Lightning style talk given at the IA Summit Educational Round Table on March 27, 2014. #reframeIA

1. How I Teach
Information
Architecture
to design Students

3. If you cant tell
from the logos...
• These are art schools with strong design
programs in things like fashion, visual design,
industrial design and brand strategy
• They don’t have programs in library science,
human factors, or any other speciality that IA
is currently most tied to
• Like many organizations, they are stressed out
about technology and the implications of
things like the internet, mobile, big data

4. This project, partnered with the Centers for Disease
Control, was designed by Gaïa Orain, Matthew Barber,
Charlotta Hellichius and Clay Kippen as part of their
Design for Social Value course led by Kyla
Fullenwider.

5. Designers Damon Ahola and Richard Clarkson became
intrigued with the trope of the iconic superhero, along with
the personality and styling elements of street culture and
the underground world of skateboarding.

6. Designed by Emi Yasaka and Gaïa Orain, Kopi is a portable silkscreening kit for users who want to artfully express themselves on the go,
allowing for individual expression while providing the assets needed to produce a unified visual language.

7. ...it can feel a little
like Hogwart’s sometimes
to be a teacher there

8. What these
students
need that IA
can provide

9. • We talk about the need to consider the places that they
are making and how those levels connect to other levels
in their unique ecosystem
• Specifically we discuss strategies to identify stakeholders
and document consensus on goals
• They need to be taught about how contextual design
efforts are and the role of ambiguity in design

11. Level Appropriate Framework
Ecosystem = Controlled Vocabulary, Venn Diagram
System = Swim Lane Diagram, Gantt Charts
Structure = Hierarchy Maps, Site Map
Journey = Journey Maps
Location = Flow Diagrams, Block Diagrams
Context = Scenarios
User = Personas
Interface = Wireframes, Schematics
Interaction = Specifications
Object = Screens, Templates, Style Guides

12. • We use Heuristic evaluations to assess current states
• We use Conversational Research to better understand
the audience for which the problem needs to be framed
• We use Performance Continuums to frame the distance
we need to travel with our work

13. How to Visualize
Your Intent
5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5
Direction DirectionINTENT
Using Performance continuums
Today

14. How to Use diagrams
to think with other people
• We discuss and catalog different types of
diagrams & maps and when to use a tried and true
format vs. make something new up for your context
• How to facilitate “framestorms”
• How to Visualize and Confront Conflict

16. • To explore the role of meaning in communication we
do an exercise called “Alien Dictionary”
• We discuss and practice the use of tools like
Controlled Vocabularies
• We use a Noun + Verb Mapping Exercise to explore
the complexities of creating Taxonomic Structures

17. Objects aid
us in discourse

19. Alien Dictionary

20. Permission
To
Specialize
to
Delegate
• Some people are painfully not good at IA thinking
• That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t learn it in school, you don’t know
what you are good at until you try
• But it does mean that sometimes we need to give permission to
specialize in NOT IA. Those designers need to know when to say “I
can’t do this level of IA work, we need someone else to”
• We also need to make a world where really talented IA thinking
people are not thrown out because they cant do all the other
specialities within “UX”

21. Thx.
Abbycovert@gmail.com
@ Abby_The_IA
www.Abbytheia.com