for UXLx 2016
24 to 27 May 2016
Abby Covert is an independent information architect living and working in New York City. She specializes in delivering a collaborative information architecture process and teaching those that she works with along the way. She speaks and writes under the pseudonym Abby the IA, focusing on sharing information architecture content with those working within the design and technology communities. She is the author of "How to Make Sense of Any Mess" a book about information architecture for everybody.
Workshop
How to Make Sense of Any Mess
In a world where everything is getting more complex and we are all experiencing personal information overload, there is a growing need to understand the tools and processes that are used to make sense of complex subjects and situations.
When we make things for others to use, the arrangements and structures that we choose greatly affect our ability to deliver our intended message to our users. We can make things that make sense, or we can make things that are nonsense.
Most people architect information as part of their daily lives, yet very few have been trained to really think about it. Because of this, much of this world is a total nightmare mess.
This workshop aims to help anyone to feel more prepared to make sense of the messes of information and people they are sure to encounter.
Student Takeaways:
1. Understand why information architecture is an important practice for anyone making anything
2. Define and describe the importance of various components of an information architecture:
- Language
- Context
- Structure
3. Identify the types of form that information takes
4. Evaluate which IA frameworks to apply in a given project context
Auditorium II
Talk
Information Architecture for Everybody
What does a restaurant menu, a business to business sales process and an eCommerce website have in common? All of these things involve structuring information for an audience to understand. And while the audience and context may change, the practice of seeing our way through the associated complexities and iterations does not.
Information Architecture is the way that we arrange the parts of something to make it understandable.
No matter what your job or mission in life: if you are working with other people you are dealing with information architecture. Whether it is determining the labels for your products and services or creating navigational systems to help users move through a complex ecosystem of marketing channels, everybody architects information. In this short talk, Abby Covert will teach us some basic lessons on how to think about the structures and language choices that we make everyday.
35 minutes
Auditorium I
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