Comments on: dConstruct 09 in review

By: Matt King

Matt King — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:04:31 +0000

Excellent observations Cennydd. I have to say it was the atypical choice of speakers and subject matters that convinced me to get my ticket this year. After a couple of years of FOWD’s practicality (and that’s not at all meant negatively), dConstruct seemed like a pleasant departure that may get me thinking a little differently – it didn’t disappoint. Although there was little in the way of direct correlation with web design and development, it was all there on a more abstracted level. Like in practical everyday work, it’s easy to get bogged down by the way we construct our designs rather than concerning ourselves why something was a good idea in the first place.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:59:36 +0000

Nice write-up. Perhaps against the majoirty view I found Fling’s talk by far the least satisfying, with the sci-fi talk a close second. Both made weak points, and privileged style over content I thought. But they *did* bridge the theme with things that were familiar to the majority of the crowd – which some of my favourite speakers perhaps did not – thinking that many people had a grounding in what was going on in games / product / ubicomp etc.

My theory is that I think because the discourse in Europe and the UK around post-screen, post-digital, mobile ubiquitous computing has been going for quite a while, and is noticeably vibrant compared to that in the states.

Web-developers in the UK however are probably following the US-centric discourse about web standards, flash, microformats and (I don’t mean this in a bad way, honest) other more practical ‘minutiae’.

Russell’s presentation showed that we’re pioneering here with practical projects like newspaperclub and grassroots movements like the arduino hacking community, August and Adam were/are based in Europe, and have worked for a long time with industrial designers.

I’m very pleased dConstruct has got away from people showing slides of microformat code – and I hope it pursues this course next year – but it has to bring it’s existing constituency with it – I think you’re right that sometimes the conceptual-strain was noticeable this year.

By: Richard Rutter

Richard Rutter — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 08:53:35 +0000

Great write-up Cennydd. Yes, we have some thinking to do about next year. We certainly can’t get any *more* cerebral, but as you say those there I think appreciated that it wasn’t the usual faces or subject matter. That said it might be nice to get some practicality in next year, perhaps a little closer to last year, cf. Josh Porter’s presentation which was both theoretical and applicable.

By: Cennydd Bowles

Cennydd Bowles — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:49:18 +0000

I’d originally changed my mind about posting the copious notes, since the podcasts will be available soon. However, if they’ll be of use, I’ll bundle them into a PDF and append them to this post asap.

By: Rebecca Cottrell

Rebecca Cottrell — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:25:56 +0000

Cennydd, nice write-up.

I felt I got a lot out of the talks. I don’t think it’s strictly about the talk’s content … Russell Davies presented big ideas in a way that was accessible, witty, and very funny. People want to be educated, inspired, and entertained; I felt dConstruct hit a good balance this year.

‘Designing for tomorrow’ hinted that there’s a lot more to UX than websites … there’s mobile. There’s a whole city. There’s stuff under the surface.

Looking forward to the next one.

Rebecca

P.S.
Are you going to post the copious notes I saw you typing up? I hope so!