IROAI » IA

EuroIA VII 2011

IROAI — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 15:33:31 +0000

Call for Participation
Sept 23-24, 2011, Prague, Czech Republic

Deadline: May 15th 2011

The Seventh European Information Architecture Summit does not have a specific theme. Rather, we will be putting together an English-language programme that represents a wide range of subjects – from hard-core search strategies, to more general user-experience topics.

Building an Information Architecture Checklist

IROAI — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:11:10 +0000

“Government environments often have prescribed complex processes for obtaining and implementing technology solutions. In order to encourage and enable information architecture (IA) in government systems, it is essential to embed IA within the current processes and to view IA as part of the overall architectural framework. The definition of IA used here is broad and inclusive spanning applications, the Web and the enterprise. A common focus exists aimed at organizing information for findability, manageability and usefulness, but the definition also includes infrastructure to support organization of information. This case study describes the development of an IA checklist in a large United States government agency. The checklist is part of an architectural review process that is applied 1) during assessment of proposed information systems projects and 2) design of solution recommendations before system implementation.” (Laura Downey, TSA; Sumit Banerjee, IBM – Journal of Information Architecture)

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IA class

IROAI — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 03:42:43 +0000

Dan Klyn is Adjunct Faculty at University of Michigan’s School of Information where he is teaching Information Architecture. This is the class sylabus.

Let’s get something straight about IA

IROAI — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:04:01 +0000

“Why does this need to be explained? Why isn’t this more clear? Several reasons:

1. IA as described above is still pretty new, highly interstitial, and very complex; its materials are invisible, and its effects are, almost by definition, back-stage where nobody notices them (until they suck). We’re still learning how to talk about it. (We need more patience with this — if artists, judges, philosophers and even traditional architects can still disagree among one another about the nature of their fields, there’s no shame in IA following suit.)

2. Information architecture is a phrase claimed by several different camps of people, from Wurmanites (who see it as a sort of hybrid information-design-meets-philosophy-of-life) to the polar-bear-book-is-all-I-need folks, to the information-technology systems architects and others … all of whom would do better to start understanding themselves as points on a spectrum rather than mutually exclusive identities.

3. There are too many legacy definitions of IA hanging around that need to be updated past the “web 1.0″ mentality of circa 2000. The official explanations need to catch up with the frontiers the practice has been working in for years now. (I had an opportunity to fix this with IA Institute and dropped the ball; glad to help the new board & others in any way I can, though.)

4. Leaders in the community have the responsibility to push the practice’s understanding of itself forward: in any field, the majority of members will follow such a lead, but will otherwise remain in stasis. We need to be better boosters of IA, and calling it what it is rather than skirting the charge of “defining the damn thing.”

5. Some leaders (and/or loud voices) in the broader design community have, for whatever reason, decided to reject information architecture or, worse, continue stoking some kind of grudge against IA and people who identify as information architects. They need to get over their drama, occasionally give people the benefit of the freakin’ doubt, and move on.” (Andrew Hinton)

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uxbasis

IROAI — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 14:38:58 +0000

View more presentations from Hello Group.

Researcher-practitioner interaction update (UXRPI)

IROAI — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 03:00:31 +0000

“I spent some time lately catching up with the status of various things related to my recent researcher-practitioner interaction efforts, my latest “UX community give back” focus. Something I try to make small advancements in during my “spare” time, with the hope of helping foster some longer-term benefits. Some of this is a repeat of postings/comments on gaps and IUE but it helps me (at least) to compile it all together in a new way.” (Keith Instone)

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Students for EuroIA 2010 Paris

IROAI — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:18:56 +0000

The EuroIA Committee and the Information Architecture Institute have
partnered up this year to offer students who could be interested in
being in Paris on September 24-25 2010 the usual lower rates for
attending and the added bonus of a free membership to the IAI, which
will be activated after the conference.

I believe this is a good opportunity to not only attend a great
conference, but to get engaged in a global conversation on the topics of
IA and UX. The IAI is planning a number of student-targeted initiatives
in 2011, and being part of the crew could make all the difference
between seeing change happen and making change happen.

Please spread the news if you think you know of departments,
institutions, and universities whose students could be interested.

Full source at http://iainstitute.org/news/001129.php

EuroIA web site and programme at http://www.euroia.org/.

Thank you,

Andrea Resmini
Director, Information Architecture Institute
http://iainstitute.org/

A Preliminary IA Bibliography

IROAI — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:22:09 +0000

“When some two years ago we started working on what was to become the Journal of Information Architecture, I had already started charting what academia was thinking and writing on the subject of IA. It was not easy, as the one word which could basically explain how the field looked was fractured.” (Andrea Resmini)

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5 negative perceptions about Information Architects and how to defeat them

IROAI — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:09:09 +0000

“Information Architects often struggle to stay relevant to business clients and internal project teams due to their academic approach to achieving business objectives. Way too often, Information Architecture presentations fail to resonate with internal and external stakeholders due to how methods, findings, and solutions are presented. The following represent criticisms and challenges that Information Architects encounter on a daily basis” (Jonathan Lupo)

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Curs de Arhitectura Informatiei

IROAI — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:33:28 +0000

Dan Klyn preda arhitectura informatiei la University of Michigan School of Information. Clientii sai includ: Incorrect Music, Lumber Liquidators, Time-Life, ShopAtHomeTV, American Girl, TJ Maxx, Artistry Cosmetics, Rose Brand, British Virgin Islands Tourism Board, Costa Del Mar, Tobacco-Free Florida, SIGGRAPH, Ross School of Business, NOOMA and world-famous folk music venue The Ark.

Link to slides (English)