findability.org

This year I collaborated with Q LTD to redesign The Kresge Foundation's website (here's the old one). We updated the information architecture and content to better reflect the foundation's priorities, while striving to improve usability, findability, credibility, and other facets of the user experience.

One of my favorite parts of the process was helping the organization to engage with social media in a safe, sensible manner. We provided the education, encouragement, and design needed to get the ball rolling. Along the way, I had to answer a couple of wildly divergent questions.

First, several folks asked: Why should we use social media at all when we already have a website? In response, along with explaining the potential of social media as tools for conversation and community, I told this story:

Ten years ago, Marcia Bates gave a talk at the University of Michigan about information seeking. Her delivery was dry and the subject quite academic. I recall plotting to escape. But once I began to understand the thrust of her argument -- that while we focus attention on design for directed search, people absorb the vast majority of knowledge (80 percent) by simply being aware in their social context and physical environment -- I was hooked. This was a provocative message to deliver in what was still largely a library school. Of course, I didn't know what to do with this knowledge. How could I design for awareness? The answer arrived years later in the forms of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media that brought the water cooler to the Web.

So, I continued, while it's comforting to believe our goals can be achieved by one or two channels, it's simply not true, which is why we must embrace a multi-channel communication strategy that accommodates the spectrum of behavior from active, directed search to passive, undirected awareness.

This brings me to the second question (asked by an IT manager): since we have social media and The Web is Dead, why do we need a website? I explained that reports of the Web's death had been greatly exaggerated, and that the site remains the centerpiece of the communication strategy, providing access to the full archive, and serving as a verifiable source of authority. After all, you can't believe everything you read on the Web!

Later, I created this diagram (above) to illustrate the complex, dynamic relationships between an organization's website and its social media. As an information architect, I'm finding the diagram plus my Marcia Bates story to be helpful in explaining how and why the structural design should support multi-channel communication. It's an interesting time to be having these conversations, given the ongoing evolution of how we know what we know.

I'm looking forward to some great IA events next year. In February, there's the first ever World IA Day in 14 cities worldwide (including Ann Arbor). And in March in New Orleans, there's the thirteenth annual IA Summit with an impressive lineup of keynotes and workshops. Samantha Starmer and I will be leading a full-day workshop on Design for Cross-Channel Experiences.

The gap between physical and digital has blurred. We buy a Wii to get in shape. We read books and newspapers on Kindles. We unlock car doors with iPhones that double as GPS navigation devices. And, we order online for in-store pickup. Increasingly, people expect to be able to interact with products and services when and where and how they want -- and that's not always on your website.

The future of design is everywhere. Customer journeys encompass a growing array of physical and digital touchpoints. In response, user experience practitioners must design for holistic, integrated experiences that bridge multiple platforms, channels, and devices.

In this interactive full-day workshop, Peter Morville and Samantha Starmer will provide specific tools and recommendations for designing for the complete experience lifecycle across channels and touchpoints. You will leave the day ready to integrate cross-channel design techniques into your toolkit.

We hope to see you at both events. Looks like a great start to 2012!

As an advisor to the Interaction-Design.org Foundation, I'm pleased to offer a preview of the new encyclopedia entry on the topic of social computing.

After exploring the videos and commentary, I recommend reading about the organization's mission and history. It's an interesting and inspiring story!

I devoured my advance copy of Mobile First in less than three hours. Not a second of that time was wasted. Luke has packed oodles of data, scads of examples, and years of experience into this admirably brief book. It's a brilliant explanation of why we should design for mobile first, and how.

Every information architect and experience designer should read this book. It will change the way you work today and how you think about tomorrow. In short, Luke Wroblewski has gone big by going small. You should too!

Strange Connections

Can't wait for the book? Read Luke's optimization article.

Or try Responsive Web Design, the perfect complement to Mobile First.

Or be at EuroIA in Prague tomorrow for Luke's opening keynote.

At UserFocus 2011 I'm delivering a keynote (slides here) that features a new illustration I call the cross-channel crystal. The crystal is intended to catalyze conversation around the formulation of cross-channel strategy.

Here is a brief explanation of each facet:

• Composition. The mix of platforms, devices, and media (and the features of each). Is the service multi-channel or cross-channel?
• Consistency. Symmetry of brand, features, organization, and interaction must be balanced against platform-specific optimization.
• Connection. Bridges across channels (e.g., links, tags, addresses, barcodes, signs, maps) must be visible at the point of need.
• Continuity. Apps should maintain state so users can flow between devices while reading books, watching movies, shopping, etc.
• Context. How will time, location, device constraints, and personal or social context impact use cases and user psychology and behavior?
• Conflict. To address channel conflict and free riding, we may need to realign incentives, metrics, the business model, and the org chart.

Of course, this crystal is but a diamond in the rough, so please send your feedback. What's unclear or unnecessary, and what am I missing? Thanks!

The first thing I did upon turning 40 was run my first marathon. It was my way of saying "I'm not ready to slow down." Of course, it will be difficult to keep up the pace. Our bodies largely decline with age.

But that's not true of our brains. Despite widely-held beliefs to the contrary, modern neuroscience suggests that we're smarter (creativity, judgment, pattern recognition) between 40 and 65 than we were in our twenties.

In The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, Barbara Strauch offers a multi-disciplinary survey of the scientific literature. Highlights include:

In four out of six categories tested - vocabulary, verbal memory, spatial orientation, and, perhaps most heartening of all, inductive reasoning - people performed best, on average, between the ages of forty to sixty-five.

Sometime in middle age we begin to develop the ability, when faced with a perplexing problem, to use both sides of our brain instead of one. This bilateralization is part of the reason we begin to see the big, connected picture.

As we age, the two sides of our brains become more intertwined, letting us see bigger patterns, have bigger thoughts...that's why age is such an advantage in fields like editing, law, medicine and coaching and management.

Exercise has emerged as the closest thing we have to a magic wand for the brain...Neurogenesis is not an event, it's a process. And, there's no question, physical activity makes new brain cells proliferate.

So, I'm looking forward to becoming a better information architect as I grow older and wiser. Of course, it's unlikely I'll ever run a faster marathon, which is why I'm trying my first Olympic distance triathlon next weekend. Apparently, we not only get smarter with age, but we also grow crazier.

Strange Connections

I'm also looking forward to User Focus 2011 (9/16) in Washington, DC.

Mark your calendars: February 11, 2012 is the first ever World IA Day.