WWDC/Layers Conference Day 2
A full day of awesomeness!
A 7am alarm got us up nice and early for the first full Layers day packed with talks at the beautiful Bespoke venue near the Moscone Center where WWDC is still going strong.
After some great coffee and incredible doughnuts (including some with bacon…because, you know, America) we were greeted by a custom theme song, played live by Jonathan Mann followed by the official greet from the organiser, Jessie Char.
From that point on, it was basically a barrage of awesomeness with the legend Susan Kare (designer of the original mac icons and fonts) opening up and teaching us about being simple and meaningful and how emotion played a big part of her job at Apple. She was then joined on stage by the one and only John Gruber from Daring Fireball for an open conversation. Bonus fact: She is joining Pinterest as a Product Designer.
The speakers went on to entertain and enlighten the crowd with really well put together presentatins. May-Li emphasizing iterarion and pushing yourself to do what inspires you and Ashley Nelson then inspiring everyone with an amazing talk about the interception of humanities and technology and how hiding complexity allows people to connect with your products.
We all then went on a personal, emoji guided, journey with Oisín Prendiville and after a lunch break, came back to delicious ice cream and a first peek at the new features coming to Photoshop (artboards!).
Then we had Kanye…or actually Soroush Khanlou talking about Kanye and it’s focus on quality (a treat for a rap fan like me!). This was followed by a UI council panel and Laura Savino teaching us at least 10 new things about accessiblity, more specifically, the voiceover feature and how it feels to use it as someone that relies on it.
The day was coming to an end, but not before Mike Monteiro made the stage his by using his personality and his actual lawyer Gabe that kindly answered questions from the public. A very interesting moment.
It all wrapped up nicely with a #noexcuses talk by Jaimee Newberry on how you should break things down and just do them. “Don’t give up!”.
This was a super packed day but we still managed to attend the Amazon WWDC party and watch the Warriors vs. Cavaliers game before heading to the hotel to rest and get ready for Day 3 (final day) of Layers!
