You’ve worked hard on the information architecture models you’ve created but haven’t been able to sell them to the client, or your co-workers. Maybe the conversation around the IA has broken down into an unhealthy debate over semantics. In another scenario, you are tasked with creating a controlled vocabulary for a large organization that has a silo mentality and a lot of legacy content. Where to begin?
These scenarios will sound familiar to most user experience professionals. In this deck, I share my techniques for getting an organization that may have different ideas about how to organize and name content to agree upon a controlled vocabulary.
I also share specific tools in the form of diagrams, beyond the ubiquitous sitemap and wireframe, which communicate complex ideas. And techniques for practicing information architecture with clients collaboratively.
Introduction to Information ArchitectureAbby Covert
The first class of a 15 week course taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Covers Information Architecture intents and beliefs as well as a comparison to the related studies of interaction design, content strategy and user research. Lastly, speaking to the role of User Experience in all of these roles.
The fifth class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Putting the Why before the what and the what before the how. The relationship of goals, requirements and features. How to deal with needed research and data as a requirement.
In a world where everything is getting more complex and we are all experiencing personal information overload, there is a growing need to understand the tools and processes that are used to make sense of complex subjects and situations. These tools aren't hard to learn or even tough to implement but they are also not part of many people's education.
Information Architecture is a practice of making sense. A set of principles, lessons and tools to help anyone make sense of any thing. Whether you are - a student or professional, a designer, technologist or small business owner, an intern or executive - learn how information architecture can help you make sense of your next endeavor.
What terms and concepts do you use to deliver your product experience? What organizational structures do you use to present those terms and concepts? To what degree is the meaning you intend through those choices clear to the person for which you intended it? These are the questions to ask yourself when attempting to make a product make sense to others.
Information Architecture is the practice of making sense of meaning through the consideration of ontology, taxonomy and choreography. In this three hour workshop we will discuss and work through what it means to think about affecting the information architecture of a product.
Collaborative Information Architecture (ias17)Abby Covert
You’ve worked hard on the information architecture models you’ve created but haven’t been able to sell them to the client, or your co-workers. Maybe the conversation around the IA has broken down into an unhealthy debate over semantics. In another scenario, you are tasked with creating a controlled vocabulary for a large organization that has a silo mentality and a lot of legacy content. Where to begin?
These scenarios will sound familiar to most IA professionals.
In this workshop, Abby will share her techniques for getting an organization that may have different ideas about how to organize and name content to agree upon a controlled vocabulary.
Abby will share specific tools in the form of diagrams, beyond the ubiquitous sitemap and wireframe, which communicate complex ideas. And she’ll share techniques for practicing information architecture with clients collaboratively.
I want to focus on the soft skills that make someone good at IA. So the lessons here are really about leveling up in skill set. Including:
- Conflict Resolution in IA
- Selling IA to others in your organization
- Improving stakeholder interviews
- Facilitating Low Fidelity Conversation about language
- Visualizing language with simple pictures to get clarity
The fourth class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Understanding the terms stake, stakeholder, make, maker and how these role intersect in terms of needs. Development of directional and specific measurable goals.
Language: Your Organization's Most Important and Least Valued Asset (Confab 2...Abby Covert
Have you ever felt like differences in language were holding your organization back? Perhaps you have tried to standardize language across parts of your organization only to find you have opened a huge can of worms?
The experiences we make for our users are made of language choices. We also depend on language to collaborate with the people we work with. Yet language is most often only tended to when you talk about things like content and copy.
Controlling your organization’s vocabulary is one of the murkiest messes we can take on, but it also might be one of the most impactful ways we can help our organizations.
In this talk, Abby Covert, staff information architect at Etsy, will share with us the strategies and tactics they are using to pay closer attention to language choices they make across both internal and external user experiences.
Introduction to Information ArchitectureAbby Covert
The first class of a 15 week course taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Covers Information Architecture intents and beliefs as well as a comparison to the related studies of interaction design, content strategy and user research. Lastly, speaking to the role of User Experience in all of these roles.
The fifth class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Putting the Why before the what and the what before the how. The relationship of goals, requirements and features. How to deal with needed research and data as a requirement.
In a world where everything is getting more complex and we are all experiencing personal information overload, there is a growing need to understand the tools and processes that are used to make sense of complex subjects and situations. These tools aren't hard to learn or even tough to implement but they are also not part of many people's education.
Information Architecture is a practice of making sense. A set of principles, lessons and tools to help anyone make sense of any thing. Whether you are - a student or professional, a designer, technologist or small business owner, an intern or executive - learn how information architecture can help you make sense of your next endeavor.
