I was lucky enough to fly to San Francisco in April for almost two weeks for work. For the first time ever, I decided to stay in San Francisco proper and catch the shuttle to the office each day. It’s quite luxurious being able to catch an air-conditioned shuttle with WIFI to and from work, even if I was getting up at 5:30am each morning!

I decided to document all the places I went whilst I was out there. You can see a list of all the locations on this map here.

First off was Thai Thai Noodle. I ordered beef with peppers and rice. Prices were cheap, service was swift and the food was pretty decent. 

Just across the road from Thai Thai Noodle is a supermarket. I stocked up on a bunch of American sweets and treats for my colleagues and family. As you can see below, it was quite the haul and I went back for more!

By now it was Saturday, so I decided to have a lovely leisurely brunch at a little place down the road called Canteen. Service was rather surly but the food was to die for. It was in fact, the only place that I went to twice during the whole time I was in San Fran, although again, pity about the service. 

I didn’t take a snap of my second brunch which was pancakes with warm strawberries but I did snap a before and after pictures of the blueberry pancakes with cream cheese. If you are going for breakfast, you must order it. It is AMAZING.

On Saturday night, my lovely friends from London who now live in San Francisco, took me out for dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant called Ristorante Parma

I ordered a Caeser Salad and my friends ordered Garlic Prawns on Spinach and Grilled Mushrooms with Radicchio. Whilst I couldn’t fault the dishes it didn’t really have me raving. With similar ingredients I could quite happily put together dishes like that myself.

We pressed on with our mains, with one of my fellow diners ordered Chicken Parmigiana. This was certainly the strongest of the mains with two rather generous servings of chicken. My other dinner ordered something very similar to me. Looking at the photos the only difference is the type of pasta used as both have a cream sauce with peas and ham.

I should also mention prior to dinner, we popped into the very impressive bar called Nectar Wine Lounge. Great place to check out some wines from the Napa Valley.

Another day beckoned and I thought I’d try that great American tradition, pancakes with maple syrup and bacon. Just up the road on Sutter Street, was the Golden Coffee Shop which is a lovely little family run diner. Despite it raising my food quality alarms for being so cheap, it was brilliant. Ideal if you fancy clogging your arteries first thing in the morning.

Another place nearby if you need your cup of ‘Joe’ as the Americans call it, is the The Morning Fix. I had a perfectly decent cup of coffee there, although I am not in any way shape or form a coffee snob. 

I finally had a chance to try a pretty little neighbourhood restaurant called Nob Hill Grille on the Sunday night. After clogging my arteries with pancakes and bacon, I followed it up with a burger and sweet potato fries. The burger was lovingly constructed from a brioche bun, salad leaves and good quality meat. The fries themselves came with a rather spicy dressing. Washed down with a lovely red from Napa Valley, I practically rolled out of the restaurant.

Probably one of my more disappointing meals was the burrito I had at La Mexicana Taqueria on Sutter Street. I was given a massive burrito but the ingredients were disappointing and things you would normally get automatically in the UK weren’t included. Who knew burritos could be this disappointing in San Fran? Perhaps because it wasn’t the mission but steer clear of this one. The only thing I really liked was the lovely Jarritos Lime drink.

The user experience team that I’m part of went for a lunch together one day near the office, and our boss chose Seto Japanese restaurant. We were lucky enough to be seated at a traditional Japanese booth of sorts. I opted for a Chicken Teriyaki Bento Box, since I love getting a bit of everything when I order food. No complaints on either the food or service but no wild raves either. I’ve been spoiled for Japanese food since our trip at the start of the year!

My final night was spent at a restaurant called Olea. I desperately wanted to like this place. They use local and organic ingredients, the service was friendly, the layout of the restaurant was cosy but still charming and I could see the chef hard at work whilst I waited for my meal. However, when my duck arrived, I found the dish a little bland. The duck was lovely, the asparagus was good but with the quinoa (IIRC) it was served on lacked flavour and it just didn’t sit well with me. The cake I had for dessert was also quite dry and rather stodgy. 

One thing they definitely did have right was the portion sizes. For the first time in my whole trip, I left feeling pleasantly full rather than bursting. Despite both dishes not being great, I’d still give Olea another try. Maybe next time I’m in San Francisco.

