1.
Photo Credit: kevindooley
Evolution of your
Design
Iteration & You
Designing Adaptable Websites
Daniel Burka – Digg Creative Director – Pownce Co-founder

2.
Credit: Martin_Heigan
Your design sucks
Trust me, you can do better

3.
Credit: Mark Trammell
aka chasingfun
Are you in or out?
contract work vs in-house design

4.
Read this book
Stewart Brand - How Buildings Learn

5.
High road
architecture

6.
High road
website

7.
Low road
architecture

8.
Low road
Website

9.
Look what you can do!
Build yourself a castle in no time!

10.
Establish a visual language
Avoid the Tower of Babel

11.
Example from Pownce

12.
Mezzoblue Mozilla Digg
(thanks Dave!!)

13.
Desire paths
Don’t try to predict everything
Credit: Phil Gyford

14.
Adapt to Scale
It’s a great problem to have

15.
Subtraction is iteration too
Try to remove as much as you add
Credit: Rev Dan Catt

16.
Realign, don’t Redesign
Cameron Moll is clever
Credit: kk+ (flickr)

17.
“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

18.
Make time for iteration
Don’t overbook yourself on new stuff
Don’t hesitate to release
Credit: Jeremy Keith

19.
Don’t panic!
Listen and learn carefully before reacting

20.
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

21.
A case study
Digg comments system
2005-2008

22.
2005

23.
Doesn’t scale 2005

24.
Limited functionality
Doesn’t scale 2005

25.
Data isn’t very compact
Limited functionality
Doesn’t scale 2005

26.
Design is awfully literal
Data isn’t very compact
Limited functionality
Doesn’t scale 2005

27.
2006

28.
Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

29.
Nesting confuses novices
Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

30.
Nesting too basic for experts
Nesting confuses novices
Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

31.
Top posting rampant
Nesting too basic for experts
Nesting confuses novices
Still doesn’t scale that well 2006

32.
2007

33.
Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

34.
Nesting! ... but cluttered
Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

35.
Interactions awkward
Nesting! ... but cluttered
Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

36.
Hard to locate your comments
Interactions awkward
Nesting! ... but cluttered
Scales! ... but slower UI 2007

37.
2008

38.
Scales better... much faster 2008

39.
More functionality, less clutter
Scales better... much faster 2008

40.
Interactions stronger
More functionality, less clutter
Scales better... much faster 2008

41.
Start looking for cracks...
Interactions stronger
More functionality, less clutter
Scales better... much faster 2008

42.
Adapt to survive
If iterative design isn’t instinctual, be convincing

43.
Thanks! Questions?
Slides will be on deltatangobravo.com