The monthly gathering of the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) at the Nicollet Island Pavilion last week allowed us some great insight into the design and workings of the now fabled use of online and social media in the recent … and successful … campaign by President Barrack Obama.

Much has been made, as it should, of how this campaign took advantage of a relatively untapped medium and how it reached its audience with the message of the Democratic presidential nominee. And no one had better stories to tell than Scott Thomas (SimpleScott). Scott held the position of design director during the Obama campaign and is currently writing a book about the experience.

Scott took to the stage armed with a confident, understated attitude and a slide deck that would help him tell the story of a campaign that moved at the speed of light and expected its online efforts to move at the same pace. "We were truly building an airplane … while in flight!" noted Scott. Throughout his presentation, it was obvious that the message of "Change" heralded by the Obama campaign was not just a campaign slogan limited to bumper stickers and yard signs.

A diagram provided a quick reference for the crowd to see the many fronts on which the interactive campaign was being waged. Scott noted that the team, which grew from 2 to 16 over the course of the campaign, was placed right next to "old media" at the campaign headquarters. One can only imagine the thoughts running through the heads of those working in the traditional media departments regarding Scott and his band of "pink fuzzy unicorns" (the mascot of the design team) and Internet geeks as they addressed social media sites, built online ads, posted hundreds of hours of video and so much more in a span of mere hours. Compared with the usual "news cycle," being able to build, post, analyze and re-task on a dime probably made the traditional media folks a bit nauseous.

Great attention was paid to delivering what Scott termed the "core of the brand; Deliver a clear and concise message focused on 'We' rather than 'Me.' " Those familiar with the interactive and social media space easily recognize what it has to offer in delivering this kind of message.

Scott's presentation laid out the many pieces that went into establishing "a consistency and balance to exemplify stability and experience." For example, color consistency was a very important element across all of the design work. I was particularly struck by the many iterations of the main Obama site that were showcased in a sampling of what Scott noted were "46 or 47" Photoshop designs that were kicked around. From two- and three-column designs to placement within those columns, all of the elements were discussed at length within the team.

In fact, as a result of those design meetings, Scott noted the revelation that "The fold was dead!" — a reference to the age-old newspaper terminology that migrated to site design used to describe everything visible on the screen before scrolling. The team found that there was no way to get all of the vital information condensed into that space and that by making that content compelling enough, the scrolling was immediate. In fact, Scott noted that they even designed with the scroll wheel on the mouse in mind.

The MIMA crowd was also privy to aspects of the campaign that we in Minnesota were most likely not even aware of because of the non-battleground nature of our state in the national campaign. We got glimpses of the VoteForChange.com ads that incorporated real quotes from real voters detailing why they were registering. Scott noted that they constantly worked to "involve the users in the campaign." He said, "Being able to participate was crucial!" and that the campaign workers found that they were able to hear the voice of the people. His message continually returned to the need to have dialogues with people.

Scott concluded his presentation on a more personal note, taking time to share his view on the pitfalls and, most importantly, possibilities of this interactive space. He noted great concern that our "constant accessibility is beginning to wear on us."

People are experiencing incredible information overload and, as Scott noted, "Everyone is talking but no one is communicating." He also mentioned that while information should be open and shared, "No one should own our friends and no one should own our trends." He told the crowd, "We are the architects of this brave new world." As the Obama campaign encouraged voters, Scott encouraged the gathered crowd, "Let's go change the world."