IAC20 Conference Sessions

The “architecture” in IA leads us to make a lot of correlations to architects and the physical buildings they design, but there is a lot to consider at all levels of that simile. Learn how signage and wayfinding processes, considerations, problem areas, and goals in the physical space can inform digital IA practice with concrete examples and inspiration. Walk away more aware of how the information architecture you see in…

In a perfect world, IA would be at the heart of every digital publishing project, and personalization would be just another tool to deliver the best results. In reality, however, most IA practitioners encounter “personalization” initiatives long after critical decisions have been made. Too often, a product is demo’d (or sold) to a high-level marketing stakeholder, then content specialists and information architects are tasked with spinning straw into gold. The…

It’s an inevitable part of life: every once in awhile we have to tell another person something we know they don’t want to hear. Although there are products and services that aim to help people recognize and move through discomfort on an individual level, few support or facilitate group-based discussions on sensitive social or personal issues. My team and I developed a board game called “rekindling” to fill this gap…

Which situation do you think is conducive to doing your best work: a team that criticizes your ideas and gives you a sense of being in constant competition? Or a team that encourages you to take risks and picks you up when your ideas fail? Like most people, you’d probably choose the second option—and you’d be backed by science! Studies show that the top attribute shared by high-performing teams is…

There are plenty of topics that can be difficult to discuss, even with those closest to you – like personal debt, gender and sexuality, and mental health. So what do you do if you run a website or product that focuses on one of those topics and you need to learn about your audience and their needs? We will share best practices to gain an understanding of your audience when…

When was the last time you listened to the structure of your application? Or tested it without using a mouse or a trackpad? Or checked to see what your design looked like for different types of color-blindness. Accessibility is an increasingly important topic and most of it comes down to the semantics in the code. This isn’t a talk for developers, but it is one you should see if you…

Knowledge Graphs are very hot in the information world right now; when articles from this fairly esoteric space in the information industry show up in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, something is clearly afoot. Why is this? How do Knowledge Graphs purport to help us (and, apparently, large corporations) make sense of things? Naturally, this requires some firming up of definitions: What is a Knowledge Graph? Is it an…

When we die, the good go to a pleasant afterlife, the bad are asked to break up into small groups. Working in teams can be frustrating and unnecessarily difficult. Today’s organization requires teamwork, yet few are trained in how to lead or to effectively participate in teams. Based on decades of empirical research and practical application, this talk presents ways to optimize team collaboration and provides a model to improve…

Have you ever found yourself working on a project and realize “I have no idea what this person is talking about” during a meeting? Have you ever struggled to understand why internal teams butt heads and feel like they have to fight to get their point across even when working on the same project? If so, you’ve likely been a victim of The Curse of Knowledge. Also known as the…

Human ability to “make sense” in both sensory and information experiences is learned, then developed through attention and practice over time. It involves acquiring concepts that help us understand and organize our experiences, where language guides and deepens future experiences. IA/design provides clues and patterns that align new experiences with our existing knowledge, helping us wayfind through information spaces and needs. This talk guides IAs, designers, and developers toward creating…