Taken out of context
(old tricks, new dog)
Margaret L Ruwoldt
Information Futures Commission

Endings...
2007:
• Uni agrees to introduce new curriculum
• Student service model redesigned
• Two libraries close for renovations
• Central web team split, restructured
Information Futures Commission

And beginnings...
“Something’s wrong with
the library. Can’t you just
fix it?”
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The obligatory ’toon
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It’s more complex than that
thanks, XKCD
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It’s more complex than that
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The project
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• Chaired by Vice-Chancellor
• Consultative process
• Output: 10-year strategy for scholarly
information and technologies
• Outcome: informed, targeted decisions
Information Futures Commission

The project
Scope:
1. Information and data produced as part of
doing research
2. Materials created for teaching purposes
3. Library collections, archives, museum &
gallery collections (inc. physical spaces)
4. Research outputs (articles, books)
5. Technologies that support all of these
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The process
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eh?
What’s this got to do with IA?
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The process
• Project management
• Literature review
• Documentation:
– 12,000 words plus
footnotes, bibliography
– 4 authors
– version control
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The process
• User research plan
• Communication plan
• Advocacy:
– presentations
– meetings
• Stakeholder interviews
• Competitor analysis
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The process
• User surveys
– task analysis
– qualitative
– quantitative
• Consultation forums
• Business intelligence
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The process
• Exploratory workshops
– scenarios
– personas
• Contextual inquiry
(well, sort of)
• Textual analysis
– 75 written submissions
• Guest lectures
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The process
• Focus groups
• Card sorting
• Affinity
diagrams
• Whiteboard
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The process
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The process
• Prototypes
(draft
documents)
• Collaborative
writing, editing
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The process
• Advocacy,
many meetings
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Happily ever after
• “Melbourne’s Scholarly Information
Future: a 10-year strategy” was
formally adopted in July
– becomes part of the broader
Growing Esteem strategy from 2009
• Initial funding allocated
– implementation starts in 2009
– review progress in 2012
Information Futures Commission

Lessons learned
• Stories are powerful, when told in
authentic voices
• When time is short:
– Face-to-face is best
• for project team
• for stakeholders
– Video is a close second
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Lessons learned
• Pick’n’mix your tactics:
– similar approaches exist in different
disciplines (EA, IA, UX...)
– choose whatever works for your
project
– review your progress frequently and
adjust tactics as needed
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Lessons learned
• Getting buy-in:
– user research activities became
stakeholder education opportunities
– highly-engaged stakeholders became
active participants in designing the
final strategy
– highly-engaged stakeholders are
more likely to make the tough
decisions
Information Futures Commission

Margaret L Ruwoldt
Enterprise Information Architect
Information Services division
m.ruwoldt@unimelb.edu.au
+(61 3) 8344 0478
www.informationfutures.unimelb.edu.au
© Copyright The University of Melbourne 2008

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