All posts from
April 2007

Conference Review: IA Summit 2007 (I/II)

Added on 26 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“On the whole, IA Summit 2007 was an excellent conference. Though, because of the deficiencies of the venue, it was less successful than last year’s Summit. Next year’s IA Summit looks promising. It will take place at the Hyatt in Miami, Florida, on April 10–14, 2008. Its theme: Experiencing Information.” (Pabini Gabriel-Petit – UXmatters)

Methods of Understanding and Designing For Mobile Communities

Added on 26 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Society is increasingly on the move, mobile devices are commonly being used to coordinate group actions, and group communication features are rapidly being added to existing technologies. Despite this, little is known about how mobile groups act, or how communications technologies should be designed to augment existing behaviour. This is partially due to minimal research being done on the topic, but also to the lack of research methods available to study the topic with. Mobile groups are challenging to study because of frequent and long-duration movement, frequent distribution, and the rapidly changing environments they operate within. To address these issues, this research focuses on methodological issues surrounding the development of mobile devices for mobile groups and communities. More specifically it addresses backpackers, who are a relevant example of this type of community. The research primarily explores the convergence of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and the field of mobile device development. This enables the combination of emphasis on designing technologies for groups, social implications, mobile device design, and mobile settings.” (Jeff Axup – Mobile Community Design)

Measuring the success of a classification system

Added on 24 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“When working with government and large private organizations on complex information systems, project managers and business representatives often demand early-stage validation that the proposed classification system provides the user-friendly solution they are charged with delivering. They also require this validation in a format that will be engaging for senior business stakeholders.” (Iain Barker – Boxes and Arrows)

Enterprise IA Methodologies: Starting Two Steps Earlier

Added on 18 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Information architects working within enterprises are confronted by unique challenges relating to organisational culture, business processes, and internal politics. Compared to public website or interface design projects, key aspects differ in the application of IA discipline relating to uncertainties around the exact nature of the business problems being solved.” (James Robertson – Boxes and Arrows)

Women in IA – Indy Young

Added on 17 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“In this interview, we talk about a great IA and UX method of doing this very efficiently. It was developed by Indi Young (…). After attending her seminar during the PreCon of the IA Summit 2007, where visitors learned how to create a Mental Model (during the teamwork that needs to take place between IAs and their clients), I had the chance to interview her. One of the things I really like about her is her great ability to describe complex things in an understandable way, using metaphors such as ‘the hallway test’ to help communicate methods like the Mental Model to the business world.” (IA Voice)

Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design

Added on 15 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Interaction design is a broad term inflected in different ways in different communities. To us, interaction design comprises all efforts to understand human engagement with digital technology and all efforts to use that knowledge to design more useful and pleasing artifacts. Within this arena, the main audiences for this book are those who conduct work in the fields of human–computer interaction, computer–supported collaborative work, computer–supported collaborative learning, digital design, cognitive ergonomics, informatics, information systems, and human factors.” (Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie Nardi – First Monday 12.4)

Advertising is Broken

Added on 11 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
Brandon Schauer interviews Clement Mok – “I see the opportunity to marry Experience Modeling with the smarts of the Information Architect to structure a powerful model in the user’s world, whether that be through cell phones or tagging systems. The opportunity is to create a model that ties together the deep ethnographic understanding of the user, the system engineering understanding, and the brand/marketing understanding. Tying these three things together is quite powerful.” (IIT Institute of Design Strategy Conference 2006)

Reaction to NextD

Added on 10 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“I would recommend one thing for the IA Community to consider: invite someone from the NextDesign Leadership Institute to speak at the 2008 IA Summit (Miami, Florida, USA, April 10-14). We have a history of giving our biggest critics a voice at our main event – Mark Hurst and Mark Bernstein are just two examples. Time to find our long-lost twins.” (Keith Instone)

Accessible Web 2.0 Applications with WAI-ARIA

Added on 10 April 2007 Peter Bogaards
“Web 2.0 applications often have accessibility and usability problems because of the limitations of (X)HTML. The W3C’s standards draft for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) addresses those limitations. It provides new ways of communicating meaning, importance, and relationships, and it fills gaps in the (X)HTML specifications and increases usability for all users by enabling navigation models familiar from desktop applications. Best of all, you can start using ARIA right away to enhance the accessibility of your websites.” (Martin Kliehm – A List Apart)