How has design been used, misused and misunderstood especially in the digital realm? Where can we look to find examples of evolved design acceptance as drivers of customer acquisition, retention and satisfaction?

The problem - as Studio Asterisk* sees it - is that in spite of the fact that the software industry has existed for more than 30 years, only the technological foundation of products and services have been given serious attention.

Customer/user-facing aspects of design have only been given cursory consideration and focus as many companies rush to bring untested, and in many cases, unusable products and services to market.

The clearest examples are the dot-com sites where flash and attention grabbing images substituted for real value. There is a corollary in the software applications space where technology companies, in many instances focus on back-end engineering wizardry without fully acknowledging the usability drivers from the customer perspective.

Design related problems multiplied with the explosion in popularity of web/browser based applications due to the fact that developers were not limited to the strict design and usability guidelines (good or bad) imposed by major software manufacturers like Microsoft and Apple.

However, just because the applications are built in HTML, DHTML and XML instead of C++, do we forego the up-front interface design process?

Steven and Yury will explore the environment for digital development as it relates to business services and products.

Looking at current and past solutions to design practices, they will review some existing dynamics and inherited difficulties in the software development process in order to understand what and why many approaches have not worked, and resulted in product as well as company failures.

How can we creatively evangelize and rationalize the acceptance of interface design as a necessary component of new software products and services? Yury and Steven believe that a usable interface represents the ultimate value that information architects, visual designers and digital artists bring to this rapidly evolving industry.

They will walk through several projects from their portfolio as examples of the front-end design process tightly integrating with engineering development cycles.

Why should artists and designers be interested:

Artists and designers should be interested in a demonstration of how their skills can be very relevant in this not so new but still exciting industry. How they can contribute to the vast array of software products released almost daily and improve the usability levels of products through their contribution.

1. - What approach do they take with clients and prospects?
2. - How do they approach the design process and what do they hope to deliver?
3. - What other types of approaches might they use to provide solutions?
4. - Who do designers typically interact with from the client side? What is the
      perspective of this interaction?

Speakers:

Steven Gilman, Communications Strategist

Steven has over 20 years of experience in senior positions in technology development, consulting and marketing. He has held management positions for Global 1000 corporations, as well as start-ups and privately held organizations including Metropolitan Life and Hughes. His expertise spans digital media, storage management, communications and technology and includes work with Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu, Triworks Intl, NTT, Hitachi, and Aaron Marcus & Associates. Steven focuses on market strategy, project management and visual communications.

Steven has channeled his broad international experience in community development and cross-cultural communications through initiatives in the US around telecommunications, municipal access and public/private dialogue, bringing together national and regional leaders, creating and co-producing a branded and acclaimed symposium called TeleStructure.

In addition to Studio Asterisk*, Steven is an adjunct faculty member at SFSU, GGU and UOP, and teaches undergraduate and graduate management and marketing. He is president emeritus of the North Bay Multimedia Association, a professional media organization; a former vice president and board director of MDG.org, the primary international trade organization for digital media in the Bay Area; and has served on the board of directors of Digital Village Foundation, a public/private technology partnership.

Yury Frolov, Creative Director

Yury has over 20 years of experience in traditional and interactive design. The majority of his career has been devoted to high-profile technology and Internet clients such as IBM, Oracle, Cisco, Fujitsu, Phone.com and Moody’s Financial Services. He has worked with top design and entertainment companies including 1185 Design, MCA Universal Pictures and Red Square Design.

Yury studied Design and Architecture at the Institute of Art and Industrial Design in Moscow. He received his Masters in Visual Design, Tradeshow Design and Environmental Graphics in 1983.

Yury was a 1991 recipient of the prestigious Krasner-Pollock Foundation art grant and a winner of How Magazine’s International Design Competition for 1997.