What terms and concepts do you use to deliver your product experience? What organizational structures do you use to present those terms and concepts? To what degree is the meaning you intend through those choices clear to the person for which you intended it? These are the questions to ask yourself when attempting to make a product make sense to others.
Information Architecture is the practice of making sense of meaning through the consideration of ontology, taxonomy and choreography. In this three hour workshop we will discuss and work through what it means to think about affecting the information architecture of a product.
Collaborative Information Architecture (ias17)Abby Covert
You’ve worked hard on the information architecture models you’ve created but haven’t been able to sell them to the client, or your co-workers. Maybe the conversation around the IA has broken down into an unhealthy debate over semantics. In another scenario, you are tasked with creating a controlled vocabulary for a large organization that has a silo mentality and a lot of legacy content. Where to begin?
These scenarios will sound familiar to most IA professionals.
In this workshop, Abby will share her techniques for getting an organization that may have different ideas about how to organize and name content to agree upon a controlled vocabulary.
Abby will share specific tools in the form of diagrams, beyond the ubiquitous sitemap and wireframe, which communicate complex ideas. And she’ll share techniques for practicing information architecture with clients collaboratively.
I want to focus on the soft skills that make someone good at IA. So the lessons here are really about leveling up in skill set. Including:
- Conflict Resolution in IA
- Selling IA to others in your organization
- Improving stakeholder interviews
- Facilitating Low Fidelity Conversation about language
- Visualizing language with simple pictures to get clarity
The fourth class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Understanding the terms stake, stakeholder, make, maker and how these role intersect in terms of needs. Development of directional and specific measurable goals.
Language: Your Organization's Most Important and Least Valued Asset (Confab 2...Abby Covert
Have you ever felt like differences in language were holding your organization back? Perhaps you have tried to standardize language across parts of your organization only to find you have opened a huge can of worms?
The experiences we make for our users are made of language choices. We also depend on language to collaborate with the people we work with. Yet language is most often only tended to when you talk about things like content and copy.
Controlling your organization’s vocabulary is one of the murkiest messes we can take on, but it also might be one of the most impactful ways we can help our organizations.
In this talk, Abby Covert, staff information architect at Etsy, will share with us the strategies and tactics they are using to pay closer attention to language choices they make across both internal and external user experiences.
Wrangling Complexity through Cat-herdingAbby Covert
The second class of a 15 week course taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Understanding Complexity and the effects of not understanding complexity when solving problems. 3 tools for complexity wrangling are outlined, including an in class workshop format for "frame-storming" and homework.
Includes the definition, value, usage and history of heuristics as well as 10 principles with starter questions for use in an evaluation. (As presented most recently at Interaction 12 in Dublin)
The third class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Understanding Peoples Needs, Research tactics best suited for user understanding, How to use personas for consensus creation.
Language: Your Organization's Most Important and Least Valued AssetAbby Covert
Have you ever felt like differences in language were holding your organization back? Perhaps you have tried to standardize language across parts of your organization only to find you have opened a huge can of worms?
The experiences we make for our users are made of language choices. We also depend on language to collaborate with the people we work with. Yet language is most often only tended to when you talk about things like content and copy.
Controlling your organization’s vocabulary is one of the murkiest messes we can take on, but it also might be one of the most impactful ways we can help our organizations.
In this talk Abby Covert, staff information architect at Etsy, will share with us the strategies and tactics they are using to pay closer attention to language choices they make across both internal and external user experiences.
Web accessibility 101: The why, who, what, and how of "a11y"ecentricarts
Our in-house ecentricarts Accessibility Team (known as EAT) has compiled a ton of resources to help you understand the ins and outs of web accessibility. This includes: why it matters, who it impacts, common misconceptions, a beginner's guide to WCAG 2.0 and accessibility legislation, and how you can test, design, develop, and create more accessible websites.
This presentation also includes examples of before/after screenreader demos, and our 2017 company video made with described audio.
With increased complaints and legal action for organisations of inaccessible websites (Coles, Peapod) and apps (Westpac), now is the time for all web and app Project Managers, Developers, UX/Designers, Content Producers, Business Analysts and Testers to be ‘baking in’ accessibility into processes and work practices.
This presentation will show that accessibility is everyone’s responsibility and it is not difficult to get started or find resources that will help you and your team produce a website, app or digital presence that works for everyone!
Web Accessibility: A Shared ResponsibilityJoseph Dolson
This a presentation prepared for a Montana Web Developer's Meetup in December, 2011. The focus is on collaborating with content providers and employers to share the responsibility for web accessibility.
An introduction to the concept of Web Accessibility describing the What, Why and How of making your website accessible i.e. available to users with disabilities such as color blindness, low vision, deafness and/or motor control disability.
