iPhone Notes: Kathy Sierra at SXSW

At this year’s SXSW I didn’t feel like pulling out my laptop to take notes. Instead, I mastered the iPhone keyboard and jotted down some quick notes from the more interesting sessions. Here are my notes from Kathy Sierra’s excellent talk on helping your users kick ass.

20 Things You Could Do To Help Your Users Kick Ass

We don’t want the user talking about us or our product. We want them talking about their experience.

The hi-res user experience: Change the way you view your world.

Nueroscience: Environment can inhibit brain growth.

Difference between natural and acquired talents.

• It's not about natural talent its about the ability to take the time to practice.
• You just need to put in the time.
• You need to give them shortcuts.

"We need a rage to master."

• it started with a monkey.
• two flavors of mirror neurons
• Just being able to read expressions. It's like you're simulating what they're thinking.
• For visualization - if you imagine seeing what you would see if you did it.

• Psychic shuffle
• people believe the random selection on the iPod shuffle know what they wanted to hear next.

• Attention to detail
• Fluidity

5. Inspire first-person language.

• how can we build our products so that users talk about their experiences and not the product I company?

8. Tools for evangelism

• Twitter in plain English video on youtube
• help users defend this "totally lame waste of time"
• Sleeptracker

• Increase the performance of your brain?
• Exercise

11. Give them super powers

13. Speeds their knowledge acquisition

• what can we do to keep people pushing forward
• learn to do knowledge acquisition
• give people patterns

• Attention offsets
• Maybe a meditation retreat

• No dumb questions
• No dumb answers
• Teach the community how to ask good questions.

• Jargon is good
• Passionate users talk differently

• Brains like mystery

19.5 Do what this guy does - in reference to Gary Vaynerchuk.