For the last three years I had the chance to visit the MIX conference in nutty Las Vegas. Like every year, here comes my recap containing my opinion to the sessions and MIX11 itself as well as some resources for you (and me) to relive MIX11 once again.
Opinion
For me MIX was always about the MIXture of tech and non-tech cultures. When first visiting MIX09 the crowd was almost 50% developers and 50% designers and so were the sessions. I was totally blown away by so much creativity in one place and that concept of this conference was totally new to me.
MIX11 was something completely quite different. It felt like it had been hijacked by the various product and development teams. Nearly all of the UX sessions were injected into the MIX agenda at the last minute after a wave of feedback and disappointment from the community.
The added “UX Lightning Series” sessions were great, but a total of 2,5h plus only a few other UX/Design session compared to a 12 hour non stop flight from Europe? Well, not really.
Stop whining you say and you are right. MIX11 was nice, the three days hiking upfront were great, but next year I will wait until the final session list is available before booking my trip. I sent my feedback to the MIX team, really hoping they get MIX back where it belongs.
Anyways, I really enjoyed connecting with new people and people I only meet only once a year at MIX.
Session Favorites
Without further ado, here are my favorites for MIX11:
Fonts, Form and Function: A Primer on Digital Typography
http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/EXT02
Robby Ingebretsen is a Design-Rockstar! ‘nuf said.
UX Lightning Series
3 sessions each consisting of 4 talks of 10min. Crazy? Yes, and totally awesome!
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Inspiring UX (http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/UXL01)
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Crafty UX (http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/UXL02)
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Mind Bending UX (http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/UXL03)
Back to Square One
http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/DES01
Nishant’s sessions are interesting, quaint, nutty, informative and many more. Some may find them only strange, but I like his style in many ways.
Designer and Developer: A Case for the Hybrid
http://channel9.msdn.com/events/MIX/MIX11/EXT07
Jeff Croft is a Designer who taught himself some coding skills. It’s nice to see a Developer/Designer Hybrid from a Designers perspective.
Other Resources
- The Grid System (http://www.thegridsystem.org/)
Everything about grids in any design. It’s like a fountain of wisdom concerning grids. - What’s new in SL5 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg986857%28VS.96%29.aspx)
Official overview of new features in Silverlight 5. - Little Big Details (http://littlebigdetails.com/)
Calls itself “An inspirational collection of UI details”, which it is. - Modular Scale (http://modularscale.com/)
Calculate your font size based on the Golden Section, Musical Fifth or Musical Fourth. - Typophile (http://typophile.com/)
The name speaks for itself. - DISQUS (http://disqus.com/)
A comments platform you can plug into your website. - LingsCars.com (http://www.lingscars.com/)
Go, see for yourself. Yes, it IS real.
