W+K London ECD and Global Partner Tony Davidson writes:

Yep, I’m slow to the game.  This was my first SXSW.  Seems like I’m not the only one, as the plane
is full of admen trying to discover the secret formula for keeping our business
alive.  

What would I glean from this tech festival
that crosses with film and music?

My first impression was of lots of people
bumping into each other as they walked between talks, heads down, glued to their
shiny rectangular interfaces.  Once
seated inside the auditoriums tweeting, blogging, emailing, working and sending
messages to friends and loved ones became the main event, whilst simultaneously
listening to the lectures. I had intended to join the people in this ritual in
order to let my comrades back home instantly know what was going on, but as the
talks progressed I realised that a more rounded opinion once I had a little
time to reflect on what I’ve seen might be a better option. You remember reflection?
That thing that we don’t seem to have much time for in this increasingly fast-paced world of ours.  As Bruce Sterling pointed
out in his fine closing remarks, we should take time to think about what we are
killing as this obsession for new technology surges ever forwards.

Several reoccurring themes came up during
the week.  What is good design? being one
of them.  Josh Clark, Principal of Global
Moxie, argued that tech designers were too quickly designing for the interface
as we know it, rather than thinking about the actual problem and solving it in
whatever way was most appropriate. 

Why build an app for locking your car that
requires several interactions when it could be designed so you don’t even have to
think about it?  The best technology
becomes second nature and hopefully invisible. 
The ability of tiny sensors to enable this kind of thinking formed a
large part of the talk and it is amazing to hear how people are already using
these to make our lives better: a tyre that can sense when it needs to inflate
itself, a pill that reminds you that you’ve taken it.  

 Tony Fadell, formerly of Apple and founder of
Nest, and Hosain Rahman of
Jawbone talked
about ‘Breaking the mould with meaningful design’. They argued that good design
should touch every part of the process: the product, the packaging, the
interface, the marketing, the customer service and anything else you can think
of.  Clearly meaningful design got left
behind in the ‘Great Tech Rush’ of the past few years.  Well now it’s time for designers to reclaim
their rightful place alongside the geeks as equals.  Going round the trade show, there is still a
sense that people are so busy making stuff they are not baking good design
principles in at the start of the process. 
Meaningful design is not a new concept. Apple products may have finally opened the
mainstream's eyes to the possibility of form and function working in harmony across
every aspect of a business, but back in the 1980s Dieter Rams, famed for his
work with Braun, became concerned by the increase in “an impenetrable confusion
of forms, colours and noises”. As a result he penned what some refer to as the
‘Ten Commandments of Good Design’. 
Clearly Jonathan Ives took note. 
I think every tech company should have these printed large on their
walls as they still apply to every aspect of design.

It’s not easy to achieve all of these.  As Fadell said, “Simple is really hard to do”.
But as designers at the forefront of technology we should be setting examples,
even if it means delaying product releases, or not making as much profit.

One of Ram's principles was that ‘Good
design is environmentally-friendly’. 
It’s easy to get seduced by the magic of technology. Clearly the talk on
Leap Motion technology had the audience buzzing; the ability to mould objects
out of thin air and then print them in 3D is mind-blowing, but wouldn’t it be
even more amazing if you could reverse this process so there was no waste? 

It would seem that the tech industry isn’t
the only one that needs to bake in good design at the beginning.  The food industry uses cutting-edge
technology to make their products more addictive and so maximise profits at the
expense of their consumers’ health.  Michael
Moss, the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the New York Times
talked about his latest book ‘Salt, Sugar, Fat’ which uncovers many of the
disturbing truths behind this industry and how they have been sweeping the
issue under the carpet for years. 

As a dreamer, I appreciated Astro Teller’s talk
about the philosophy behind Google X’s 
‘Moonshot’ thinking.  But what’s
different is that these folks aren’t just dreaming of big hairy audacious goals,
they are executing them as well. This is a place where “Responsible irresponsibility is required”, a place where failure is not only accepted, it’s
positively encouraged in order to get to a greater goal. 

I would love to have heard about some of the
projects and their biggest failures, but was not to be, as they only like to
talk about stuff that makes it to market. 

One of the biggest ‘Moonshot thinkers’ in
the world took centre stage on Saturday. 
Having co-founded Paypal, Elon Musk is currently the non-exec chairman
and principal shareholder of SolarCity, which he helped create; the Founder, CEO
and chief designer of Tesla cars; as well as the Founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, through which he is planning trips to Mars and other planets. His simple philosophy of
‘Dream big and pay the bills along the way’ has led to extraordinary
results.  What came across was his single-minded
determination combined with humility: “I’d like to die on Mars, but not during
the landing”.

It was good to see the counter argument
against technology even if it was based on the writings of killer Ted
Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber. David Skrbina, a senior lecturer in
philosophy at the university of Michigan and long term pen pal of Kaczynski, has
recently published a book of his writings. 
Peter Ludlow, a philosophy professor at Northwestern University, argued
on behalf of technology in what was a healthy debate.

The crowd-sourcing debate goes on. Scott
Belsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Behance, a creative portfolio platform, is a
strong believer in quality, not quantity. 
Meritocracy is his goal, where the truly talented become visible and can
therefore be contacted directly by brands, clients and collaborators. He questioned
whether the crowd is a great judge and was more in favour of the credible mass
than the critical mass when it comes to rating work.

He was also critical of the ‘long tail’,
saying that it is causing isolated areas where there is only one kind of person.  He believes it is when different creative
disciplines cross over that true innovation happens. (This theme recurred in a
number of the talks.) His final plea was for attribution to all parties
involved in projects so that you can clearly see who has done what.

He also had some useful tips when hiring,
gleaned from the mistakes that he made on his journey with Behance: hire on
initiative rather than experience and hire people that are motivated by solving
problems, not money.

So what did I learn at SXSW? There are some
super-smart folks down here who make cool shit, some of which will transform
our lives.  And yet whilst the tech
industry may be leading the way, it is still making the same mistakes that other
industries have done before: designing products that are not useful, diverting
to the traditional media of the interface rather than ‘walking in stupid’ every
time there is a new problem to solve, working in isolation from other creative
disciplines, failing to value great storytelling. To this point it was interesting
to note that the most engaging talks I attended came from writers.  And I’m not talking about writers who only
write code. Douglas Rushkoff and Bruce Sterling gave two of the most emotionally
engaging talks. In the advertising business the rush to jump on the tech train
has resulted in great writing taking a back seat.  Well, guess what? Storytellers – like designers,
you need pull up a chair and sit alongside the geeks.  We all need to work together to make a
fundamental shift. We all have a responsibility to make sure that what we
design is something we actually need, something that truly enhances our lives.

Top tips:

Think big.

Be prepared to fail.

Make good design part of every touch point.

Ask yourself – is your product hurting or
helping society and the environment?

Build diverse teams to solve problems

Hire great writers, both coders and storytellers.

Book a hotel that isn’t a 25 minute cab
ride away.

And most importantly, stay weird.

– Tony D