Chiara is helping to deliver the scholarship program for IAC20. As always, we want IAC to welcome new practitioners to the IA community. The IA Conference Scholarship is designed for students new to the field, and is open to individuals in the US as well as other countries. You can find out more in the Scholarship page. But first, meet Chiara.
What’s been your favourite moment as an IA (so far)?
Whenever I see a search interface that needs improvement or content that is begging to be structured I can’t help but get excited. So much of what IAs do is not sexy – it’s not overly visual with animations and wiz-bangs that draw the eye. But it’s so fundamentally important. I love when I can help a client understand the value and power in structuring their information.
There’s usually at least one person on the client team who’s eyes will light up when I start talking about controlled vocabularies and metadata schemas, which always feels great. I know I can help them take control of their information and do more with it.
What made you decide to volunteer for IAC?
The IA community are my peeps! I’ve found this community to be very supportive, caring, smart, and engaging. I always learn something and have interesting conversations with super awesome people. Some of those people have been friends for 20+ years now. I want to do my part to make sure that the IAC continues to be a place where people can come to learn, grow, have fun, and connect with their tribe. Volunteering is a great way to give back to a group that has given me so much.
What does the theme mean to you – what are you hoping to see, hear, sense or share in New Orleans?
To me, making sense of the world is fundamentally what IA is all about – helping to turn data and information into knowledge. It will be interesting to hear all the different interpretations in the various sessions and posters. Given that we will be in New Orleans, I’m definitely looking forward to sensing some great jazz and beignets.
Where can people find you?
I can usually in be found in San Francisco, covered in cat hair. I sometimes tweet at: https://twitter.com/chiaraogan and often post photos at https://www.instagram.com/chachicatt/.
Chiara has been working as a user experience designer and information architect for over 20 years. She started out as a librarian and quickly moved into information architecture. She’s worked as both an “innie” as the information architect for Peoplesoft.com and as an “outie” at Argus Associates and Adaptive Path. For the last 10 years she’s been an independent consultant at 3 Cats Studio. She considers herself a UX design generalist that goes deep in IA and user research. She especially enjoys working with smaller organizations on their web strategy, helping them to know their users, and designing new systems that will help them meet their needs.