A presentation to explain why selling of Information Architecture is important and how the architect has to include strategy points even before the IA is sold.
Jakob Nielsen developed the method of 'Heuristic Evaluation' to help identify problems with an interface. This presentation explains the 10 rules of thumb or heuristics with examples.
Interactions South America 2015 KeynoteAbby Covert
How to Make Sense of Any Mess
In a world where everything is getting more complex and we are all experiencing personal information overload, there is a growing need to understand the tools and processes that are used to make sense of complex subjects and situations. These tools aren’t hard to learn or even tough to implement but they are also not part of many people’s education. Information Architecture is a practice of making sense. A set of principles, lessons and tools to help anyone make sense of anything. Whether you are – a student or professional, a designer, technologist or small business owner, an intern or executive – learn how information architecture can help you make sense of your next endeavor.
Wrangling Complexity through Cat-herdingAbby Covert
The second class of a 15 week course taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Understanding Complexity and the effects of not understanding complexity when solving problems. 3 tools for complexity wrangling are outlined, including an in class workshop format for "frame-storming" and homework.
Includes the definition, value, usage and history of heuristics as well as 10 principles with starter questions for use in an evaluation. (As presented most recently at Interaction 12 in Dublin)
The third class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Understanding Peoples Needs, Research tactics best suited for user understanding, How to use personas for consensus creation.
Language: Your Organization's Most Important and Least Valued AssetAbby Covert
Have you ever felt like differences in language were holding your organization back? Perhaps you have tried to standardize language across parts of your organization only to find you have opened a huge can of worms?
The experiences we make for our users are made of language choices. We also depend on language to collaborate with the people we work with. Yet language is most often only tended to when you talk about things like content and copy.
Controlling your organization’s vocabulary is one of the murkiest messes we can take on, but it also might be one of the most impactful ways we can help our organizations.
In this talk Abby Covert, staff information architect at Etsy, will share with us the strategies and tactics they are using to pay closer attention to language choices they make across both internal and external user experiences.
Web accessibility 101: The why, who, what, and how of "a11y"ecentricarts
Our in-house ecentricarts Accessibility Team (known as EAT) has compiled a ton of resources to help you understand the ins and outs of web accessibility. This includes: why it matters, who it impacts, common misconceptions, a beginner's guide to WCAG 2.0 and accessibility legislation, and how you can test, design, develop, and create more accessible websites.
This presentation also includes examples of before/after screenreader demos, and our 2017 company video made with described audio.
With increased complaints and legal action for organisations of inaccessible websites (Coles, Peapod) and apps (Westpac), now is the time for all web and app Project Managers, Developers, UX/Designers, Content Producers, Business Analysts and Testers to be ‘baking in’ accessibility into processes and work practices.
This presentation will show that accessibility is everyone’s responsibility and it is not difficult to get started or find resources that will help you and your team produce a website, app or digital presence that works for everyone!
Web Accessibility: A Shared ResponsibilityJoseph Dolson
This a presentation prepared for a Montana Web Developer's Meetup in December, 2011. The focus is on collaborating with content providers and employers to share the responsibility for web accessibility.
An introduction to the concept of Web Accessibility describing the What, Why and How of making your website accessible i.e. available to users with disabilities such as color blindness, low vision, deafness and/or motor control disability.
A presentation to explain why selling of Information Architecture is important and how the architect has to include strategy points even before the IA is sold.
Jakob Nielsen developed the method of 'Heuristic Evaluation' to help identify problems with an interface. This presentation explains the 10 rules of thumb or heuristics with examples.
Interactions South America 2015 KeynoteAbby Covert
How to Make Sense of Any Mess
In a world where everything is getting more complex and we are all experiencing personal information overload, there is a growing need to understand the tools and processes that are used to make sense of complex subjects and situations. These tools aren’t hard to learn or even tough to implement but they are also not part of many people’s education. Information Architecture is a practice of making sense. A set of principles, lessons and tools to help anyone make sense of anything. Whether you are – a student or professional, a designer, technologist or small business owner, an intern or executive – learn how information architecture can help you make sense of your next endeavor.
Understanding What It Is Like to Not UnderstandAbby Covert
The eighth class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: How to have a great conversation, interviewing basics, and how to write questions that get good answers.
Information Architecture: The Strategic Structure of Great UX - WIAD 2017Jessica DuVerneay
World IA Day Talk 2017, Chicago. This talk begins by illustrating the relationship between strategy, IA, and UX. Then, it outlines the importance of information architecture as a crucial step between strategy and ux - and what to expect if any one of these key steps is overlooked. The presentation concludes with practical, actionable tips on advocating for IA to ensure great UX.
