Designers, Rico says, are inclined to do things a certain way, what he likes to think of as “instinct” or a natural tendency on doing things autopilot. For the purpose of illustration, when life gives you lemons, the natural tendency is to make lemonades. But as designers, they need to break away from their autopilot way of doing things, and I dunno, maybe get salt and tequila with the lemons instead.

Now this is the part where Rico deconstructs Philippine Star’s website layout. Ehem. And this is the part where you wait for his slides to be available online to see for yourself. :)

He discusses new and better ways to present search boxes, and hierarchies, ad placements, and lists. Viola, new and improved news website that’s better and easier to navigate. Rico encourages everyone to think out of the box, fight covenience, and come up with better ways to present things.