Learn to Duck

Earlier this month, I spent 8 days in Austin during SXSW Interactive, Film and Music. It was the first time I stayed for music, given I dont like to be away from my animals (2 dogs and 3 cats) for longer than 3 or 4 days. But, over the past year, I have started a growing love affair with music.

Music for me was always a way to fill the lack of sound or the type of sounds that cause my head to literally hurt. As a person with bipolar, I have learned that I have an extra sensitivity to senses, and sound specifically can be a positive, or negative, affect on my mood. As I have been taking medication for almost 2 years now, I have been able to do a better job of making music part of my life (like art) rather than part of my surroundings (like the level of light or temperature).

So, I stayed an extra few days to listen music, and actually enjoy it.

As I wandered around Austin (there were more than 80 official venues, and dozens of unofficial ones) trying to listen to as many of the 1,800 bands (officially and unofficially) that played, I constantly thought about Graphic.ly. For those that dont know, Graphic.ly, is the startup I am helping to build, and it provides an immersive social experience and marketplace for digital comics and associated merchandise. We are pushing to launch in early to mid-April, and as such, there is little else that is on my mind.

In thinking about Graphic.ly, which as a community, store  and comic reader application, I spent a lot of time thinking about the user experience. Clearly, it has to be good. It has to be clean. It has to be right.

As I crammed myself in yet another venue or stood outside listening to bands like Miike Snow and Minus the Bear, I started to see the parallels of our digital comic application and SXSW.

For real. Stick with me here.

In a community application, people have to have a place to congregate that is both comfortable and safe. People need to be able to find other folks that match their interests and, well, are compatible.

In a store application, you want the ability to purchase to be easy and safe.

In a reader application, you want the art to stand above all else, and the ability to engage with others during the consumption of the art and the story.

So, if the crowd is the community application; the tickets/lines are the store; and the band/music are the reader application.

There is even UAT, since most bands played multiple times and would shift their song lists based on the reaction of the crowd.

Since each venue is small (the largest venue at SXSW, Stubb’s holds like 2,500. The rest maybe max out at 500 – 800) and kinda spread out, you often found yourself at a venue away from friends and surrounded by people you didnt know. The key to a successful experience was a way to discover new friends, and interact with one another without reducing the enjoyment of the music. For the band, it was important to have the right people in the audience, and have them located in the appropriate locations.

My takeways for a community application?

1. Provide enough time and space for people to interact in a way that clearly shows that they have a collective goal.
2. Allow the interaction to occur without distracting from or reducing the ability to achieve that common goal.
3. The administration and application should be invisible to the user. It should support the user’s ability to achieve their goal in a transparent way.

My takeaways for a store application?

1. Reducing the benefit of purchasing a pass (there were three lines at most venues: badges, wristbands and everyone else. They got into the venue in that order. Except if the band, label or management had a list. Those folks got in before everyone.) or not clearly stating the potential of seeing a band while waiting in line reduces repeat business. Most of the people I was there with who had come to SXSW multiple times either had a pass because they spoke at the conference, or went without, given the ability to bypass lines or listen to music from outside a venue.
2. Shows that had multiple bands that were similar in style and/or the venue itself was fun to see a band (there was a church that had shows where everyone had to sit in the pews. It was amazing. I sat there for 3 hours listening to music, and enjoyed every minute of it) increased the desire of attendees to recruit friends to join them.
3. The venue was less important in the decision what band to see. Same with the distance between venues.
4. For a store application to be successful, it has to be very clear and easy to navigate, and there has to be a feeling of completion once the sale is finalized.
5. There has to be information provided, but not so much as to over power the goal of the user.
6. The transition between buying a product and enjoying a product should be minimized.

My takeaways for a reader application?

1. Bands seemed to use the spaces allotted very differently. Some were able to pull more sound out of the same space than others. The bands that used every last inch of the stage and their instruments were the bands that stood out.
2. Bands that made themselves accessible also stood out. This was not just by hanging out, but also by talking to the crowd during their set.
3. Our reader application must put the art and story in front of everything. First and foremost, people are using our application to read comics. The reader application must support the story and help the art and storytelling engage the reader.
4. Our reader application  must allow readers to engage with the story in ways that they cant get by buying a print copy of the comic. That engagement must feel real and satisfying. It must be with the story, creators and other readers.

SXSW was one of my favorite trips of the ten or so I have taken thus far in 2010 (yes, so far I have been on the road 33 days in 2010. And, yes, it sucks.).

I loved SXSW because of the music, but also because of the time I could spend thinking about what Graphic.ly has to become to be successful. The best learning occurs tangentially and actively. And I learned a ton at SXSW.