Creating Clarity and Establishing TruthAbby Covert
The sixth class of a 15 week course in Information Architecture taught at Parsons, the New School for Design. Topics include: Addressing "What now?", Creating an Elevator Pitch to further clarify audience and purpose prior to feature level discussions.
Information Architecture: Making Information Accessible and Usefulfrog
This is a talk about how designers can help people make use of information—both find and act upon it.
To illustrate this, I take a trip to the SFMOMA to share the work of Dieter Rams, whose ethos of "Less, but better" is a challenge to any designer seeking to create better websites and applications.
I re-explore this trip multiple times over the course of the talk, considering the overlap of information in physical and digital systems—and how conceptually we merge them.
From there, I provide best practices and principles for how to approach information architecture and user experience design in a more iterative, agile fashion through in-line prototyping.
Doors are our common language for passing into a place for commerce, socialization or pleasure. Passing from one experience to the next. Doors are our refuge at the end of a long day, they are the start to every work day, every meeting, every meal.
Search is the closest thing we have to a front door, yet it is so often forgotten in the design of user experiences.
Our digital world is becoming more and more like a real place, where we spend our time rather than a tool that we use and put down.
This short talk for Search Love Boston 2013 covers some ways in which user experience and search professionals can better work together to make the internet a better place.
Part one of a three part workshop co taught with Dan Klyn and Christina Wodtke on Feb 7, 2013 at General Assembly in NYC.
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Information architecture (IA) once was practiced as a sort of web-era librarianship. It was about organizing the information contained within websites to make things easier to find and use. But today an increasingly significant proportion of our daily business is conducted digitally. Using a variety of devices, people communicate with one another, search for information and entertainment, make retail purchases, initiate and negotiate business transactions, and more.
This class will explore well-architected digital experiences. What does it mean to architect information? How does the structure of information relate to understanding? How can information architects manage complex information across channels and contexts? What unique value can professional information architects bring to the creation and delivery of products and services? What is the interplay of information architecture and the other disciplines within user experience? This class will provide a broad introduction to a useful set of tools and ideas that provide a framework under which user and business insight can be harvested and used in pursuit of real business goals.
"It just doesn't feel right". "It needs to pop more". "I just don't like it, I can't explain why." One of the best ways to get a designer to roll their eyes and probably ignore you is to give terrible, non-specific feedback on their designs. You don't have to attend design school to learn how to give good feedback on designs (although, it doesn't hurt). This talk will provide basic principles to follow to give (and receive) great design feedback. Learn do's and don'ts to ensure that your feedback can be understood, respected, and responded to appropriately. We'll discuss different formats for giving feedback and ways to make sure that your feedback is benefiting the people that really matter - your users. Whether you are a designer, developer, or product owner, you'll leave with tools tips to communicate better with your team - and develop better products because of it.
Test & Learn: How to Leverage Design to Learn & Deliver Results Quickly Optimizely
The role of design is often overlooked on growth teams that are moving fast and running experiments at scale. When applied correctly, design can be your growth team's secret weapon. Join Angel Steger, growth design lead at Dropbox, to learn how to leverage design thinking and design craft to super-charge your growth team's velocity while driving high-quality output. We’ll walk through tools and case studies to give you ideas you can put into motion right away.
Attendees will:
Learn how to leverage the Design role within a Growth team
Learn how design quality works in the context of a fast-moving team
Learn how to use design thinking to differentiate between haste and velocity as a cross-functional team
Walk away with tools to learn quickly while making meaningful progress against large unknowns
Guidelines regarding looking for a job, making an online profile, building rapport with co-workers, and with students, writing formal and informal letters regarding recent job positions, describing a position and its responsibilities. Why and how to create a social media page and how to get ready for a job-fair evant.
The future of work is remote — meaning a continuation of digital meetings. Collaboration tools may be user-friendly but learning to effectively lead a meeting in a digital environment requires a new way of thinking and preparing.
Insight virtual training experts Michele Snead and Jill Blasey-Ciociola prepared this presentation to help employees, teachers and coaches conduct more effective virtual meetings.
