This was an inspirational session at the 10th Information Architecture Summit in Memphis. A very well-executed presentation with good examples to inspire. The main message was a list of 9 lessons that the presenter, Michael Atherton, had learnt from looking at Disney's Imagineers.
9 lessons to remember:
- If you can dream it, you can do it
- Get them excited - Start with engaging concepts, not those dry wireframes
- Build a creative culture - make sure the team communicates, always do a project post-mortem (success and non-success!)
- Tell stories - for example see BBC topics that use 'aboutness' as a form of navigation
- Never break the spell
- Have attitude
- Play your own game - the poster children of Web 2.0 were all done by small teams in short times, they created products that were useful to themselves, they loved to build it and use it. No corporate politics
- Accept change - BBC iPlayer has a release cycle of 14 days! Also compare this to The Long Wow.
- Look to the future
Have a look at the full presentation. It includes audio and video!
