Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Hannah Donovan – Designing without the browser

Web Directions @media 2011, London, May 27th 11:45am.

Presentation slides

Session description

Innovation is intensifying off the browser — the things we use everyday are increasingly controlled by touch, gesture and voice. And we, as interaction designers, are faced with a challenge that’s the opposite of our browser-​​based one-​​man-​​shop: there’s suddenly a gulf of production between our concept and the final product; the means of production is as tricky to navigate as a roster of Tolstoy characters; mistakes are expensive; and everyone speaks a different language. Sound dangerous? Sound exciting?

Donovan argues the processes for the future lie in our more material-​​based graphic designer pasts, and our cousin disciplines of industrial design and architecture. After a decade of honing our newfangled browser-​​based skills, learn how to dust off and sharpen the tools of our roots.

About Hannah Donovan

Photo of Hannah DonovanHannah Donovan is a Canadian interaction designer living in London. She led design at Last​.fm for five years, and before that worked agency-​​side designing digital campaigns. Since leaving Last​.fm this spring, Hannah’s become an independent product designer focused on ways to make music better on the web. When she’s not busy with new work, Hannah contributes to spacelog​.org and plays cello with a real orchestra as well as a comedy orchestra.

Follow Hannah on Twitter: @Han

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this was a masterfully curated event … a brilliant day that educated, entertained, and rekindled some old connections

Ash Donaldson Service & Behaviour Design Director, Tobias
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