Web Directions North comes to an end

After the not-so-good Canucks game on the day before, I enjoyed several nice sessions on Thursday, the closing party and a ski trip to Whistler on Friday.

First, on Thursday, there was the keynote of Kelly Goto, talking about “Designing for Lifestyle”. She basically pointed out that it is of crucial importance to know your audience when producing a product/offering a service and communicating a lifestyle, not functionality.

In “Web Apps 2″ Paul Hammond talked about how the bridge between Front-End and Back-End Developers can be bridged and George Oates shared her experiences when working for Flickr. The afternoon was reserved for Dave Shea and Veerle Pieters where they presented all different kinds of aspect of “The Design Process”. Very nice and lovely done.

But the real highlight was the closing keynote by Jared Spool who basically extended what Kelly Goto talked about in the morning. In his unique and humorous way of presenting, he unveiled the secrets of User Interface Engineering explained how important the user is and what could be done to get into his/her mind - to make better products and provide better services. Marvellous.

The offical Closing Party then took place at Library Square Public House and was sponsored by Media Temple. A great party where I had, again, the chance to talk to all the guys and everything went a little more loose than before. Maybe due to the alcohol, who knows. Nevertheless I went to bed at 00:30 to make sure to catch up enough sleep for the ski trip to Whistler, which took place the following day.

After a 2 hour bus ride, we arrived in Whistler at about 9am. Until about 4pm we were able to check out the I do not know how many slops on Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb and catch some food and drinks at the Garibaldi Lounge, where the guys from Microsoft were so kind to pay for everything. Unfortunately, on my first run down, I had a little “accident”, which means I fell, I hurt myself a bit - including smashing by digital camera. I was able to take some pictures before, but due to it is not working anymore, I not be able to download the from the media until I am back in Austria. So be patient

Nevertheless, it was a great trip up there, I really enjoyed it. When coming back to the Hotel at about 8pm I was so tired, I had to go to bed immediately. I was also booked for the 2nd trip up to Whistler today, Saturday, but due to my physical conditions, I figured that it would be better to stay in Vancouver and take it easy. So I spent some time walking in Stanley Park, went for Lunch on Dunmen Street and went the the Canucks store to look for some interesting fan gear. I also tried to get a ticket for tonights game vs. Atlanta, but it is sold out completely and I do not want to pay $200+ to some strange people selling tickets outside the stadium. So I will take it easy tonight, grab a bite at the hotel restaurant and go to bed. Tomorrow, I am going back to Austria.