At least several times a year, I try (I really do) to set up folders to sort my email. I am an information architect, after all. Setting up folders is, according to my job description, my area of expertise. Actually, I suck at setting up folders for email.
Reviews
With all the attention to usability over the last five years or so and the wonderful swelling of information-architecture-related books just since 2001, you would think we would have enough methods and advice to keep our projects in perfect tack. But so many of these resources, excellent though they are, tend to be more about how to pilot the ship than how to find that all-important star and keep it in sight.
Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner’s Guide to User Research
This year’s IA Summit, themed “Breaking New Ground,” seemed to have the right mix of new and returning folks, a nice variety of interesting and well-attended pre-conference workshops and several tracks of presentations to suit the IA of every flavor.
Day 1: IA Summit 2004 Wrapup
The second day of the IA Summit dawned with rain and storm clouds. But the weather cleared, the presentations were inspiring and by the end of the day, each of us returned back to our lives recharged and eager to build on what we had learned.
Day 2: IA Summit 2004 Wrapup
Combine the probing thoughts of media culture sage Marshall McLuhan with the visual insights of design guru David Carson and the result is the quintessential coffee table book for anyone that works with technology and design.
The Book of Probes
What is Dublin Core? And why would you need a whole conference about it? The end of September and beginning of October brought representatives from various countries around the world to a sunny and warm Seattle, Washington, host of the 2003 Dublin Core Conference.
2003 Dublin Core Conference Summary
Whether you have been paying attention or not we are living in an age of aesthetics. So says Virginia Postrel in her latest book, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. Postrel examines how the role of aesthetics and style are transforming our culture and economy in a variety of ways.
The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness
In the business world, user experience endeavors are typically seen as a cost—a line item expense to be minimized to the greatest extent possible while still remaining competitive. This has led to a number of essays, articles, and books on proving the value of user experience, including a recent report by the Nielsen Norman Group.
Report Review: Nielsen/Norman Group’s Usability Return on Investment
While most technology conferences are an immersion in the nitty-gritty of the technology with little thought about how that technology will ultimately be used, Bob Baxley notes that the O’Reilly Emerging Technology conference was refreshingly concerned with the uses of new technology.
2nd Annual O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
Spring is in the air and 400 +/- IAs are gathered together for networking, knowledge sharing, drinking, schmoozing, eating and drinking. It must be the annual ASIST IA Summit. Held in Portland, Oregon this year, the summit was well attended and seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. Check out the events from Friday night and Saturday, March 22.