I’ve had a great time again here at OFFF but I can’t help thinking that designers aren’t really getting the best out of conferences like this.
Most presentations here go along the lines of, ‘”this is me, this is were I was born, this is where I live now” and then the rest of the presentation continues with “I’ve done this, then I’ve done this, and I’ve done this, then I did this”, with the presenter just rolling through a load of their work.
It’s always inspiring to see other peoples work but its also extremely useful to find out the theory and the process behind the end result. This is something thats really lacking from most the presentations here, and yet designers don’t seem to realize or moan about it.
Maybe its a cop out on their part as it’s a lot easier to sit in a room and look at a load of cool inspiring work, than to actually learn what was involved in the work and how the end result was achieved. I’m not so much talking about the technical stuff (i.e. the code etc) as OFFF is a creative conference, but more about the ideas behind each piece and the path to the end result. Don’t designers want to learn how to improve their work by the process involved in creating it?
It’s definitely a cop out on presenters as there’s really very little planning involved in listing and showing the work you have already completed (although it really seems to be what the mass audience want).
OFFF is great if you want to be inspired, but don’t expect to learn much.
