We asked some of the speakers at this year's Webstock conference, held in Wellington, to share their knowledge. What is a micro-interaction, and why should designers think about them? Should you put your creative work online in its raw form, or wait for it to be polished? And are gossip sites edifying?
Dan Saffer is the creative director of Smart Design. He talks about “micro-interactions”, and ways to have moments of delight in the products we use every day.
"It is often the tiny details that we love about products, and not so much the the big features." Dan Saffer Photo: Webstock
Liz Danzico told Webstock there is no shame in stopping – she herself has dozens of Tumblrs she never updates. Instead of always rushing to finish things maybe we could embrace the process, she says. Liz is the founding chairperson of the MFA in Interaction Design Program at the School of Visual Arts, and the recently-appointed creative director of America's National Public Radio.
"We don't have a way of iterating other stuff, outside of our design processes, as far as I can tell." - Liz Danzico. Photo: Webstock
Hannah Donovan co-founded music-sharing site This is My Jam, after feeling her creativity had dried up. She talks about the site, protecting creative tools, and why society is fascinated by the idea of struggling, starving artists.
"We're urged to take the straight and narrow path...but there's no guide for creative people." Photo: Unknown
Anne Helen Petersen is a doctor of celebrity gossip. She writes about classic Hollywood scandals for The Hairpin, and blew the Webstock audience's collective mind by comparing the Kardashians to Jane Austen's Bennet family. She talks about Shirley Temple, Lorde, and why people love gossip.
"The way that we analyse a book or a poem in class, it's the same sort of coding that happens when we look at a celebrity image." - Anne Helen Petersen Photo: Webstock