My Grandmother the Information Architect: The IA of Everyday Life

Slide 1: My Grandmother the Information Architect: The IA of Everyday Life Hallie Wilfert halliewilfert @ gmail.com

Slide 2: Meet my grandmother

Slide 5: IA & Home Organization

Slide 6: Methodology

Slide 7: Definition of an Information Architect Clarifies the mission and the vision for the site,  balancing the needs of its sponsoring organization and the needs of its audiences Determines what content and functionality the site will  contain Specifies how users will find information in the site by  defining its organization, navigation, labeling, and searching systems Maps out how the site will accommodate change and  growth over time.

Slide 8: Definition of an Information Architect Clarifies the mission and the vision for the site,  balancing the needs of its sponsoring organization and the needs of its audiences Determines what content and functionality the site  will contain Specifies how users will find information in the site  by defining its organization, navigation, labeling, and searching systems Maps out how the site will accommodate change and  growth over time.

Slide 9: Definition of an Information Architect Clarifies the mission and the vision for her home,  balancing the needs of my grandfather and the needs of visitors and house guests. Determines what content and functionality her home  will contain Specifies how users will find things in her home by  defining its organization, navigation, labeling, and searching systems Maps out how her home will accommodate change  and growth over time, e.g., moving to a smaller place.

Slide 10: Content Inventories

Slide 11: Lesson: Take time to do things right and you will not have to do them again ...not for a while, anyway

Slide 12: The Christmas Tree

Slide 13: Lesson: There's space for everything as long as everything is labeled clearly

Slide 14: Lesson: Give items enough space and make what is going on as transparent as possible

Slide 15: My grandma’s audience Audience of one   Grandma is the gatekeeper through whom all things must pass  Keeps things consistent  Keeps things under her control

Slide 16: In a different household…

Slide 17: Grandma’s Junk Drawer

Slide 18: My Junk Drawer

Slide 19: Grandma vs. Hallie

Slide 20: Card Sorting

Slide 21: Card Sorting Grandma says, “Don’t look in the den, nothing’s in it’s place. I mean I have everything in groupings, but nothing is where it should be yet.”

Slide 22: Card Sorting

Slide 23: Warning: Sometimes, even the best IA gets in too deep

Slide 24: Warning: Sometimes, even the best IA gets in too deep

Slide 25: So what else? Grandma has more to teach us than just how to organize

Slide 26: Possible traits of an organized person Demanding

Slide 27: Possible traits of an organized person Exacting

Slide 28: Possible traits of an organized person Inquisitive

Slide 29: Possible traits of an organized person Persistent

Slide 30: Possible traits of an organized person Know-it-all

Slide 31: Possible feelings about an organized person Resentment

Slide 32: Possible feelings about an organized person Passive Aggression

Slide 33: Possible feelings about an organized person Hoping you’ll just go away

Slide 34: Possible feelings about an organized person Acceptance

Slide 35: Possible feelings about Information Architects Are impediments to getting  things done Think they know everything Act like their way is the only way

Slide 36: What does this make you? A NAG!

Slide 37: So what can we do? Prove that IAs make everyone's  job easier  Understand that everyone is capable of doing IA  Try, try again - persistence pays off

Slide 38: What if you don't have a grandma like this? Everyone uses information architecture Junk drawers   Sorting laundry  Pantries

Slide 39: IA is everywhere Home organization in popular culture Real Simple magazine & online   Container Store  Professional organizers

Slide 40: IA in magazines

Slide 41: Real Simple says “Imagine the potential buyer (or worse, a  relative) going through your closets or drawers. What would you not want him or her to see?” “Tackling clutter without knowing your  priorities can be counterproductive. ‘People who take a “tidy up” approach are actually rearranging rather than organizing…Sooner or later, the space relapses to its original condition.’”

Slide 44: IA in stores

Slide 45: IA in stores

Slide 46: IA in books

Slide 47: IA from the Books Organization from the Inside Out says “Being organized has less to to with the way an environment looks than how effectively it functions. If a person can find what he or she needs when he or she needs it, feels unencumbered in achieving his or her goals, and is happy in his or her space, then that person is well organized.”

Slide 48: What we’ve learned Take time to do things right and you will not have to do them  again There's space for everything as long as everything is labeled  clearly Give items enough space and make what is going on as  transparent as possible Sometimes, even the best IA gets in too deep  It might not be love at first “site” (groan), but everyone can  learn to love their IA Information Architecture is everywhere if we know where to  look

Slide 49: Thank you! Hallie Wilfert halliewilfert@gmail.com

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