SXSWi: Kathy Sierra Opening Remarks
I didn’t really live blog this one, as I wanted to focus on the entertainment value of Kathy Sierra. As a testament to how much of a rock star she is, I got stuck in the second room, watching her on a big projection screen. She filled up the first ballroom.
As a dedicated reader of Kathy’s blog, she talked about a lot I’ve read there. However, she did touch on something I haven’t heard/read her cover before—the WTF? button.
There has been tons of research over the years dedicated to recogizing facial expressions. It’s come a long way, but there is still a long way to go. Why not—instead of trying to automatically detect when a user is distraught—let the user tell YOU when they’re confused. The button doesn’t have to say WTF, but it certainly gets the point across. Once the user clicks on the WTF/AAAAARGH/HELP ME!/I’M CONFUSED! button, you can detect where they are in the system and provide some high level choices about what’s going on (I’m lost, I’m confused, I know what I want to do but can’t find it, etc.). From there, you can provide some more detailed questions for the user to answer. And from there, you can provide the way out of trouble.
Kathy put on a great show, and if you aren’t reading Creating Passionate Users, you’re missing out.
Update: Tons of folks writing about this one. Here are some of the early ones and good ones:
Thanks for linking to me. I am trying to live blog the best that I can. If it is helpful to people, great. At least it should be helpful for me in remembering all the great stuff I’ve heard down here.