We want to connect the dots between where IA comes from and where it's going. And, we hope to encourage folks to think differently about what we do. So, please take a look and then let us know what you think. Thanks!
Don't miss Design for Cross-Channel Experiences at the IA Summit!
Or, perhaps we'll see you at IA Konferenz or UX Lisbon.
Or, stay put, grab some popcorn, and watch the World IA Day videos.
]]>Some of the stories were intensely personal. In one, a man told me about reading the polar bear book while watching over his mom on her deathbed. Some folks were thankful we'd given a name to what they'd been doing all along, while others were ecstatic that we'd opened their eyes to a whole new way of seeing. I feel incredibly fortunate to have heard these stories.
I don't hear them so much anymore, which is why I'm hoping folks will step up and share their IA Stories. We're leaving behind (and forgetting) an era. It's not just about the polar bear book or information architecture more broadly. It's about the exhilaration of being present for and participating in the birth of something new in the world. That doesn't happen every lifetime.
To get things going, I'll share a few of my own, beginning with a short story about a big query that changed my life. I hope you'll join me. It's an opportunity to capture memories that are fading fast while simultaneously celebrating the first-ever World IA Day. So, what's your IA Story?
Design for Cross-Channel Experiences may sell out soon. Sign up now!
Don't miss The System of Information Architecture in The Journal of IA.
Please join us on February 11 to celebrate World IA Day in Ann Arbor!
]]>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.
]]>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!
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After exploring the videos and commentary, I recommend reading about the organization's mission and history. It's an interesting and inspiring story!
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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!
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. ]]>
Here is a brief explanation of each facet:
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!
]]>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.
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.
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Highlights included:
Of course, what I will remember most clearly is the amazing view from Angels Landing. Hiking the narrow rock fin with dizzying drop-offs on both sides was among the most terrifying and most fun experiences of my life.
So, please do tell, where should we go next year?
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During this particular round of reflection, I found it helpful to brainstorm a whole bunch of ways of framing the future, including:
Perhaps you'll find these useful next time you think about your future. Of course, in my case, I ended where I started, albeit with a renewed sense of passion and purpose. I remembered how much I love the freedom and adventure that come with being an independent consultant, and I realized that there has never been a better time to be an information architect.
In celebration, I'm posting the foreword. If you have any interest in search, I highly recommend you read Greg's book. Of course, you should also read:
After reading all four books, you'll have a real appreciation for just how much you still don't know about search. Welcome to the club!
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But my second marathon didn't go according to plan. I got off to a strong start and felt good through the Wellesley Scream Tunnel, but by mile 20, it was my knees that were screaming, and I was seriously fearing a DNF.
So, for the first time ever in a race, I walked. I walked up Heartbreak Hill. I walked past the Citgo Sign. I walked past thousands of cheering fans, whilst thousands of runners passed me. It was a difficult, chastening experience.
But, I was one of the fastest walkers. And I did finish. And my Mum, Dad, and Sister were waiting at the end to celebrate. And I received wonderful messages from friends. Heck, I even got a word of support from AOTUS.
Upon reflection, I wouldn't change a moment of my marathon, because it's not about winning or running fast or even about finishing the race.
A marathon is about trying something difficult, giving it your best, and being truly inspired and humbled by those who cheer you on.
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To celebrate this important book's publication, I'm posting the foreword. And, if that doesn't convince you to buy the book, then read it again!
Slides from my Ubiquitous Information Architecture workshop.
Thanks to Martin Belam, here's a fantastic collection of IA Summit slides.
Brilliant closing plenary by Cennydd Bowles.
I'm running the Boston Marathon (BIB#4228) in two weeks. Wish me luck!
]]>Kuniavsky goes beyond Mark Weiser's model of tabs, pads, and boards to embrace a wider range of scales: covert, mobile, personal, environmental, architectural, and urban. The idea is to get us thinking about which devices and interfaces work best at which scales and how they can work together.
#ubicompsketchbook on Twitter and Flickr
Of course, it's not easy to imagine multiscale interactions in the abstract. That's why I love the Business Origami approach. By combining tangible artifacts and sketching, it makes brainstorming more accessible and fun.
What I'd like to see #lazyweb is a Ubicomp Origami Kit with icons for multiscale and multisensory devices. Timo's Everyware Icons for sensor fields and objects with invisible qualities might be a good place to start. How else can we make it easier (and more fun) to sketch the future?
UX Storytellers is a free ebook worth checking out.
Video (plus interview) from my Ubiquitous IA talk at IDEA 2010.
]]>A relative concept, advanced search includes whatever simple search doesn't. It's a pattern that many of us love to hate. Often, advanced search is a clumsy add-on that's rarely used, and it lets engineers and designers take the easy way out. Valuable features that are difficult to integrate into the main interface can be relocated to the ghetto and forgotten.
Plus, there's confusion about its purpose. Is it a user-friendly query builder for novices or a power tool for experts? Many interfaces try (and fail) to be both. For instance, isn't it fair to assume that users who understand what "exact phrase" means also know to use quotation marks to specify such a search? The main problem with Boolean isn't the syntax, it's the logic. And even the plain language shown in Figure 4-28 is unlikely to help the few novices who brave the intimidating realm of advanced search.
This pattern also suffers from an ignorance of context. Searches are situated. They take place in a space. Having navigated through music to the folk genre, users may want to search without leaving. Scoped search is a pattern that meets this need. There's a risk that users won't see the scope, but overrides in the case of few or no results can help. In most cases, users benefit, because scoped search caters to context. In contrast, advanced search often teleports us to a distant, unfamiliar locale.
It's disruptive to flow.
Interestingly, Exalead, shown in Figure 4-29, combines help and advanced search without asking users to leave. A click on Advanced Search launches an interactive menu below the box. It's unconventional and a little clumsy, but definitely worth a look.
Despite these difficulties, advanced search isn't only an antipattern. It does help some users learn about the available metadata fields and vocabularies, and offers a path toward greater precision through field-specific searching. Plus, even when we reject the advanced/basic dichotomy and build robust functionality into the main interface, and strive to support contextual queries with scoped search, it's inevitable that some features that are useful for some tasks and for some people will be left out.
In fact, we should worry if they're not. Advanced search offers a safe harbor for edge cases and a clear path to progressive disclosure. For instance, Flickr includes features in advanced search, like limit by license, that simply don't belong on the main stage.
Of equal import, advanced search in concept, if not by name, gets us to think outside the box. What's the basic interface missing? How else might users wish to search? These are the questions that lead to innovations like Midomi's search by singing, GazoPa's discover by drawing, and Etsy's fabulously fun feature, explore by color.
In conclusion, advanced search is a pattern on the edge. In practice, it's often abused and rarely used. It can be rendered unnecessary by the narrowing and scoping of faceted navigation and personalization. Yet, like federated search, it invites us to go further in our search for ideas, and serves as a forgiving playground for experiments and exploration.
A special edition of Radio Johnny in which Clifton B interviews presenters from the fifth annual IDEA 2010 conference in Philadelphia.
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