How to Effectively Lead Focus Groups: Presented at ProductTank TorontoTremis Skeete
Topic: How to Effectively Lead Focus Groups
Tremis Skeete, NexTier Innovations
Talking to users can be a challenge and running a focus group is one of those tasks which most Product Managers would say is essential in getting real insights. Whether you want to test your user group's response to a new product or changes to features within an existing product, as a product person you need to have a creative set of analytical skills and strategies for how to steer the group toward productive discussions. In this presentation, Tremis will discuss how focus groups can truly work well for you, and how you can organize, coordinate, and effectively lead focus group sessions.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS - DEFINE , COMMUNICATION PROCESS, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES , HOW TO DEVELOP COMMUNICATION SKILLS, 7C'S OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION, DO'S AND DONT'S IN DEVELOPING COMMUNICATION SKILLS, TOOLS TO DEVELOP COMMUNICATION SKILLS, SCHOOL LIFE VS COMMUNICATION SKILLS, CARRIER LIFE VS COMMUNICATION SKILLS, PERSONAL LIFE VS COMMUNICATION SKILLS, MARRIAGE LIFE VS COMMUNICATION SKILLS, SOCIAL LIFE VS COMMUNICATION SKILLS. QUICK STORY ABOUT COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Whether you are a designer, a developer, a marketer, a student or anything in between - in today's creative job market every differentiator will count towards getting the job. Gone are the days of being able to talk over your future employer's head, just showing the latest deliverable you are working on, even worse showing nothing at all. Welcome instead to a world where your work is being measured not by what you say it was, but by what it really was.
This workshop was developed for General Assembly in NYC. It is meant to be run in 90 minutes.
This presentation is for anyone who has had technical, strategic and/or budgetary constraints influence what was built vs. what was imagined. We will dig into how to use systems-based thinking to understand how things influence one another and learn techniques to discover constraints sooner. We will learn how to start creating efficiencies of digital process, infrastructure and communication in pursuit of better user experiences.
A client recently reached out to say he was totally new to the SXSW experience and was looking for "noob pointers" -- this is my top lessons learned from attending SXSW. Enjoy!
Hello everyone! I am thrilled to present my latest portfolio on LinkedIn, marking the culmination of my architectural journey thus far. Over the span of five years, I've been fortunate to acquire a wealth of knowledge under the guidance of esteemed professors and industry mentors. From rigorous academic pursuits to practical engagements, each experience has contributed to my growth and refinement as an architecture student. This portfolio not only showcases my projects but also underscores my attention to detail and to innovative architecture as a profession.
Top 5 Indian Style Modular Kitchen DesignsFinzo Kitchens
Get the perfect modular kitchen in Gurgaon at Finzo! We offer high-quality, custom-designed kitchens at the best prices. Wardrobes and home & office furniture are also available. Free consultation! Best Quality Luxury Modular kitchen in Gurgaon available at best price. All types of Modular Kitchens are available U Shaped Modular kitchens, L Shaped Modular Kitchen, G Shaped Modular Kitchens, Inline Modular Kitchens and Italian Modular Kitchen.
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
Can AI do good? at 'offtheCanvas' India HCI preludeAlan Dix
Invited talk at 'offtheCanvas' IndiaHCI prelude, 29th June 2024.
https://www.alandix.com/academic/talks/offtheCanvas-IndiaHCI2024/
The world is being changed fundamentally by AI and we are constantly faced with newspaper headlines about its harmful effects. However, there is also the potential to both ameliorate theses harms and use the new abilities of AI to transform society for the good. Can you make the difference?
2. objectives
• Understand the advantages to practicing
information architecture collaboratively
• Discover collaborative facilitation techniques
to use with coworkers and clients
• Build your toolbox with new diagrams and
techniques
• Answer common questions about practicing IA
collaboratively
4. what Problems does talking
about Ia help to alleviate?
• Disputes over what to call things
• Lack of clarity on what things “are”
• Overlaps in functionality & duplication of effort
• Lack of prioritization of audiences or goals
• Technical debt created by inconsistency or lack of
reusability of patterns
• Organizational inefficiency due to communication heft
6. What conflicts are common?
• Speaking different languages based on role
• Arguing about priority through a lens of organizational politics
• “This is how we have always done it” thinking
• Lacksonomy instead of taxonomy
• Other competencies ignoring or over-riding decisions made by IA
• Other competencies seeing IA as cosmetic and arbitrary
decisions
• Lack of time or budget for collaboration, testing and iteration
7. Story time
• The company Jen works for has been in operation for
40 years, with thousands of employees across many
diverse competencies
• They have 40 years worth of legacy language and
functionality in their suite of products
• Jen, a UX designer, has only been there for 6 months
but it has taken her that long to understand the
organization and feel like she knows what’s going on
• The company is growing, especially in design, and Jen
raises the concern about language to her boss, Ann
8. a hypothetical conversation
between Jen and ann
• Jen: “So I am just getting a handle on the language we use and
with all these new designers we are hiring I worry that they are
going to have to spend a lot of time learning all this just to get
started”
• Ann: “Hmm, any ideas on how we might help them get a faster
start?”
