A foundational user experience talk. What if the way that airplanes were designed and how it improved sailing had some deep lessons around the future of user experience? Sailboats improved significantly after the discovery of flight, and mobile design is improving a great deal of user experience as well. How can we think about applying these lessons? What's still missing?

1. A I R P L A N E S : S A I L B O AT S : :
M O B I L E : D E S K T O P
A M Y E S C A VA R D A - @ A M Y E
A S T O RY I N T W O PA R T S

2. W H E R E W E S TA R T:
henribergius

3. O N T O :

4. F R O M H E R E :
everdaniel

5. T O H E R E :
Rob Enslin
Reuters

6. B U T A L S O :

7. A N D

8. Why I am so not the person to tell this story

9. E X P E C TAT I O N M A N A G E M E N T
zoonabar

10. A C T O N E
The part about the sailboats and the airplanes.
Mostly the sailboats.

11. A S H O R T H I S T O RY O F S A I L
henribergius

12. I M P R O V E M E N T S :
T H E C A R AV E L
rafa_castillo

13. T H E G O L D E N A G E

14. T H E R O YA L N AV Y
Thomas Buttersworth

15. A C T U A L M O D E R N S A I L B O AT S
atanas

16. C R A Z Y S A I L B O AT S

17. C R A Z I E R S A I L B O AT S

18. H O W S A I L I N G W O R K S
The only rule: our sail is just an airfoil. It can only do what
the wind is there for.

19. T H E PA R T S O F A S A I L

20. W I K I P E D I A S AY S :
Another way to say this is that sails generate lift using the air
that flows around them in the same way as an aircraft wing.

21. I N P R A C T I C E :

22. H O W ’ D W E D O T H AT ?
amphalon

23. O N E T H I N G L E A D S T O A N O T H E R
Computational Fluid Dynamics allows the
calculation of the lift, drag and centres of effort of
a sailing rig and will inherently account for the
complex interaction between sails
http://www.dynamic-fluid-design.com/conventionalsails.html
Before Airplanes:

24. R I G I D W I N G D E S I G N S
While experience with wing
sails has been gained in
the smaller c-class wing sail
boats, Computational Fluid
Dynamical modelling of
wing sails can aid in the
understanding of the
complex interaction
between the multi-element
rigid wing sails and the
conventional flexible
foresail.
http://www.dynamic-fluid-design.com/wingsails.html
After Airplanes:

25. C R A Z Y S A I L B O AT S

26. C R A Z I E R S A I L B O AT S

27. A C T T W O
The land of whence we came, or how this is actually
about software design

28. T H E D E S K T O P
everdaniel

29. I N P R A C T I C E
everdaniel

30. F E B 8 , 1 9 9 9

31. F E B 8 , 2 0 0 4

32. F E B 8 , 2 0 0 9

33. June 29, 2007

34. "This is only the beginning."

35. W E I R D T H I N G S A R E S TA R T I N G T O
H A P P E N …

36. D E C 2 0 0 9

37. O T H E R A M U S E M E N T S

38. F E B 2 0 1 2

39. N O V 6 , 2 0 1 3

40. YA H O O O N S U N D AY, J U N E 2 2

41. R E D E S I G N S H A P P E N !
!
• Early mobile design
• What did we want to do on our
phones?
• How did that affect what we put on
there?
• I didn’t know 20th Century Fox had a
song
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Web

42. F E B 2 , 2 0 0 5

43. VA L L E Y WA G , J U N E 2 2

44. N E W D E S I G N P I E C E S :

46. W H AT R E A L LY H A P P E N S

47. W E ’ R E N O T A L L T H E WAY T H E R E Y E T
stevelyon

48. W H AT I T A L L M E A N S
Our tools matter. Improvements to boats brought us the
British Empire. It also brought us colonialism and the
conquistadors.

49. W H AT I T A L L M E A N S
Are we actually doomed? Probably not. I’m just annoyed
by the current anti-patterns.

50. W H AT I T A L L M E A N S
How we use these improvements matters. Are we
privileging a certain class of users in our designs?

51. W H AT I T A L L M E A N S
What happens when the people that make things all
speak the same language?

52. W H AT I T A L L M E A N S

53. B E C A U S E T H I S H A P P E N S T O O

54. T H A N K Y O U .