UXBrighton - A great experience?

I've just returned from UXBrighton 2010 - the first 'full blown conference' born out of what was in previous years just a meet-up of like minded ux folk.

So how was it? Well let me begin by saying I've become slightly disillusioned by the conference circuit over the past few years. On too many occasions have I forked out hundreds of pounds only to be presented with expert speaker after expert speaker showing the audience their portfolio of work. Well that's all well and good, but it doesn't provide much in the way of valuable insight. After last years Future of Web Design conference in London, I'm surprised it's even allowed to keep the name (It may have been better this year, I wasn't in attendance to find out - I hope it was).

I'm very pleased to say that UXBrighton has gone some way to restoring my faith. A few of the highlights...

The day started with an informative and entertaining talk by Eric Reiss on 'Web Dogma' which outlined 10 basic rules for web communications. This finished with the viewpoint that you should break the very same rules as you see fit for your needs, which certainly made it feel less preachy than the usual don't do this, always do that approach.

Next up was Harry Brignull talking about 'Dark Patterns' - user interfaces designed to trick people. This mostly focussed on the opt in, opt out model used by a number of companies to get users to buy into extra costs such as insurance policies. As commendable as it was to see the gauntlet thrown down on tackling the subject, I'm not sure I can see an easily solution anywhere on the horizon. Someone jokingly suggested an online version of Watchdog, which I actually thought was an interesting idea...

Later in the day Jeroen Van Geel gave a great talk called 'The childish washer and the happy website' in which he explained the importance of product personality and how it shouldn't be forgotten when making a site usable. It was refreshing to have somebody come at the issue from this perspective, especially at a conference aimed at 'designing for behaviour'. I certainly believe that the personality of a site is as much a part of the user experience as anything.

Not all of the talks were a success. I felt that Julian Hirst's talk was a little tough to follow, and others such as Claire Rowland were unfortunately plagued by technical gremlins which broke the flow and were rushed through as a result, but on the whole, it was a very successful day.

The final speaker of the day was Rory Sutherland, Vice-Chairman of Ogilvy Group UK. His presentation was called 'Of Clouds & Clocks' in which he talked about complex systems (the clouds) and mechanical, predictable actions (the clocks) and how they relate to the world of advertising. It was a great way to sign off the day but I would've liked the subject matter to be related more back to the world of digital.

One thing in Sutherland's talk really rang true however. He talked at one point about perceived value and showed the example of a packet of teabags priced at £6. Working out that this meant a cost of 24p per bag made it seem like less of a rip off, which in turn got me to thinking about the other thing that pleased me about the day. As mentioned before, I've been to other conferences that have cost me hundreds of pounds to attend. But UXBrighton? £69. So yes, a great experience and I look forward to attending next years event.