• Jen: “I was thinking maybe I could create a lexicon that they
could refer to in order to understand some of the terms we use,
especially the acronyms”
• Ann: “That’s a great idea! What do you need to get that done?”
• Jen: “Well I need time, but I was also thinking it would be good
to have a partner from outside design to work on this with. I was
thinking Ben from product management would be helpful
because he has been here for almost a decade.”
9. Jen and Ben set out to get
the lexicon started
• In their first meeting they brainstorm the most difficult to understand
concepts within the company and attempt to write a definition of them
• For each concept they discuss, Jen is shocked that her understanding
of these terms is much different than Ben’s
• Jen is also surprised to hear the history behind some of these terms
and decides that those points are important to capture for others to
learn from
• Jen starts using a whiteboard to draw her understanding and have Ben
show her how his is different than hers
• By the end of the meeting they are both exhausted but also excited that
they have made so much progress on understanding these concepts.
Jen leaves with a great start to the lexicon she is working on
• Ben sends Ann an email asking if Jen can share the final lexicon with
his team of product managers and engineers when it is done
10. What could Jen have done
differently to mess this up?
• Jen could have written the lexicon alone based on her
understanding of the concepts and not asked for Ben’s help
• Jen could have written a draft of the lexicon and presented it
to Ben for his feedback, making the meeting more of a critique
• Jen could have emailed Ben a list of words and asked him to
write definitions of them for her (spoiler alert: he may have
never answered the email, taken forever to answer or written
overly complex and/or confusing definitions she would then
have to ask tons of questions about)
• Jen could have spent the whole time talking to Ben trying to
understand his point of view instead of picking up a marker
• Jen could have gotten frustrated over their lack of common
understanding and given up on the exercise entirely
11. what does this story teach us?
• Lesson 1: People can assume they understand
something clearly, until they compare that
understanding with another person’s
• Lesson 2: Complex definitions are sometimes
easier to discuss visually than just verbally
• Lesson 3: Defining concepts can be seen as a
helpful activity when done collaboratively and cross
functionally. The same activity when done in a silo
can be frustrating and seen as a waste of time
12. How can I make time or get time
for information architecture?
• Don’t ask for time for “doing the IA” — instead bake
talking about language and structure into every
interaction you have throughout the process
• Document the conflicts that need to be talked
through and explain the people and process you
need to resolve the conflicts
• Explain the ramifications of not resolving these
conflicts and building on “shaky ground”
• Be ok with the decision or mandate to build on shaky
ground (I use the three times at bat rule for pushing
back)
13. How does Ia fit into different
process styles?
• Agile: In Agile language and structure is defined very quickly
meaning that IA needs to be an ongoing discussion. Advice here
is to make sure there are KPIs being measured around structural
and linguistic integrity. Also make sure the IA documents are
shared and editable by anyone in the organization.
• Waterfall: In waterfall, you are more likely to be asked to create a
stopping point after which IA is “complete.” Advice here is to try to
position IA as something that isn't ever set completely, so that it is
shared amongst all stages of the process. This means that things
like maps and controlled vocabularies are continually updated
throughout the project.
15. How do I communicate Ia to my
organization?
• “Information architecture is a practice of deciding how to arrange
the parts of something to make sense as a whole. Because
what we call things and how we arrange them makes a big
difference to whether our users will understand us”
• “IA always exists, whether of not we think about it. If we don’t
think about it we are letting it grow organically which isn't always
the clearest and most effective way forward”
• “By thinking about IA our team can make sure that the language
and structures we choose will help us to reach our intention”
• “IA is best practiced collaboratively, so while I can help to
facilitate us thinking about our IA, I can’t do this without help of
others in the organization”
16. Dos and Donts of Communicating
Ia in an organization
• Don’t talk about IA
as a step in the
process
• Don’t propose IA as
a gate you have to
get through
• Don’t talk about the
concepts, talk about
the results
• Don’t try to own the
IA as an individual
• Do find places within the process
to talk about the clarity of
language and structure
• Do talk about IA as something
that will continue to grow and
change over time
• Do ask questions throughout the
project that makes it clear that
talking about IA is important
• Do assemble a group of people
that share the responsibility of
making IA decisions over time
17. Stakeholder interviews
• Step 1: Identify the right stakeholders
• Step 2: Design the conversation
• Step 3: Seek Patterns & Divergence of Opinions
• Step 4: Be a mirror
18. Identify the right stakeholders
• Use the organization
chart to visualize who you
plan to talk to
• Make sure you are talking
to enough representative
people across the org
both in terms of level and
area of focus
19. Isolate them from the herd
“We think _________” “I think __________”
20. Design the conversation
• Position: Establish where this person sits in the space you are
exploring
• Convictions: Understand what they believe to be true and why
• Doubts: Understand what they have a hard time believing, what
makes them nervous and why
• Color: Ask anything else that will help to color in their
responses to their previous questions
• Questions: Always let them ask you questions. Sometimes the
best stuff comes out from what they ask
21. Some of my go-to questions
• If you had a magic wand and could change any one thing about
_________ what would it be and why?
• What do you see as the strengths of ___________? What about
the weaknesses?
