Delusions of Grandeur

UPA 2008

The next post to this site will not be another speaking post-mortem, I promise.

Thanks to everyone who came to see my presentation in Baltimore, MD last week. Once again I was humbled by the response of so many in attendance. I have read through your feedback and was inspired for my next round of talks. After speaking on breaking the traditions and looking past the common knowledge in usability, my next talk will look to consolidate my entire thoughts on usability and design in the digital world. Look out UPA 2009!

As promised, I’m including a PDF of the slides for everyone to peruse. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to email me. For anyone who is interested in reading more about Neo-Victorian Computing, please visit Mark Bernstein’s blog. I barely scratch the surface of his ideas and he has written much more on the topic on his site. It was his writings that inspired many of the key points in my presentation.

• Slides from the presentation

About the Time

Several members of the audience commented on the dearth of examples in my presentation. When I originally submitted my idea, I could not have anticipated the interest in this topic and I felt the 30 minute talk was just the right amount to throw out ideas. I did, however, give an hour and a half presentation on this same subject to the DC UPA chapter meeting this past May. There are more examples and I go into greater detail in that presentation. Also, if you liked what you saw and would like to hear more, I am open for future speaking engagements. Please contact me if you have any interest.

May UPA-DC Chapter Meeting

Last night I spoke at my local UPA chapter meeting on design and the changing landscape of usability. It is a rare privilege to be asked to speak in front of your peers and I was honored to be given the chance.

The talk was the latest in a series of presentations I’ve given on UI design. The focus, once again, was on looking past the baseline of consistent design and daring to delight your users. This was the longest I’ve ever spoken, at 1 hour and 30 minutes. The time gave me the flexibility to give context and balance the conversation. (instead of the usual confrontational approach)

I appreciated all who came out to see the talk and I really appreciated your questions, comments and feedback. This won’t be the last time I speak. Below I’ve linked to PDF versions of the slides for all and anyone who is interested.

• Slides from the presentation

They Might Be Giants

What follows is a fictional depiction of my Super Bowl Experience, told in the second person. Any references to actual persons or places is purely coincidental.

Pre-Game

The Super Bowl is a stressful event. During normal football watching there are two things you can safely assume: (a) Commercials are for bathroom breaks and (b) no one else is talking during the game. (violators are banished from the room and the Spouse/Girl/Boyfriend knows better!) However, come Super Bowl time both of those are thrown out the window. Its stressful. You contemplate your bathroom strategy while scoring a drink from your boss’ bar. Your boss throws a bitchin’ Super Bowl party every year. Seriously, slices of pizza tossed on a plate and served as an appetizer! Like I said, bitchin’! You’re only slightly annoyed its a variant of pan pizza.

There’s an awesome chili/hot dog/naccho deal upstairs, but that doesn’t calculate well with the whole lack of bathroom breaks. “Do I break during the game?”, you ponder sacrilegiously. But wait, Tom Petty to the rescue. You’re reminded of this when some curmudgeon next to you belts out, “I can’t wait for the Halftime Show.”

The “Tom Petty” Sidebar

You are suddenly reminded of the one and only time you went to a Tom Petty concert. You remember thinking feebly that you enjoyed Tom Petty, only to realize that it was really one or two songs. Two solid hours of Tom Petty made your ears bleed. Tom Petty has a huge musical repertoire —like Beatles huge— and all of it sounds the same to you.

Game on

You quietly loathe the curmudgeon and their equivocation of the Super Bowl to commercials and a halftime show, but press forward. Wait-listing the chili extravaganza until Halftime, you walk back to the bar, filling up your plate with pizza and tiny bruschetta. You settle down into your seat, which you secured through a pre-meditated scouting exchanging proximity to the TV for distance from people who don’t respect the sanctity of the game. You are almost finished with your first plate when it happened.

You glance at the game clock and somehow the first eight minutes of the game expired in real-time. As in it actually took eight minutes! Exasperated, you see that the Giants are still on their first possession, in fact the Patriots haven’t even —Wait a minute, what?

The “What happened to the Packers?” Sidebar

Amidst all of the confusion and given your strict “no two week long pre-game watching” Super Bowl policy you failed to notice that this wasn’t the epic battle between Brett Favre and Tom Brady that you dreamt about last night. You scour the expanse of your consciousness and then it dawned on you —you didn’t watch the end of the game two weeks ago!

