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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
California Association of Museums Conference
March 7, 2014
Speakers:
Susan Spero, JFK University
Dana Mitroff Silvers, Design Thinking for Museums
Karen Kienzle, Palo Alto Art Center
Brianna Cutts, Sibbett Group
A Practical Approach to Actually Using and Utilizing LinkedINAndrea Chartier
So many have it but so few know how to use it. Follow along for an overview of simple steps you can take to enhance and then utilize your LinkedIn profile!
Design Sprints for Awesome Teams: Workshop at Museums & the Web 2017Dana Mitroff Silvers
Slides from "Design Sprints for Awesome Teams: Running Design Sprints for Rapid Digital Product Development" at the 2017 Museums and the Web conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
Drawing Out Your Users: Using Sketch Techniques for User ResearchBennett King
Workshop Presentation from UX Speakeasy's Sketchcamp San Diego on October 6th, 2012.
This presentation centers on using sketching techniques as another form of data collection for user research. The presentation covers the reasons for using sketching, some background behind origins in Psychology, and three activities which can be used during research.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
California Association of Museums Conference
March 7, 2014
Speakers:
Susan Spero, JFK University
Dana Mitroff Silvers, Design Thinking for Museums
Karen Kienzle, Palo Alto Art Center
Brianna Cutts, Sibbett Group
A Practical Approach to Actually Using and Utilizing LinkedINAndrea Chartier
So many have it but so few know how to use it. Follow along for an overview of simple steps you can take to enhance and then utilize your LinkedIn profile!
Design Sprints for Awesome Teams: Workshop at Museums & the Web 2017Dana Mitroff Silvers
Slides from "Design Sprints for Awesome Teams: Running Design Sprints for Rapid Digital Product Development" at the 2017 Museums and the Web conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
Drawing Out Your Users: Using Sketch Techniques for User ResearchBennett King
Workshop Presentation from UX Speakeasy's Sketchcamp San Diego on October 6th, 2012.
This presentation centers on using sketching techniques as another form of data collection for user research. The presentation covers the reasons for using sketching, some background behind origins in Psychology, and three activities which can be used during research.
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)
You're Screwing Up The World - Profound Opposite Truths in ArchitectureDan Klyn
Most of the slides from a talk I got to give at IA CAMP in Tokyo, Japan on June 17, 2015.
The slides in red are place-holders for as-yet unpublished excerpts from a speech Christopher Alexander gave at the Harvard GSD in 1982.
I received permission from Mr. Alexander's representatives to use the material in Tokyo for this event, but have not yet asked for all of the relevant permissions to publish.
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.
Stage 2 of the design process for bamboo chairsvigyanashram
This PowerPoint gives the information about Stakeholders and team roles; it gives an idea about analysis of stakeholder and also explains important factors for a good team….
Design Thinking to Co-Design Solutions: Presented at ACMP 2018Enterprise Knowledge
This presentation from EK's Rebecca Wyatt and Claire Brawdy details how the Design Thinking process can be applied to facilitate sessions and engage end users in the design process. Originally presented at the ACMP Change Management 2018 Conference in Las Vegas.
These slides were prepared to introduce district leaders to the design thinking process. The design challenge we worked on during this day-long introduction was to redesign high school media centers. These slides were used to step participants through each phase of the design thinking process.
Collaboration within a multidisciplinary team: working together to solve design problems more effectively. These slides are from a workshop at UX Cambridge 2012 presented with Andy Morris and Revathi Nathaniel from Red Gate. The workshop aimed to promote the role of UX practitioners as facilitators and gave participants the opportunity to try out the KJ-Method and Design Consequences game.
Libraries are continually developing new programs and services to meet the needs of their community. But designing for the future can be challenging. How do you identify where to make changes? How do you make changes without taking on too much risk? How do you measure and evaluate the success of new library programs and services?
This workshop is an interactive experience, guiding teams through a process to find solutions for real library challenges and problems. Participants work in teams and be guided through activities to identify innovative solutions, set goals, and manage risk. Activities will help participants develop design thinking skills and a growth mindset.
Participants walk away with basic principles of innovative design processes. Participants gain confidence and feel empowered to think about innovation and innovative ideas in their libraries. As a result, they will become better risk takers and be able to develop better solutions.
Workshop facilitated by Crystal Schimpf
Eastern Shore Regional Library
For inquiries & bookings, email info@kixal.com
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.
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.
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.
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!
3. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
2
4. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
• Discussed the why, the what and the how
2
5. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
• Discussed the why, the what and the how
• Introduced and distinguished the concepts of
‘requirement’ and ‘feature’
2
6. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
• Discussed the why, the what and the how
• Introduced and distinguished the concepts of
‘requirement’ and ‘feature’
• Worked on group work:
2
7. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
• Discussed the why, the what and the how
• Introduced and distinguished the concepts of
‘requirement’ and ‘feature’
• Worked on group work:
– Finishing our continuums
2
8. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
• Discussed the why, the what and the how
• Introduced and distinguished the concepts of
‘requirement’ and ‘feature’
• Worked on group work:
– Finishing our continuums
– Attaching measurement to each continuum
2
9. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
• Discussed the why, the what and the how
• Introduced and distinguished the concepts of
‘requirement’ and ‘feature’
• Worked on group work:
– Finishing our continuums
– Attaching measurement to each continuum
– Identifying the requirements to reach each goal
2
10. Last Class we...
• Learned how to attach measurement to our directional
goals
• Discussed the why, the what and the how
• Introduced and distinguished the concepts of
‘requirement’ and ‘feature’
• Worked on group work:
– Finishing our continuums
– Attaching measurement to each continuum
– Identifying the requirements to reach each goal
– Starting a list of features and ideas of how to
accomplish those requirements
2
11. I am an
information
architect
I intend to because I believe
make the unclear clear everything is complex
put the what architecture frames
before the how problems, design solves
them
facilitate understanding understanding is
organize meaning, always good but it is
create clarity and equally important to
establish truth not understand
support goals, makers clarity is a
and users prerequisite of truth
by: Abby Covert & Dan Klyn
3
12. I am an
information
architect
I intend to because I believe
make the unclear clear everything is complex
put the what architecture frames
before the how problems, design solves
them
facilitate understanding understanding is
organize meaning, always good but it is
create clarity and equally important to
establish truth not understand
support goals, makers clarity is a
and users prerequisite of truth
by: Abby Covert & Dan Klyn
3
14. Ok, let’s put it all out there
– What is the most interesting thing you have
talked about? Figured out? Asked?
4
15. Ok, let’s put it all out there
– What is the most interesting thing you have
talked about? Figured out? Asked?
– What have you disagreed on most?
4
16. Ok, let’s put it all out there
– What is the most interesting thing you have
talked about? Figured out? Asked?
– What have you disagreed on most?
– Knowing what you know now, what would you
do next?
4
17. Ok, let’s put it all out there
– What is the most interesting thing you have
talked about? Figured out? Asked?
– What have you disagreed on most?
– Knowing what you know now, what would you
do next?
• Each team will have 5 minutes to update us on
their progress.
4
18. Ok, let’s put it all out there
– What is the most interesting thing you have
talked about? Figured out? Asked?
– What have you disagreed on most?
– Knowing what you know now, what would you
do next?
• Each team will have 5 minutes to update us on
their progress.
• Then each team member will tell us their:
4
19. Ok, let’s put it all out there
– What is the most interesting thing you have
talked about? Figured out? Asked?
– What have you disagreed on most?
– Knowing what you know now, what would you
do next?
• Each team will have 5 minutes to update us on
their progress.
• Then each team member will tell us their:
– Biggest Question
4
20. Ok, let’s put it all out there
– What is the most interesting thing you have
talked about? Figured out? Asked?
– What have you disagreed on most?
– Knowing what you know now, what would you
do next?
• Each team will have 5 minutes to update us on
their progress.
• Then each team member will tell us their:
– Biggest Question
– Biggest Discovery
4
22. What do you still need to know?
• Do users agree with the why and what?
• How do users react to the proposed how?
• Do stakeholders agree on the why and what?
• Do makers understand the why, what & how?
• Can makers make the how?
• How long does the how take to make?
6
26. What is A good Pitch
• to make a clear statement
of who you are working for,
what you are trying to
accomplish and why
10
27. Pitch Workshop
• Step 1: Spend 10 minutes writing ideas for your • Example Format: For (target customer)
pitch individually who has (customer need), (project name)
is a (market category) that (one key
– How will you think of the product or service benefit). Unlike (competition), the product
that is within the space that you are working (unique differentiator). Because we believe
in? (hypothesis)
– What are the words that are right to
describe the effect you want to have?
• Example: For people who want to
– How are your goals considered in this remember and share images they like
statement? online, Pinterest is a social bookmarking
tool. Unlike other list-based bookmarking
• Step 2: Spend 25 minutes agreeing on the pitch
tools, Pinterest’s unique photo-browsing
wording that you can all live with
experience replicates a physical pin board.
• Step 3: Spend 15 min mapping your individual Because we believe people collect images
feature ideas. Then consider the pitch. Which differently than links to other forms of
contribute directly to the pitch? Which are content.
extemporaneous?
• Step 4: Present your pitch and feature ideas to
the class
11
28. Let’s say that in seven
weeks you will stand
in front of the new
school big wigs to
describe the problem
you see and propose
the efforts you want
to undertake to design
a solution
12
30. How we (Today) A solid elevator pitch
will get (Last Class) A list of directional Goals
(Last Class) A system by which
there measurement will be used to report
progress on the goals
(Today) A list of the requirements and
potential features for the solution that
you have identified thus far
(Homework) A research plan that will
help you to confirm and iterate on your
ideas and understanding
(Next Class’s Topic) A heuristic
evaluation of what is in place currently
(10/29 - 11/5) Initial Findings from the
research you could do without support
(11/12 - final Project) A roadmap of how
you propose to accomplish this over time
13
31. Group Homework
• Finish your elevator pitch
• Cut down and consolidate your feature list - make sure each
feature is related to your elevator pitch and goals
• Organize your efforts so you have a research plan to propose by
next class.
– Who do you need to talk to?
• What method will you use to talk to them? (Interview,
survey, user test etc)
• Do you have access to them?
• What do you need to talk to them about? Please provide
the questions.
• What decisions will they help you make?
– What data do you need to find?
14