• Is there any language that you see getting in the way of
communicating with our customers?
• Is there any language that you see getting in the way of
communicating internally?
• Is there anything I haven't ask about that you think I should know?
22. Some pointers
• Listen more than you speak. This is not your time to prove
how smart you are or share ideas or perceptions you have
• Leave silence. If they need time to think about their answer
leave them the silence to do so, don't react by expanding on
your question or rewording
• Record your interviews so you can be more active in listening
and making eye contact. Take simple notes throughout to
show that you are getting something out of the conversation
• Keep your notes in a spreadsheet organized by question so
you can sense patterns more easily
• If you take notes right after each interview, you will be more
likely to stay engaged in the material and it feels less like a
slog to get through
23. My template for note taking
Question Interviewee Name Interviewee Name Interviewee Name Interviewee Name
Question 1 Response Response Response Response
Question 2 Response Response Response Response
Question 3 Response Response Response Response
Question 4 Response Response Response Response
* Arrange columns and color code groups of people within a similar place in
the organization or role
24. Seek Patterns & Divergence of
Opinions
• Look first for the things that people agree on. Write a compelling headline for each.
• Look second for the things that people are not in agreement over. Write a compelling
headline for each.
• After making a list of all the headlines in a spreadsheet, assign keywords to each to see
how they may be related to one another
• Area of the product/experience
• Sentiment of the concern
• Heuristic principle that is illustrated
• Start sorting by the keywords to see what emerges
• Create logical groupings of findings connected by a theme
• Decide the right order to present findings in
25. Example from my work
Example of Findings Spreadsheet
Example of Findings Presentation
26. Be the mirror
• If you think a point is obvious, make it anyways
• Present the why, not just the what
• Share quotes from interviews without attribution to get points
across that are tough to make
• Don’t let your opinions leak into what you present
• Say the thing that everyone was talking around but not saying
• Ask questions of the group based on what you heard
• Present both sides of anything that might be disagreed on
• Visualize mental models that differ from one another
27. How to have low fidelity group
conversations about language
• Set an agenda with time blocks and share it with attendees so they
know where you are going with this activity
• Start by asking the group about opportunities and risks that this
session has. Have everyone write their answers and then go
around and share with the room.
• Arrange the agenda from broad to specific
• Breakdown mental models slowly:
• Start with giving people time to think individually
• Then pair people up to compare notes
• Then have pairs combine into small groups
• Finally open to full group discussion
29. What about for really big
groups?
• Facilitate smaller groups with similar mental models to get to know
their thought process better
• Identify one person who can represent that group in a larger, more
cross functional group. This person should be:
• Interested in the activity
• Allowed to take action
• Willing to listen and participate in semantic debate
30. pointers for Running a
collaborative ia session
• Ask people to set aside technology for the session (don’t allow the
“I’m taking notes” excuse… they aren’t, instead establish a note
taker for the group and project their screen as they take notes)
• Don’t be afraid to call on someone who hasn't spoken up
• Always establish a parking lot for topics that leak into the meeting
that aren't the focus. Allow anyone to call “parking lot”, and make
sure it gets written down so it is actually parked.
• Always position collaborative sessions as exploratory, meaning
there are no bad ideas or wrong ways of thinking
• Ask for honesty AND kindness as activities are undertaken
• Always end a session by asking for advice of your participants. “As
you know, I will be working on the things we talked about today,
what advice do you have for me?”
31. Visualize language with simple
pictures to get clarity
• Draw and Share: Have your attendees draw the
concept in the way that they understand it and
compare their drawings with each other
• Round 1: Individual Draw
• Round 2: Pair Draw
• Round 3: Groups of 4 Draw
• Round 4: Facilitated Draw
• Pictionary: Have one attendee draw their
understanding of a concept so that others can react to
it and ask questions
33. Dealing with difficult people
• Identify anyone who is potentially difficult during the stakeholder
interview process. Spend extra energy making sure that person
feels heard and understands the process they are taking part in
• If things get heated in the session, give that person the marker
and ask them to visualize the conflict as they see it
• Take their side for the sake of clarifying the conflict. “I think I see
what so-and-so is saying here…”
• If they are mean or inappropriate, tell them that is not productive
to the discussion and remind them that this collaboration involves
seeing many sides of the same argument
• Don’t be dismissive of their opinion or ideas but make them
explain themselves and answer to others’ questions about it
35. How to Mine for language
Language in
the product
Language in
the marketing
Language in
help & support
Language we
use internally
Language users
use naturally
• Look for needless duplicity
• Look for legacy terms that
have stuck around
• Look for inside baseball terms
that might not be clear to users
37. ask questions about efficiency,
clarity and intention
Do we need all
five labels for
this thing?
