Creating Magic Kingdoms - 9 Lessons from Disney's Imagineers

“There are no days in life so memorable as those which

vibrate to some stroke of the imagination.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Creating Magic Kingdoms

lessons from

Disney’s Imagineers9

Mike Atherton, RedUXD

emotional emotional engagementengagement

“Our greatest asset was ignorance. We didn't know we could fail.”Marty Sklar, Imagineer

If you can dream it, you

can do it.

Q: How many Imagineers does it take to change a light

bulb?

A: Does it have to be a light bulb?

LESSON ONE

Get them excited.

“The best way to get started is to stop talking and start

doing!”- Walt Disney

LESSON TWO

Build a creative culture.

“Imagineering is a mixture of free-thinking and sheer

lunacy.”- Michael Eisner

LESSON THREE

Tell stories.

“We don’t build roller-coasters or log flume rides. We tell stories.”

- Tom Fitzgerald

LESSON FOUR

Never break the spell.

“Disneyland is the star, everything else is in the

supporting role.”- Walt Disney

LESSON FIVE

Have attitude.

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the

courage to pursue them.”- Walt Disney

LESSON SIX

Need a smart developer who thinks they could build a simple app in 1 day. Cash or profit share paid depending on preference. Big idea!

NiallHarbisonNiall Harbison

$20,000

$48,000

$12,107.09

Play your own game.

“You don’t build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you

build it for them.”- Walt Disney

LESSON SEVEN

Accept change.

“I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on

to other things. ”- Walt Disney

LESSON EIGHT

“We were stupid and naive, which turned out to be a wonderful thing.”Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr

Look to the future.

“My nightmare is that one day no-one shows up.”

- Walt Disney

LESSON NINE

OMGOMG

OMG!!OMG!!

“Those are my principles. If you don’t like them, I

have more.”- Groucho Marx

IN CLOSING

persistent storage

business logic

page and interaction logic

markup

visual design

DreamBelieveDareDo

mike@reduxd.com

Thanks to the Imagineers, the members of Flickr, Daveweb.com, Leigh Dodds and everyone else for the use of images throughout this presentation. Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. s