Best practices serve a purpose. Building sites in a standard way presents users with a format they're familiar with and lets them know what to expect. However, after decades of being an exploratory wilderness -- where you'd never know what you'd find traveling from link to link -- the Internet has settled into a comfortable homogeneity. The increase in ease of use has come at the cost of excitement, curiosity, and delight. Let's see what we can do to shake things up. I'll be talking about: - What it means to be avant-garde in regards to the web - How the mental models users have of the internet are formed, and thus can be explored and changed - When is the right time to try something unusual - Why you still need to make sites accessible even when you're building outside the box - Where to find inspiration for weirder web patterns

1. Embracing the Avant Garde for a Weirder Web
AGAINST BEST PRACTICES
Chelsea Maxwell
That Conference 2016
#ThatConference@catm0ther

4. Remember when the internet was fun?
Hey.
@catm0ther #ThatConference

6. check out http://oneterabyteofkilobyteage.tumblr.com & Olia Lialina

7. I’m Chelsea Maxwell.
Hey.
@catm0ther #ThatConference

10. @catm0ther

11. You may have noticed something
@catm0ther #ThatConference

12. @catm0ther #ThatConference

13. @catm0ther #ThatConference

14. http://www.novolume.co.uk/blog/all-websites-look-the-same/

16. Is this a problem?
@catm0ther #ThatConference

17. @catm0ther #ThatConference

18. boredI’m

19. engagingNovelty is

20. different
Innovation happens when we do something

21. Nothing is
(when it comes to technology)
@catm0ther
Everything is
Innate.
learned.
#ThatConference

23. taughtWe them

24. @catm0ther #ThatConference

26. Users build a mental model
@catm0ther
based on what we provide them.
#ThatConference

28. orworse
@catm0ther
Better
#ThatConference

29. http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/11/10923808/microsoft-windows-start-menu-20-years-visual-history

30. User research tells us
(and by “how” I mean “how weird can we get?”)
@catm0ther
in addition to
how
what.
#ThatConference

33. https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/02/silicon-copy/

34. Spend time with your
@catm0ther
users.
#ThatConference

36. @catm0ther

38. be empathetic

41. To get to a better tomorrow,
some things are going to have to fail.
@catm0ther
(or at least make people uncomfortable first)
#ThatConference

42. @catm0ther #ThatConference

43. @catm0ther #ThatConference

45. @catm0ther #ThatConference

46. side projects

49. @catm0ther
Let’s build somethingweirder.
#ThatConference

52. thanks!
chelseamaxwell.com
@catm0ther