Now you remember. There you were watching Lambeau Field in all its frigid, postseason glory. You just knew Brett Favre was gonna bring it home —it was destiny. Tynes missed the field goal and the game went into overtime. But that is where your story ended. The Spouse/Girl/Boyfriend came into the room with the look in their eyes. Head filled with erogenous thoughts and the comfort that “this game was in the books,” you agreed to see “Atonement.”

Why are the Irish so depressing? You always are amazed at how drawn people are to depressing stuff and those Irish writers sure bring it in spades. Kiera Knightley is hot, sad movies are long. But erogenous thoughts can hide many things, you surmise.

It’s soo Going to be a Blowout

As your thoughts come back to the game, the first quarter already in the books, you realized: This isn’t gonna be a blowout! 7-3?! Moss has no catches, Brady has been sacked like a billion times. A pit starts to form in the bottom of your stomach as you realize the ‘72 Dolphins are celebrating somewhere. A grimace forms on your face as you mentally squash the head of Earl Morrall. You hate the ‘72 Dolphins and their childish celebrations.

But it soon became clear to you that the Giants had everything a team needed to defeat the undefeated. You laughed at New York at the beginning of the season as they scoffed at their coach and verbally back-handed their quarterback for a 0-2 start. You smiled because somehow Eli had tarnished the Manning name and someone needed to keep an eye on that Peyton sonofabitch. Can a guy be too nice? Like Derek Jeter, You hate that you can’t hate those guys. Do something wrong for goodness sake!

Clearly the Giants had nothing to lose. You know this and part of you wants them to win. You hate that part of yourself. It’s the part that feels mercy for a team that your team is beating 127-3 in the first quarter. You know what’s best for your sanity and an 18-1 Patriots is not going to increase your desire to watch SportsCenter for the next 6 months.

18-1

Thank goodness for March Madness. If it wasn’t for that, you would go crazy listening to the sports pundits, Congress and the American public destroy professional football. It wasn’t enough that they destroyed baseball. No, they now have to label one of greatest football dynasties a cheater. Bill Belichick, Barry Bonds lawyer is calling. You find it interesting that the latest accusations came out two days before the Super Bowl.

You continue to scowl, and people around you start to keep their distance. Maybe it was the rant about Irish poets or maybe it was because you were the only one crying at the end.

Heartbreak in Hokie-town

Great games forge great players. Matt Ryan showed tonight why he is among the elite in college football this year—and in doing so: stunned 65,000 fans in Blacksburg. The Hokies, 0-6 against Top 5 ranked teams, were so close. It was vintage Blacksburg weather, classic Bud Foster defense and it would only make the loss more acute.

Prevent the Loss, Prevent the Victory

For a team that plays conservative at tough points in the big game, there’s irony when the tide of the game turns on an aggressive play. Many will criticize Josh Hyman for being too aggressive on the onside recovery. However, Hyman did exactly what he was coached to do: go and get the ball—make a play. He should have made the play and more often, he’ll succeed. But Josh Hyman did not lose this game for the Hokies—prevent defense nailed the coffin shut.

Look no further than the NFL for a multitude of examples: Prevent defense prevents the win. The Virginia Tech defense won the game for the first three quarters through aggressive play and attacking on defense. Give a quarterback like Matt Ryan an inch and he’ll drive 92 yards to score a touchdown. Mr. Foster, with all due respect, rip the prevent formation out of your playbook!

Paying our Dues

After the loss to LSU, I had an erie feeling about the state of Hokie Football. Not one of despair, but a content feeling that our football program had established itself as one of the elites. For roughly a decade, the VT program has kicked and scraped itself into the premier establishment. After losing to LSU, it bolstered the LSU reputation because they won big against a reputable defense. An elite defense.

To some it could be hard to stomach, but part of being a great program is elevating the status of other teams when they beat you. To me, that’s the mark of a truly great organization. This was Matt Ryan’s shining moment because he did it in a tough stadium, against a defense with a tradition of excellence. Even though we lost, our reputation will propel us in future seasons. With every great team there are great wins and there are gut wrenching losses. Tonight was the latter and one that many will not forget for a long time. (including Matt Ryan)

Not so fast

It’s not over yet my friends. You could already hear the ESPN announcers hyping the potential ACC championship rematch to end the season. For the Hokies it would be a third trip in the four years the championship games has been played. How sweet would a win be for a trip to a BCS bowl and the gratifying taste of revenge?

Very sweet indeed.

Homecoming

It was Homecoming for Herndon High School last weekend. My 10th as an alum.