Random Highlights Of The Day

All in all..a solid day at SXSW. Here’s a quick recap of some of the highlights (or lowlight in one case):

CS in the heat of the moment.

ScreenBurn Arcade – stopped by the gaming den at ScreenBurn to demo some of the latest games/equip and watch the pro gamer tournament. CS made some kids cry while playing Team Fortress.

Wireframing/Prototypes – good presentation on wireframing in a 2.0 world by a duo from Clearleft.com. Aside from nifty examples of how to build live prototypes, they shared their perspectives on how traditional wireframing limits opportunity (or possibility space) while advanced prototyping is about exploring/expanding possibility.

Getting Emotional By Design – heard Eris Stassi of Apple and Didier Hilhorst of IDEO talk about ways to leverage emotional connections in digital design. Learned a new word….haptics (think iPhone).

Mark Zuckerberg and Sarah Lacy

Keynote Disaster – What was meant to be the highlight of the day…Facebook founder/ceo Mark Zuckerberg being interviewed by BusinessWeek reporter/author Sarah Lacy…turned into a disaster and the talk of the town/web. She was more interested in making her own statements, couldn’t muster any intelligent questions and seemed to be trying to dis Zuckerberg in front of the crowd. The lowpoint/highpoint was when the restless audience revolted after one person shouted “say something interesting.” She then replied…”you don’t understand how hard my job is.” Never seen that before. More on all that here.

20 Ways to Woo Users – GREAT presentation by Kathy Sierra on ways to “harness” cognitive seduction in user experiences. Best point…focus your goals on users, not the company or product. It’s not about someone thinking your company kicks ass…or your product kicks ass. It’s about about the USER kicking ass.

The 2008 Web Awards followed (Eugene Mirman was an hilarious emcee) and the night was capped by a party at the Austin City Limits Sound Stage.