Started the day early since I was awake anyway - thanks jetlag! Although that allowed me a good full day in San Francisco. I caught the VTA to Mountainview from Lockheed Martin station, which was just a few minutes walk from the hotel. The VTA is the light rail service serving some areas of Silicon Valley. It runs about every 30 minutes on weekends ($1.75 one way, $5 for a day pass). 

There was a farmers market just next to the station in Mountainview. Lots of lovely looking fruit, veg and flowers there. I would have taken a look but then I would have been waiting another hour for the next Caltrain! The Caltrain into San Francisco takes about one and a half hours. Return tickets from Mountainview cost $12. Supposedly there is free wi-fi but I couldn’t seem to get it working. 

Given I didn’t want to risk scoffing a big coffee before taking such a long train journey, the conveniently located The Creamery was a sight for sore eyes and an uncaffeinated brain. The Creamery is an independent coffee store which also does a limited selection of breakfast and light meals. Unfortunately they were dreadfully understaffed or just plain rubbish on the morning I visited. Whilst I got my coffee pretty swiftly, which was more than adequate, I waited forever for my breakfast bagel. It seemed I wasn’t the only one. a family of four, had waited over half an hour for some crepes and bagels. When my breakfast bagel arrived, it was thankfully, worth the wait. Lovely fresh bagel oozing with cheese and crispy bacon. With a salad on the side. Coffee and bagel, around $8 including tip. Ideal for a lazy morning, not much so if you are in a rush. Extra points for the cashier’s beautiful Bianchi fixie outside, pity she was a bit snarky. 

Whilst walking into the main shopping streets of San Francisco. I went past a store called Pacific Bicycles on 4th and Harrison. Lots of shiny bikes and they offer rental services. I’d definitely consider it if I had more time. 

At the SFMOMA, Yahoos get free entry when they show their badge. I wasn’t sure whether this was still available since it’s been awhile since I last visited. Lucky for me, there was free entry anyway, courtesy of the Koret Foundation. 

First up, I checked out the small exhibition of the German artist, Otl Aicher (Located on the second floor). He is most famous for this work for Lufthansa in 1969 and also  the 1972 Munich Olympics. His pictograms are the inspiration for the stick figure style illustrations that appear in a lot of public signage today.

They now have a rooftop garden open to the public in the SFMOMA and even though entry to the gallery was free, you only had a limited time to access the garden upstairs. The scuplture garden is a lovely place to spend a few minutes capturing some sun. My first thought was if only they had the audacity to install a cafe here, however it is coming soon! 

The 5th floor is also home to a new exhibition of contemporary art titled “Between Art and Life”. Chris Johanson’s “The sunlight of spirit is the warmth of love”,  (2004, Acrylic and oil on wood panel) dominates the opening space of the area. The SFMOMA uses the large mural pieces at the entry to each floor of the gallery. It certainly gives you something to focus on as you walk up the stairs ;). Some favourites of mine…

Matthew Ritchie - Stacked 
1998-2001, Acrylic and marker on wall with enamel on Sintra

Katharina Fritsch - Warangestell mit Gehirenen (Display stand with brains)
1989-1997 - Aluminium, plastic and paint

Liz Lamer - Red, White and Blue, RWB’s
2005 - Aluminium tubes, steel and nylon, aircraft cable, brass and chrome-plated steel.
“Each stretched aluminium tube is the material Dick Cheney claims was “undisputed evidence of WMD’s”. Complicated embodiment of a national identity. 

Lastly, I checked out the SECA award for Bay Area artists on the 4th floor. The award was established in 1967. My favourite had to be Desiree Holinan - The Magic Window (American b. 1974).

A three channel video projection of the Crosby’s and Roseanne recreated with all the characters wearing plastic masks, which then descends into the two families dancing together to minimal techno (Soft Pink Missy by Soft Pink Truth) with bad green aura effects. It’s straight out of post club come-down, early morning RAGE watching (The Australian equivalent of MTV which shows some strange music video at that time of the morning) where things just don’t seem right. It was accompanied by colour pencil stills of the video which I loved, as it’s not often you see coloured pencil as a medium in major galleries. 

