Design Matters

Interaction Design Association (IxDA), First Annual Conference, Savannah, Georgia, USA, February 8-10, 2008.

Confirmed keynote and session speakers for the conference currently include Alan Cooper, Bill Buxton, Sigi Moeslinger, Malcolm McCullough, Jared Spool, Regine Debatty, Dan Brown, Molly Wright Steenson, Aza Raskin, Sarah Allen, and Matt Jones. The organization will host pre-conference workshops taught by Marc Rettig, Darja Isaksson, and Todd Warfel.

The call for presentations is open through September 15, 2007.

Submissions are invited for Lightning Session slots, each of which is 25 minutes in duration on a single topic. Single or duo speakers are allowed, but no panels. There are 14 open Lightning Session slots. Lightning Session speakers will receive free admission to the conference. (more…)

David Caruso’s presentation at the 2007 STC annual conference has been reviewed by Geoff Hart in The Exchange newsletter of the Scientific Communication SIG: http://www.stcsig.org/sc/newsletter/html/html2007-2.htm#editorial David spoke about risk communication. Congratulations, David!

Information Architecture Institutes’s Second Annual IDEA Conference, New York City, October 4-5, pre-conference workshop on October 3. http://ideaconference.org/

IDEA stands for Information: Design, Experience, Access. The pre-conference event offers hands-on training by David Bishop from MAYA Design in methods for gathering, organizing, and diagramming domain knowledge for interaction and services design.

IDEA is unique in the way it brings together designers from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines to address designing complex information spaces. Presenters come from design, interaction design, information architecture, visualization, communication design, design planning, exhibit design, librarianship, media art, cultural criticism, computer networking, geographic information systems and other fields. 2007 speakers confirmed so far include Michael Wesch (The Machine is Us/ing Us), David Rose (Ambient Devices), David Weinberger (Everything is Miscellaneous), Sylvia Harris (Information Design Strategist), Kevin Slavin, (area/code), Jake Barton (Local Projects), and Fernanda Viegas with Martin Wattenberg (Many Eyes).

If you’re in Washington, DC you can take advantage of the offerings of three groups that have lots to offer. If you’re not in Washington, these groups may inspire you to start your own activities or find similar ones in your area.

UPA DC, the Washington DC chapter of the Usability Professionals Association (http://www.upa-dc-metro.org/), meets each month and there is a local conference scheduled for October 13 (http://www.upa-dc-metro.org/conference/2007/index.php)

DCIA, DC Information Architects, is a Yahoo Group with a website (http://www.dc-ia.com/) that includes job postings.

Refresh (http://refresh-dc.org/ ) is an innovative group of web designers.

The UX Pioneers site has a featured interview with STC Fellow Ginny Redish: http://www.adlininc.com/uxpioneers/original_pioneers/ginny_redish.html

Recently Rebecca Deery, a new member of the ID-IA SIG, posted an introduction on the SIG’s email list (as all new members are invited to do). Rebecca’s work and experience are somewhat unusual, and she agreed to answer follow up questions for Design Matters.[Design Matters] You work for GSI Commerce, Inc. in King of Prussia, PA, an e-commerce outsource solution company building retail web sites. You’re an information architect. What kinds of information do you structure for your clients?