Are these really
the same model
with two labels
or two different
concepts?
38. Is this a difference of Model or
simply a difference of Label?
vs.
40. Tips for mining for language
• Start with nouns. Take on verbs secondarily. Beware of
adjectives.
• Use notes from user and stakeholder interviews to layer
on verbal only language that might be useful to
understand in connection with documented language
• Ask questions like:
• “When you say _____ what do you mean?”
• “Is _____ the same as ______?
• “Why did we start calling it _________?”
41. Controlled Vocabularies
Term Definition History Approved Synonyms
• A good controlled vocabulary:
• Captures the history of a term
• Lists the other words that may describe the same model
• Defines terms simply and defines words within the definition
42. Ideas to get people to actually
use the controlled vocabulary
• When first created: consider distribution through a “word of
the day” feature
• To get people to retire terms: Make posters of “words we
don't say” and post them in the meeting spaces around your
office — when all else fails, try using a gym whistle
• To make sure it stays fresh: Create a cross functional
working group to govern upkeep of language documentation.
These folks are like resident advisors for ontological choices.
They help resolve linguistic issues and educate others on the
documentation available
• To make sure it is adhered to: Make a linguistic review part
of the standards that are expected to be adhered to in terms of
style guides or launch checklists
43. Story time: why It is important to
define the words within the words
45. Association Diagram
• Illustrates connections
between concepts that don’t
adhere to navigable paths
• Best for showing hierarchical
relationships at a higher level
47. Block Diagram
• Illustrates how objects and
their attributes interrelate
• Best for breaking complex
concepts into smaller pieces
for discussion and
clarification
49. Journey Maps
• Illustrates how a process or activity happens across
contexts and channels
• Good for helping people break down silos and look at
things from the end users perspective
51. Swim Lane Diagram
• Illustrates how many people
work together on a single
process
• Good for documenting the
tasks within a task and how
those map to role
53. Gantt Chart
• Illustrates how tasks relate to
each other over time and role
• Good for breaking a process
down to reveal predecessors
and dependencies
56. Quadrant Diagram
• Illustrates how a group of
concepts or ideas compare to
one another on two or more
qualifiers
• Best for prioritizing or
showing white space
58. Tips for Collaborating on
diagrams
• Share the work of writing and drawing with your partners
• Take the time and space needed to get through the
material, don’t rush or exhaust people
• For more complex subject matter, take it in rounds - not
all at once
• Keep it messy and low fidelity until the content is feeling
solid enough to get confirmation on
• Always have a format in mind when collecting but stay
flexible as you figure out what is needed
59. Tips for getting feedback on
diagrams
• Share the diagram ahead of a critique meeting for people
to spend time looking at
• Take the time to sit down with a few key stakeholders one
on one to show them the diagram with the intent to make
it clear. Don’t spend this time convincing them. You are
usability testing the diagram and they are your users
• Keep the visual polish off the diagram until the content
has been confirmed, this makes it quicker for you to edit
but also encourages feedback
• Always ask for critical feedback on how to make it more
clear and try to not defend or explain things you think are
already clear
60. Unnecessary
exactitude
Not Tidy
Designed
before
Architected
Unclear
Audience
Icon
Issues
Not appropriate
for scale
Unclear scope
Unclear
timescale
Unclear
context
Lengthy
labels
Not appropriate
for medium
Too Many
Colors
FREE No Labels Stacked Type
Confusing
relationships
between things
Unclear
intent
Unclear
Labels
Color doesn’t
mean what we
think it means
Hard to read
Misleading
Data
Manipulation
Unclear
Logic or Flow
Contrast
Ratio issues
Confusing line
crossings
Ill alignment
or spacing
Diagram Critique Bingo
http://abbytheia.com/2015/02/17/diagram-critique-bingo/
61. What I hope you learned today:
• Too much IA is practiced solo, and presented to others
• By sharing the responsibility we can get further, faster
• Practicing IA collaboratively means putting aside your
ego (and sometimes your ideas)
• There is no singular process or defining
documentation technique that always works,
prescribing is part of the work
• Anyone can practice IA, and more people should be
62. I wrote a book
about information
architecture for
everybody!
http://
abbytheia.com/
makesense/