Lots of Design Love at meshU

Well, the initial meshU is almost over.

Each of the workshops was terrific with some great insight and a lot of furious note-taking on my part. What stood out personally were the design sessions featuring Digg’s Daniel Burka and Wufoo’s Kevin Hale.

As an enthusiastic consumer of online applications as opposed someone who develops them, I’ve fascinated by usability, flow and intuitiveness. On Web sites that are well-designed, you don’t even think about how you use it, you just use it. Simple, elegant, beautiful.

Not to downgrade the importance of development and beautiful and clean code, but it won’t matter much without great design. Two important points that Hale made were that the small details are really important, and that good design needs to extend to every place that interacts with the user – from registration to the FAQ. Hale, by the way, won the prize for being the most dapperly-dressed person at meshU with an ensemble that featured a tie and vest.

Burka, who packed the house, talked about how simplicity is important, and that it’s okay to think about removing under-used or unloved features as you launch new ones. It was interesting to look at how Digg’s comment system has been overhauled over the past two years with small design changes having a big impact.

Another issue where was healthy discussion – some of it instigated by me – was how text plays such an important role in great design. It’s wonderful to have beautiful graphics and color but words are also really important – something that I can appreciate as a writer and journalist.

One last quote from Burka:

“I like making pretty things but the biggest part of my job and the thing I’m most excited about is making things that are easy to use.”

Technorati Tags: Digg, meshU, Wufoo