Design Matters

I just saw this post over at Boxes and Arrows, looks very interesting:

A Podcast from Vizthink ‘08 by Jeff Parks on 2008/03/04 http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/using-design-visuals

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.

A short summary of the Information Design Conference 2007 has been posted.

Summary from the site:

The Information Design Conference 2007 was held in Greenwich, London on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th March. There were about 110 participants, including 22 speakers, from about 20 countries including UK, USA, Brazil, Mexico, The Netherlands and Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, Portugal and Spain, Qatar, Hong Kong. Many participants work across national borders: Brazilians in the US and UK, Brits abroad, Germans in the Netherlands and so on. And many had heard of the event from the InfoDesign-Cafe list, or its sister list, the announcements-only InfoDesign list.

One of the important effects of conferences is that it is easy to make contacts, initiate activities and test ideas. The available posters are an easy start to achieve this. Furthermore, students are introduced to potential employers, researchers can discuss their work with practitioners, practitioners find common ground for co-operation, and approaches from other specialisms can be picked up and applied to personal situations.

It is likely that audio recordings and slides of several of these talks will soon be available from the IDA website.

Related link: InfoDesign

If you are a member of the ID/A SIG and will be attending the Annual Conference in Minneapolis, please consider volunteering to help us at one of the following events: 

Welcome Reception SIG Table: 7:30-9:00 PM in the Expo Hall
Spend 20-30 minutes at the SIG table, talking about the SIG and passing out buttons and pens promoting the SIG website. Good chance to meet other members!

SIG Luncheons: Monday and Tuesday @ Lunch
3-4 volunteers to sit at the ID/A SIG table…stir discussion…talk about the SIG’s activities…pass out SIG buttons and conference roadmaps etc. 

SIG Business Meeting: Monday May 14, 7:00 AM.
Mezzanine 100E - Convention Center
Come meet members of the SIG leadership team and hear more about the activities planned for the coming year.

To volunteer for any of these activities,
please send David an email dcaruso@cdc.gov 

Dr. Ian Howells, Chief Marketing Officer of Alfresco (an Open Source solution for enterprise content management) and Dan Keldsen of Delphi Group, discuss mind maps, learning how to learn, ECM, and open source strategy in this podcast.

You can see some of Time magazine’s inventions of the year for 2006: http://www.time.com/time/2006/techguide/bestinventions/

Thanks to Karen Mardahl for these links.

http://www.searchmash.com/ is a Google site.

http://www.msdewey.com/ is a novel interface, featuring a woman who speaks the results. Limited searches are supported.

Dasher is an “information-efficient text-entry interface, driven by natural continuous pointing gestures” that can be controlled by eye-tracking for the benefit of people who can’t use their hands: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/

According to Fast Company, although demand for designers is growing, there is a shortage of qualifed designers:
http://www.fastcompany.com/resources/design/lawrence/111506.html

Peter Morville writes today about the past, present, and future of information architecture: “Information Architecture 3.0.”

Second Life, http://secondlife.com/ is a virtual 3D world entirely built and owned by its residents.

There is a new Info Island: http://infoisland.org/about/ (scroll down). There are opportunities to volunteer.

Today on the IA Institute list a member comments that non-profits are using Second Life to  teach, host events, hold meetings, share technologies, and reach out  to their particular audiences.

Are there possibilities for STC?