South by Southwest Interactive wrapped up on Tuesday, drawing the leading high-technology design conference to a close. Founding Partner and User Experience Designer Ariel Jatib was in the thick of it, meeting other top-tier designers, examining trends in software interaction, and verifying that Rocket Matter is as cutting-edge as anyone in the business when it comes to our software creation process.

He was also tweeting from the trenches under both @rocketmatter and @arieldesign. Here’s some of the highlights:

Panel Suggests: Best way to find lawyer is through referral, pref from another colleague in the same industry #GameDevNeedLawyers #SXSW

Problems managing client expectations and hourly billing seen as an issue. #GameDevNeedLawyers #SXSW

RT @nancymyrland: #LMA10 The Tyranny of Choice: We can only pay attention to 160 choices in the grocery store. Everything else is “noise.”

“(the Internet) is about the democratization of information” – @ev #keynote #SxSW

“It’s about reducing the walls between the people who have a lot of influence & the people they influence” – @ev #keynote #SxSW

It’s your fault. Own your mistakes. Do not become a victim. Build up your “trust bank” with the client. #SXSW

Make hard decisions. Take action. Don’t shy away from difficult conversations. #SXSW

Having information not just be searchable, but discoverable delivers value. #newpublish #SXSW

RT @buttershug What you knew and designed 2 years ago may no longer be relevant. Test your users and don’t assume. #sxsw #interfaceisyourlab

More panels, tabs, filters & hovers are not the right solution for information design challenges related to key metrics. #whybabyisugly

How is the 15 minute UX standup at Google different from a traditional SCRUM standup? #longdistanceux #SXSW

Tim Berners-Lee’s dream of a Semantic Web, a Data Web, could make a world of richer infographics a reality. http://bit.ly/bxPhI7 #interinfo

Data visualization is more like fashion design in that it’s always forward thinking / driving. – Rodenbeck #interinfo

Fair amount of SxSW 2010 talks now available on YouTube – http://bit.ly/crTI7i

Good software design is a lot more than pretty window dressing:  it has to inform every aspect of software development. A great interface inspires and sometime shocks:  consider the first iMac without a floppy drive (*gasp*) or the iPhone without (*sputter,wheeze*) a replaceable battery.

When we caught our first glimpse of specialized legal practice management and time and billing software, we were surprised at the counter-intuitive and cumbersome nature of the applications. Our competition appeared bloated with years of unfettered feature additions.  Design was clearly an afterthought in the development process.

Coming up with a simple, intuitive design may seem simple to the outsider’s perspective, but looks can be deceiving.  It may seem paradoxical, but achieving simplicity is difficult. Each button, link, widget, and workflow in Rocket Matter takes a lot more thought that you might realize.

Design must take into consideration the human brain, and in addition to artistic ability, relies on disciplines as diverse as cognitive psychology and information architecture.  As an introduction to the ideas of design and psychology, the 1980’s classic The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman is a great place to start.

From the Amazon.com description:

 Norman’s thesis is that when designers fail to understand the processes by which devices work, they create unworkable technology. Director of the Institute for Cognitive Sciences at University of California, San Diego, the author examines the psychological processes needed in operating and comprehending devices. Examples include doors you don’t know whether to push or pull and VCRs you can’t figure out how to program.

The Design of Everyday Things is a great read for anyone – some of the idiotic design decisions described will have you laughing.  And you don’t have to be a professional designer to draw life lessons from the book.  Anyone who must interface with others (virtually anyone) can apply some of the principals to work and personal experience.

Rocket Matter has long been differentiated from competitors, new and old alike, because of its user interface (UI), designed to be intuitive to the point of “mind reading”.  While most legal practice management software uses a “tabs and tables” approach to design, we’ve chosen to plot a new course relying on search and context to surface information, allowing legal professionals to accomplish their work at “rocket” speed.

As part of our continued dedication to having the best UI and UX in the legal technology space, we’re constantly learning, exploring, and expanding our knowledge with the best in the business.  So Ariel is off to SXSW, and will be tweeting and reporting his experiences.

Our goal at SXSW: to continue to discover and bring the coolest and freshest ideas to life for the legal software vertical, which has been devoid of any real UI innovation for way too long.

About SXSW Interactive:

SXSW® Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer.

Design is extremely near and dear to our hearts.  Why is this so?  Because one of our founders is, by trade, a designer. 

Ariel Jatib, Rocket Matter’s Chief User Experience Designer, drives forward the vision of our product, leveraging techniques from a variety of disciplines: Information Architecture, User Experience Design, Web Design, and even Library Science. In the coming weeks we’ll be exploring these diverse disciplines and Ariel’s ideas in designing the product.

The other founding partner of Rocket Matter is me, Larry Port.  My background in visual arts, having worked in photography and film, encouraged me to pursue client-facing web development when I made the transition to engineering.  So I became a UI programmer and JavaScript expert.

So there you have it: a legal technology company founded by an innovative Experience Designer and an engineer who can deliver that vision. And that’s the difference in the game.

Simple applications mean less training, less mistakes, and less time using them.  Ultimately you get back more of your billable time!