Photo Credit: kevindooley
Evolution of your
Design
Iteration & You
Designing Adaptable Websites
Daniel Burka – Digg Creative Director – Pownce Co-founder

Credit: Martin_Heigan
Your design sucks
Trust me, you can do better

Credit: Mark Trammell
aka chasingfun
Are you in or out?
contract work vs in-house design

Read this book
Stewart Brand - How Buildings Learn

High road
architecture

High road
website

Low road
architecture

Low road
Website

Look what you can do!
Build yourself a castle in no time!

Establish a visual language
Avoid the Tower of Babel

Example from Pownce

Mezzoblue Mozilla Digg
(thanks Dave!!)

Desire paths
Don’t try to predict everything
Credit: Phil Gyford

Adapt to Scale
It’s a great problem to have

Subtraction is iteration too
Try to remove as much as you add
Credit: Rev Dan Catt

Realign, don’t Redesign
Cameron Moll is clever
Credit: kk+ (flickr)

“Every time I hear a designer say the word
innovation I reach for my revolver....
so I can shoot them in the face”
Stuart Butterfield, Flickr
March, 2008

Make time for iteration
Don’t overbook yourself on new stuff
Don’t hesitate to release
Credit: Jeremy Keith

Don’t panic!
Listen and learn carefully before reacting

Low road design is much easier to adapt
Realign, don’t redesign
Create a visual language and iterate it
You can’t predict all eventualities
Remove as much as you add
Don’t be over reactive
Make time for iteration

A case study
Digg comments system
2005-2008

2005

Doesn’t scale 2005

Limited functionality
Doesn’t scale 2005

Data isn’t very compact
Limited functionality
Doesn’t scale 2005

Design is awfully literal
Data isn’t very compact
Limited functionality
Doesn’t scale 2005

2006

Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

Nesting confuses novices
Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

Nesting too basic for experts
Nesting confuses novices
Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

Top posting rampant
Nesting too basic for experts
Nesting confuses novices
Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

2007

Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

Nesting! ... but cluttered
Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

Interactions awkward
Nesting! ... but cluttered
Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

Hard to locate your comments
Interactions awkward
Nesting! ... but cluttered
Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

2008

Scales better... much faster 2008

More functionality, less clutter
Scales better... much faster 2008

Interactions stronger
More functionality, less clutter
Scales better... much faster 2008

Start looking for cracks...
Interactions stronger
More functionality, less clutter
Scales better... much faster 2008

Adapt to survive
If iterative design isn’t instinctual, be convincing

Thanks! Questions?
Slides will be on deltatangobravo.com