Essential supplies at this year's SXSW Interactive Festival.

I blame the drizzly, chilly weather in Austin for the cold I got my second day at SXSW Interactive. But I was determined not to let that dampen my spirits.

The last design conference I attended, the HOW Conference in Chicago in 2005, pretty much blew my mind. It certainly changed my life — it was the turning point that made me embrace interactive design. For years I had been a print snob, but seeing the possibilities with interactive design energized me to learn new skills. I dedicated all of my free time to learning HTML and CSS and absorbed whatever I could in the web design world. As a result I was completely re-energized about my career and new opportunities came my way.

Given all of this, I had ridiculously high expectations for SXSW Interactive. It did not disappoint.

On day one, I was reminded of a part of design that is easy to forget: It’s our job to provide delight, beauty and excitement. Paul Annett, of Clearleft, presented a clever series of web site features that act as Easter eggs. One example is a site from his own company, Silverback. Slide the corner of your browswer window back and forth and the vines at the top move across each other. It’s nothing that adds value to the product, but it adds delight to the experience. And, just as importantly, it gets people talking.

Paul Annett of Clearleft demonstrates a human (and gorilla) explanation of the moving vines. Photo credit: armiller

This notion of customer experience carried throughout the sessions I attended. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised, it is an interactive festival after all. But I was happy to see the emphasis on designing to enhance the customer experience.

From a branding perspective, I took two major points from the sessions.

• It’s not about creating a perfect experience. It’s about human connections and the people behind the technology.
• It’s not about the company logo. It’s about the way the customer interacts with the people at the company.

Bottom line, create an emotional connection with people. Nothing new, but for a person who (like me) tends to focus on practicality, efficiency and usability, it’s a delightful reminder.