April 2006 Issue
IA Summit 2006: Gathering of the Tribe
Published: April 14, 2006
During March 23–28, 2006, over 500 people gathered
in Vancouver, Canada, for the seventh Information Architecture
Summit sponsored by ASIS&T (American Society for Information
Science and Technology). The delightfully diverse attendees
included not just people with the job title information
architect, but also librarians, Web developers, business
analysts, user experience designers, and others.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Information Architecture
My IA Summit 2006 Experience: Part 1: The Pre-Conference
Published: April 14, 2006
The seventh annual ASIS&T Information Architecture Summit
—IA Summit 2006 for short—was held at the Hyatt® Regency
in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, shown in Figure 1, from March 23 through 27, 2006. Its theme was Learning • Doing • Selling.
While I attended the IA Summit Redux in San Francisco at Adaptive
Path last year, this was my first IA Summit.
Even though I’m
not an information architect, I was encouraged to attend by
the recommendations of several people
who told me the IA Summit is one of the best UX conferences
held every year. I was not disappointed. IA Summit
2006 was the
best of the conferences I’ve attended recently—in
large part because so many of the people who present at and
regularly attend the Summit are bright, progressive thinkers
who are friendly and fun.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Information Architecture
My IA Summit 2006 Experience: Part 2: The Conference: Day 1
Published: April 14, 2006
IA Summit 2006 comprised three conference tracks: Learning IA—focusing on IA education and research; Doing IA—presenting professional practice, techniques, and process; and Selling IA—evangelizing the value of IA.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Information Architecture
My IA Summit 2006 Experience: Part 3: The Conference: Day 2
Published: April 14, 2006
Sunday was another great day at the Summit. Many of the panels
I attended during the Summit failed to capture my interest,
but two of the best were the back-to-back panels about wireframing
and alternative methods of creating design documentation on
Sunday.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Information Architecture
My IA Summit 2006 Experience: Part 4: The Conference: Day 3
Published: April 14, 2006
The conference lost a bit of steam on the last day. It was
hard to find must-see sessions. This made me regret all
the more that I’d missed sessions on Saturday and
Sunday I really would have liked to have gone to, because they
were scheduled against other sessions I really wanted to attend.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Information Architecture
Creating Conceptual Comics: Storytelling and Techniques
Published: April 14, 2006
I have a confession to make. I almost didn’t sign up for the Creating Conceptual Comics workshop. When I saw it listed in the IA Summit program, several questions came to mind.
- First, how could anyone fill a whole day with a topic like this?
- Second, with all the “serious” stuff in the same time slot, shouldn’t I do one of those workshops instead?
- And third, I don’t really know how to draw all that well; so what could I do with comics anyway?
Topic: Communicating Design | Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006
Interaction Design (IxD) Symposium
Published: April 14, 2006
Published: April 14, 2006
The IxD Symposium—an all-day pre-conference seminar—was
presented by Dave Heller, Kim Goodwin, Luke Wroblewski, and
Frank Ramirez of IxDA (Interaction Design Association). It
was well worth the additional cost as each presenter gave practical
advice based on real projects.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Interaction Design
Information Architecture and Findability
Published: April 14, 2006
Peter Morville, co-author of Information Architecture
for the World Wide Web with Lou Rosenfeld and author
of Ambient
Findability, presented a very informative day-long lecture
on the subject of information architecture (IA). He discussed
many basic concepts as well as best practices, so his presentation
would appeal to both beginner and intermediate IAs.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Information Architecture
IA Summit 2006 Session Reviews
Published: April 14, 2006
The Impact of RIA on Design Processes
I didn’t know what to expect from this presentation.
I marked it in my schedule, but can’t remember why. And yet
it turned out to be one of my favorite sessions. The presenters
focused on the long-term impact of RIAs (Rich Internet Applications)
on design and development, and based on their findings, made
some bold statements. For example, they prophesied the death
of the information architect, wireframes, and functional specifications,
and heralded the evolving importance of the interaction designer,
interactive prototypes, and the business-intelligence strategist.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | IA Summit 2006 | Information Architecture
