VANCOUVER—Walking into the Interlink Conference felt a bit like witnessing two worlds collide. Half the audience was the hardcore designer set, with their retro haircuts and designer eyewear, the other half developers, with their nerdy t-shirts and techno-gadgets. Or was it the designers with the tees and toys and the nerds with the hipster fashion? The crowded auditorium at Capilano University was a sea of glowing Apple logos, and the line between designer and developer was so blurry it didn’t seem to matter anymore. In fact, perhaps that was the point. All of the more that 300 attendees and 15 speakers that came to Interlink Conference June 2 to 4 were there to share and learn from each other about how to make the web a better place and help people make their lives better.




“It doesn’t matter how much you like some ideas, as they may not like you back.” explained Portland’s popular and well-spoken design guru Frank Chimero. Stunning the audience by declaring he’d scrapped his planned presentation, he instead talked about the frustrations and revelations he encountered in his design practice. Chimero discussed the difference between the “how” of design (the techniques and tools we use) and the “why” (the choices we make). Chimero presented an argument that it was where these overlap that real design happens. Referencing the continuing rapid changes on the web, Chimero challenged the audience to consider that designers “don’t actually solve problems, they produce design responses” with a myriad of possibilities for most design challenges. “If we solved design problems, there would be only one Twitter client app,” joked Chimero to chuckles from the audience. 


The first of many UK designers was Elliot Jay Stocks, who used humour to challenge the audience to move past established Web 2.0 aesthetics with a straight-talking rant about “cheesy effects” and illogical choices so commonly made by web designers. Refreshing was Stocks’ contention that it was the obligation of serious web designers to learn the fundamentals of traditional graphic design and apply it online. “Bogged down by web design?” asked Stocks cheekily, “Then go do some print design—it's so liberating."

“Good design does not necessarily mean good experience,” argued New York-based designer Whitney Hess, as she explained her user experience philosophy and introduced the audience to a set of 10 design principles anyone could apply in their own practice. The foundation of Hess’ approach was the notion that “user experience is the establishment of a philosophy about how to treat people,” echoing Frank Chimero’s earlier sentiment that good web design is about making people’s lives better, not just creating pretty graphics or cool effects. Hess inspired many in the audience to frantically jot notes, a sure sign of a compelling conference presentation, and more than a few attendees posted tweets about how they planned to initiate a set of design principles themselves.

Still buzzing from a jam-packed day of conference presentations, attendees returned to Capilano University on Saturday for hands on workshops by industry experts. Aside from a few comments about the inconvenience of the venue location in North Vancouver, and the mayhem of the Stanley Cup playoffs (go Canucks!) interfering with some social activities, Interlink delivered on its promise of bringing thought leaders together from all over the world to spark discussion and debate regarding the evolving and constantly changing face of the web. One group of attendees chatting over drinks on Saturday night discussed a longing to see more real-world project case studies and panel discussions next year. “Apart from a few hard to follow and slightly obscure talks, I was thoroughly impressed with the level of quality of the discussions,” said Calgary-based designer and developer Matt Trienis.

More about the Interlink Conference.