite talk the whole time.
• 6:20pm-ish: Gave my Ignite talk, called “Everything is Important”, about a tiny change I made with the Automattic team to the WordPress.com home page that resulted in a 25% conversion-rate increase.
• 7:30pm: Found out what I won the Ignite session competition. This meant I would be speaking at the Sneaks session on Tuesday evening.
• 9pm on: A night at the hotel bar with old friends that ran way too late and involved way too much alcohol.

Monday, October 1st

• Spent most of the day working on the new book in the hotel room, but managed to head out to dinner with the Peachpit crew and have another night at the hotel bar.
• Spent much time memorizing my Ignite talk.

Tuesday, October 2nd (the night before my birthday)

• 12pm: Headed to the Community Lounge for my “Ask the Expert” session. Worked on memorizing Ignite talk.
• 2:30pm - 4pm: Went to rehearsal for the Sneaks session. Got used to the idea of being on a stage that large and speaking to that many people. Worked on memorizing Ignite talk.
• 4pm - 5pm: In the Perfect Timing category, I happened to have an appointment with a speaking coach. I scheduled this weeks before I knew about the Ignite sessions, so this was a beautiful coincidence. Worked on memorizing Ignite talk.
• 5pm: Backstage at the Sneaks session. This was one very tightly-run event. Everything was scheduled down to the minute, and everything was directed perfectly from backstage. Worked on memorizing Ignite talk, right up to the very last minute.
• 5:45pm-ish: Michael Gough finished presenting the MAX awards, and Brady (from O’Reilly) explained the Ignite contest and introduced me.
• 5:50pm - 5:55pm: I spent 5 minutes in front of 4,000 people, giving my Ignite talk. The experience was absolutely unforgettable for me. No teleprompter. No cue cards. Nothing. Just me, a huge crowd, and a point to make. Here’s a nice shot of it on Flickr. (If you have video of this, please tell me.)
• 7:30pm: Sneaks ended and the party began. Spent the whole night being congratulated by people I’d never met before. (Thanks so much to all of you!) Loud, yelling, pain in throat.
• 10pm on: Another night at the bar. Loud, yelling, more pain in throat.

Wednesday, October 3 (my birthday)

• 9am: Woke up and realized I was about an inch away from losing my voice.
• 11am: Did my all-new “Designing the Obvious” session to a nice-sized crowd, straining all the while to keep my vocal chords working.
• Afternoon: Slept. Desperately needed it.
• Evening: Had dinner in Little Italy with old and new friends. Capped off my year with a flaming Sambuca and a toast.

In the past year, since my last birthday, I release Designing the Obvious, quit my job, started speaking at conferences, and started my own consultancy. To wrap things up, I got to speak at the MAX Sneaks session and have a ton of fun at yet another killer round of MAX.

What a great way to cap off a great year!

To all of you who have supported me this year, read the book, or come to one of my sessions, thank you very much! This year would have been nothing without you.

Cheers!