The most recent issue of TechniScribe, newsletter of the Orange County chapter of STC, has an article of interest in EduNotes, where Bill Darnall explains the complementary processes of information architecture design and information design. The issue is available at http://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts102007.pdf.
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?
[Rebecca] The exciting thing about e-commerce is that IAs are always designing something new, from unique shopping tools to an entire website. Information structure, flow and experience are key.
[Design Matters] How do your clients handle the information before your work on their retail web site? Or, put another way, how do your clients present the information and the challenge of structuring it to you?
[Rebecca] Typically via a whole client discovery process and some pretty detailed functional requirements.
[Design Matters] What is your background? How did you move from copywriting to IA?
[Rebecca] Every IA’s got a different story to tell! I started with an IS degree then moved into writing, and then came full circle with IA. Writers can make good IAs because if you know the system well enough to write about it, it’s a good foundation on which you can design it too!
Jeff Parks recorded the entire day at the recent Bar Camp in Ottawa Canada. The podcast is posted at http://iapodcast.blogspot.com/ In the first couple of clips there is some background conversation. The post includes time intervals for each presentation or discussion. Topics include social tagging, writing for the web, Adobe’s new tool Flex, and more.
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/
March 24-26, 2007. Preconference workshops March 22-23. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. http://www.iasummit.org/2007/
March 8-9, 2007. Sydney, Australia. Led by Peter Morville, co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and Ambient Findability. http://www.keyforums.com.au
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?
What is the role of the Enterprise Information Architect? Do we focus strictly on information infrastructure, or become change agents? http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/enterprise
To gather information for the next edition of “Information Architecture for the World Wide Web,” Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville have been surveying the Information Architecture community.
The newest survey “IA Education Survey, for Practitioners” is now open. The authors would greatly appreciate your input. (more…)
New on STC.org More STC news