Starck Lessons for the Future of the Web
I spent all of yesterday at Le Web 3 conference in Paris, invited by 3i. Loic LeMeur fronted the event and made sure the uber-bloggers flew in. At the 3i dinner I got to talk to Om Malik (well ‘talk’ might be stretching the point. We shared an elevator and he agreed with my statement that ‘this elevator has got a mind of its own’) and a few words too with Robert Scoble. Forrest Gump would have been proud of me.
There was much to admire in an event which showed real flair in the way it was put together. Two keynote speakers in particular stood out for me, with spookily similar insights, told in completely opposite ways.
I’ve been wanting to listen to the real Twitter story for a while, and Ev Williams gave us some sensible insight into what made the design of the Twitter service so successful. Instead of asking “what can we add to make something better”, ask instead “what can we take away to make something new”. Tell friends what you are doing in 140 characters – that’s a tough constraint. Reduce the human cognitive load of the service and people will use it a lot more.
The real coup of the conference was to bag Philippe Starck as a keynote speaker, with his trademark leather trousers, outrageous and thought-provoking:
- The smart people will be the “no-consumers”
- The smart products will be the “no-products” (products and services that do less, not more)
- Too many products are 90% shit and 10% good stuff, so remove the 90%
- Without a strong concept the product doesn’t deserve to exist
- My collection privee concept – sofas that make sex more comfortable
- Minimal is the essence
- I’m not scared to look ridiculous
- Designers need to be more courageous and more humble
[tags]LeWeb307, LeWeb, Loic LeMeur, Philippe Starck, Evan Williams, Twitter, Taptu, Taptology, Steve Ives, mobile, design, conference[/tags]
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