Even if you don’t fully trust the data, trust the interaction.

To enhance your experience please play this song on the background 

Even if you don’t fully trust the
 data, trust the interaction.

That’s a phrase that Martha from Domestic Data Streamers told us, I think she meant something related to the work they do in the company, but I’ll use it to describe my experience in Barcelona. 

I had no idea who a lot of the designers in OFFF were, but I was determined to have as much inputs as possible form the talks. Some of the questions that came up during this time were, how can we trust the information that someone is telling us if we don’t even know them? How can we trust someone that we just met (even if we did not even meet them personally)? How can we trust someone based on just their experience? How can someone trust me?  The answer to these questions sums up into trust the interaction.  

The talks that I enjoyed the most where the ones where I had a great experience and how they interacted with the public. My favourite one was the talk that Timothy Goodman gave, he introduced his new book, in a way that I’ve not seen before, he had a live band, in the background, playing as we read some passages from the book, just like poetry, mentally transporting us into nice afternoon at a speakeasy in SOHO. 

The book talks about a summer romance he had in Paris where he met a Parisian girl and it did not work out, yes, a super cheesy topic. But the point is how he presented it in a fantastic way that I ended up buying the book, he have me his autograph, and I did not knew the guy before that talk, I just had an amazing interaction in his talk that made me trust him. Having amazing and meaningful interactions can get you to trust strangers, and viceversa, making this into something meaningful for both.

 I was able to see this in the children’s museum, where interesting and trustful interfaces where the most used by the kids, usually one kid would try it out and if other kids saw the reaction from this experience, he/she would be encouraged to try it out as well. 

And the pattern repeated itself again during the Domestic Data Streamers talk. Where we have never heard of them, we had no idea who Martha was, but just like an open book, she shared information that made us trust her, and the company. Also, she made us feel so nice and welcome in the workplace that we even wanted to apply for a job right on the spot. 

Most of the amazing experiences I had in Barcelona were based how the interaction made me feel, and trusting it. Going to this trip made me realize that what we should be looking for is more of that feeling, a nice, safe, inspiring, and happy feeling. This applies to every aspect of my life, the everyday life, the professional life, the friendship one, even the dating life. 

At the moment I find myself in a point of my life where I don’t know many things, I have no idea what I want to accomplish, I don’t know where I will find myself in the next months, I don’t know if I’ll stay or I’ll leave, if I’ll choose another career path or maybe not, if I’ll quit my job and find a new one, if I’ll call home where I’m right now or somewhere else.

 I just know that the life I’m living now feels nice, safe, inspiring, and happy. We should look for experiences that make us feel this way, and try to make others feel this way with every interaction we’re involved into.