Having been to the Libeskind designed Jewish Museum in Berlin, I decided to skip the newly opened Jewish Museum in favour of the Museum in favour of the Museum of Craft and Folk Art next door (Entrance $5, Free on Tuesdays). The museum is very small but I found the current exhibition quite charming. They were showing “Inside/Outside: Artist’s Environments” an exhibition of houses and environments that folk artists have transformed and personalised. It was so quirky and kitsch. 

After a spot of shopping at a few department stores, I finally had a late lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf at Ferry Plaza Seafood. It was hardly outstanding but it was fresh, fast and tasty, not to mention, the views of the harbour on a sunny day were lovely.

Whilst not technically in San Francisco, I can also highly recommend a visit to Tied House Brewing Company in Mountain View. My boss took our team there for a few drinks on the Monday and I can highly recommend their beers!

Day 2 didn’t start to well. I was feeling a little worse for wear. I’d had a few glasses of some of the local Ghost River beer which must have been a lot stronger than I thought. Despite only having three or four small glasses after a big meal, I was really unwell. I ended up missing a really good working session, although I was lucky enough to sit next to one of the speakers at lunch - Craig Peters. He filled me on how they had run the session but as it was a group exercise, there wasn’t really any slides for me to look over later.

The latter part of the afternoon saw the IA Summit degrade into what Cennydd Bowles described as IA going through “Puberty”. I’m not really interested in defining the damn thing or who belongs to what community or even who puts on the IA Summit, as grateful that I am that they do. For me, it’s all about learning and shared experiences. Whilst we are sat defining it or claiming territory, we aren’t moving forward and I certainly wasn’t learning which is why I spent all that money to go to Memphis (or Yahoo! did, mostly). I’m not saying that these discussions shouldn’t happen at all, I just think they would be a lot better with beer rather than sessions within the Summit.

Highlight of the day had to be Jared Spool. It was entertaining, insightful and with some great takeaways.

Day 2 IA Summit

Podcasts of all sessions

Personas & Politics
Speaker: Adrienne Massanari
Presentation: Slideshare

• Users is a problematic term suggests an instrumental, one-way relationship.
• Lots of different examples of personas.
• Three themes of users: Stupid, Victims of Bad Design (Designers as Heroes), As co-designers.
• We can’t simply understand users and then ignore them - Robert Hoekman.
• We need to think strategically about integrating users as partners within our work.

Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon
Speaker: Jared Spool

• Three things we can learn from Amazon:
  • Engage through content.
  • Don’t fear new things.
  • Eliminate tool time whilst delivering confidence.
• Show log-in as late as possible in the process.
• Amazon’s security levels
  • Level 0 > Doesn’t know who you are (no cookies)
  • Level 1 > Knows you from a cookie. That’s how it recommends books or knows if you are a 1 click shopper.
  • Level 2 > Wants you to reveal something that only you should know.
• Goal Time vs. Tool Time.
• Goal Time is when the user is improving the outcome of the experience.
• Tool Time is when the user is moving forward without any improvement in the outcome of the experience.
• Never forget the business.
• Amazon’s negative cycle creates a huge cash float = they can sell it at cost and still make a profit.

Business Centred Design
Speaker: Christina Wodtke

• 5 questions to ask:
  • What does it mean to be responsible for P&L?
  • Difference between expense and investment?
  • Key metrics for your business unit?
  • What market are you in?
  • What is your unique value proposition?
• B=f(P,E) Behaviour is a function of a person and his environment.
• AOF Activity, Objects and Features.
• Users need to:
  • Create an identity.
  • Connect with others.
  • Build a reputation.
  • Create & Share content and work.
• Pattern for relationship
  • User gets value.
  • User returns, gets more value.
  • User reciprocates, they add content and/or contributes money.
• Get metrics, know what matters.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand
Speaker: Eric Reiss

• Tribes exclude, communities welcome.
• 5 C’s - creators, critics, collators, cheerleaders and commentators.
• Big Architect, Little Architect Article - By Peter Morville

Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Best Practices and Patterns for Designing the Social Web
Speaker: Erin Malone & Christian Crumlish
Presentation: Slideshare

• Remember to talk like a person
• Use language of contemporary speech.
• Read copy out loud.
• Ask yourself if that is how you talk.
• Participate in their pattern library at Designing Social Interfaces
• Most of this talk was taken from their forthcoming book (URL)