Silicon Valley Musings

It has been a month since the DEMO 2006. There were many descriptions and much commentary directly following the event. I would recommend reading Jeff’s posts or listening to some of PodTech’s podcasts if you did not get a chance to attend.

I remember two things about DEMO: the emphasis on applications for the creative consumer, and that many DEMO startups had user experience designers as founding members.

Many articles pointed out that consumer-oriented products and services figured prominently at DEMO: Blurb, Tiny Pictures, SmileBox , and iGuitar were some of my favorites.

The products and services from all of these companies, and several other DEMO companies as well, have one thing in common: they foster their user’s creativity. Blurb lets the frustrated poet, playwright, or novelist to finally be published. Tiny Pictures permits anyone to capture their lives in a mosaic of camera phone pictures. SmileBox encourages soccer moms to share their scrapbooks with friends and family, and iGuitar will be the instrument of choice of garage bands everywhere.

Forbes estimates that the arts and crafts is a thirty billion dollar industry. Baby boomers are retiring; replacing their Blackberries with Rebel XTs. I think creativity is joining productivity, personal communications, and entertainment as a reason for daily Internet use.

The other interesting thing I noticed is that user experience designers are part of the founding team of several DEMO’s startup. IP and a sound business plan are no longer sufficient; a startup needs a well-designed user experience to be successful.

SmileBox interviewed hundreds of women with school-aged children before they implemented their service. Blurb’s Chad Jennings, Director of Product Design, was instrumental in the design of their book publishing service. Visit their Web sites and register for their beta programs. The benefits of early user experience design are clear.

DEMO gave us a glimpse of the well-designed products and services coming that will get our creative juices flowing. It should be fun.