Now, I can’t for the life of me understand what was so special about this file that it required the most up to date version of the software but it did. The lack of any notification is what sticks in my craw (and violates a couple of Nielsen’s usability heuristics.) Apparently Adobe just expects everyone to update their products in a timely fashion but if our proverbial grandparents are any indication, this might be a mistake. Should I have updated? Sure and I did, but is a simple message box saying something about needing version X to open this file too much to ask?

ET opened with one of the most stunning things I’ve ever seen – the Music Animation Machine (see some examples here and a discussion on Tufte’s site here). Though I’m not musical and I’ve never played an instrument, I immediately knew what these images meant and represented. The movie was the epitome of design; the screen wasn’t cluttered and nothing in the display could be removed. This example led us into one the central themes of his presentation: whatever it takes to explain the content is the proper display. In other words, content is king, content should determine the display (content driven design as it were). Don’t begin with a specific display approach, start with a content problem and do whatever it takes to explain the information.

Though this was the most prominent idea that I took away, there were a number of great concepts throughout the day. This list is hardly exhaustive but should give you a sense of what ET is all about.

• Details lead to credibility.
• There is no such thing as information overload, just bad design.
• Eliminate clutter.
• Great design disappears, it gives itself up to the content.
• Super graphics can be extremely useful.
• Every paragraph, chart, etc. should lend credibility to your argument and give your audience a reason to believe.
• There is no one “right way” to display data – try a few different approaches.
• The sports and financial sections of your newspaper are filled with great examples of table design.
• Tables are nearly always better than graphics.
• Don’t get it original, get it right.
• Don’t under estimate your audience – don’t pander or patronize.
• The principles of analytical design are the same as the principles of analytical thinking.

Though ostensibly about visual design, much of what ET had to say applies directly to presentations (from both sides of the podium), a topic that he touches on near the end of his seminar. If you are a consumer, you should be very wary when the presenter won’t share his data. As soon as you hear words like “proprietary” and “confidential” you can be assured the data is cherry picked, a crime second only to outright lying. Of course when you’re presenting, be sure to shed light on the data – this will do wonders for your credibility. Speaking of presentations, you owe it to yourself to read through ET’s breakdown of the key PowerPoint slides concerning the damage to Columbia. Pretty powerful stuff.

Tufte spent a fair amount of time discussing sparklines, a “small, high resolution graphics embedded in a context of words, numbers, images.” The prototypical example would be a stock performance chart though Beautiful Evidence is full of examples. It’s quite something to see just how much data can be expressed in small areas yet be incredibly easy to grasp. And there are a number of ways you can generate these for your own data!

I could go on and on but I don’t want to bore my lone reader. To say I walked away impressed is an understatement; if you have a chance to see ET, do not hesitate. Just watching him present is worth the price of admission.

I’m a huge fan of the No Fluff Just Stuff tour (yeah, I know – I could be seen as “biased”) and I’ve wholeheartedly recommended it to many, many people over the years. For those of you who have (inexplicably) ignored my advice, you can get a flavor of what a typical symposium is like by reading the latest and greatest No Fluff Just Stuff Anthology, Volume II. That’s right, for a low low price, you can have your very own copy of what will, I’m sure, be lauded as one of *the* great works of the 21st century (to point, the chapter on usability is top notch!) But don’t just take my word for it, see what Neal “let’s-see-how-many-books-I-can-write-in-one-year” Ford (otherwise known as the cat wrangler of the anthology) has to say here. You can order your very own copy from the Prags or Amazon (don’t forget, Anthologies make *great* gifts). Enjoy!

From there I head over to Boston for the Ajax Experience where I will be presenting a broad overview of some common Ajax frameworks. Jay and the Ajaxians have put together a fantastic lineup of speakers and it will be an action packed event. A few of my friends managed to wrestle some funding from their respective employers so I’m looking forward to catching up. It’s going to be a busy week for me but I’m really excited!

I think Kyle hit’s it on the head when he says

“Making your users feel special is worth more than any advertisement could possibly cost.”

Sure, you can play it safe, follow the well beaten path, but will that inspire The Nod? Of course it takes courage – it’s not easy to try something different; while no one brags about their Camry, Toyota sells a ton of them.

So what is a designer to do? I’m with Kyle, give it a go! If no one pushes the boundaries, we don’t advance the field…

Further along, you see some amazing applications developed by school children! While some of this may seem trivial today, you have to consider when this was filmed. I’ve long been fascinated by novel ways technology is applied in the classroom – something beyond using a word processor or doing some research on the web. I have to wonder what has become of programs like those discussed in this talk…

These days you can’t swing a short iron without running into some discussion of patent law and how it applies to software (or more often doesn’t apply) but I was really surprised to hear it come up in the Q&A! To paraphrase Alan, while he feels that protecting inventions is good, he’s dead on when he says: “there is enormous confusion between what’s an idea and what’s an invention”. He argues that there should be some protection but that it can be (and is) abused.

A little later, he argues for a more than just a technical education and as a graduate of a small liberal arts college, I was very pleased to hear him urge computer scientists to get a liberal arts background. He argues that the challenge is to find the aesthetic. Frankly, I think my BA in computer science makes me a far more well rounded individual and has allowed me to perform a wider variety of duties. For instance, these days I spend a lot of my time moderating meetings and giving presentations – with a strictly technical background, I might not be quite as adept playing that role.

Anyway, a very fascinating presentation by a giant of computing. I highly recommend you take the time to watch these; despite their age, they are still quite timely.

For more information, check out this overview from Microsoft as well as Jensen Harris‘ posts: The Long Road to Contextual Tabs and It’s All About Context. Say what you will about MS but they’ve got some really bright people and some of the best usability folks around – and for the first time in, well, forever, I’m actually excited about upgrading!