I really enjoyed the Future of Web Design conference today, most of the talks were really interesting. I particularly enjoyed Andy Budd (Clearleft) talking about the ‘user experience design curve’, Paul Farnell (Litmus) talking about unconventional ways of promoting sites, Daniel Burka (Digg) on iterative and adaptive design and a great presentation from Steve Pearce from Poke (pictured below) all about user experience vs brand experience.

Another thing that struck me about the day was virtually everyone there was a pasty, skinny, white guy with thick glasses! … Concerning!

Picture by jkleske

This is a great little blog by a guy called Todd Hart who basically buys up old cassette tapes from the Oxfam shop in Dalston then digitizes them and shares them on his site. Having a quick flick through I’ve found some pretty cool tracks by Gill Scott-Heron, Groove Train and a nice James Brown mix by Matt Black (right-click and select “Save Target As” on the links). www.dalstonoxfamshop.blogspot.com

Thanks for the link Chris

… Very funny (though very mean) video of someone walking through the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with one of those ‘TV be gone’ universal remotes. Watch video

Although I missed it last year I’m gonna try and get work to pay for me to go on this, it’s in London on April the 17th and 18th. Looks like there’s gonna be some good speakers, also alot about usability/user centered design - rather than just how to make shiny buttons!:

http://www.futureofwebdesign.com/

Interesting article in Wired this week with David Byrne interviewing Thom Yorke - getting his thoughts on the current state of the music industry, as well as talking about the recent ‘pay-what-you-want’ release of the last Radiohead album:

Byrne: What about bands that are just getting started?

Yorke: Well, first and foremost, you don’t sign a huge record contract that strips you of all your digital rights, so that when you do sell something on iTunes you get absolutely zero. That would be the first priority. If you’re an emerging artist, it must be frightening at the moment. Then again, I don’t see a downside at all to big record companies not having access to new artists, because they have no idea what to do with them now anyway.

Byrne: It should be a load off their minds.

Yorke: Exactly.

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