Wake up to conversation with friends old and new as you [re]connect before the opening keynote. We can’t deliver the coffee, donuts, or drinks but we will be offering our conference space for browsing sponsor booths, getting technical support, or just socializing before the official kickoff of IAC22.

Design leaders and their teams often struggle with integrating Design and Data Science for better artificial intelligence product development. In this talk, Ovetta Sampson, vice-president of Machine Learning Experience Design at Capital One, demystifies the Machine Learning and AI development process. She will also show how Design easily and optimally integrates with this process to yield more human AI product development as well as addresses or prevents non-optimal outcomes like…

After practicing information architecture for a combined 42 years, the presenters are only now coming to understand the ways that placemaking and sensemaking influence each other in the work we do. Placemaking is the process of creating meaningful places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in. Sensemaking is the process we use to decide what things do, could or should mean. These concepts seem inextricably intertwingled with…

How do we design information spaces for collaboration when we no longer have shared information spaces? So often in IA, we start from the place where people will access information – yes, we should start with user needs, but often place (in-person or digital) is pre-determined. In 2020, we went from in person to remote, with hybrid services, and now there are hybrid events, hybrid work, and even some fully…

Regardless of our specific job titles, many of us can be considered information professionals; we seek out, interpret, arrange, create and or share information to help people understand.  But what is information anyways? How do we seek it, interpret it, arrange it, create it, and use it to understand? This talk offers a 101 level explanation of information so that you’ll be able to answer these questions and more, even…

Are you new to UX, making a career change, or need direction on future career steps? Meet with a group mentor for conversation and advice. Each host will work with four to five attendees for an hour of discussion. Attendance is free with a main conference ticket.

Biomimicry is abuzz with this talk, as we explore collaborative sensemaking through the lens of the honey bee. To confront the truly wicked and complex challenges of our time, we need to embrace collaborative sensemaking and wayfinding. This requires sensemaking at scale, radical collaboration, and meaning-making conversations. While this sounds daunting, we can learn some simple and powerful lessons from the honey bee. Complex problems don’t yield to previous best…

Do you shout for inclusivity, only to feel like a lone wolf howling in the wilderness? You’re not alone, and Chris Rackley has a story for you. Come learn how he and his team changed stakeholder mindsets to incorporate DE&I thinking into their design process.

When is pudding, not pudding? How do you avoid the hacky sack problem? How do you handle granularity tug-o-wars? Come learn practical, fun concepts for analyzing and negotiating taxonomy standardization. Tig Newman, information architect for Google Cloud’s Looker product line, will show what they learned in analyzing & negotiating a cross-organization taxonomy that’s used in multiple tools, teams, and data streams — without ever having a committee meeting and without…

This presentation reframes a variety of poetic short forms such as haiku, monostitch and the anchored terset as powerful additions to our design toolkits.

We are all aware that good information architecture is essential for ensuring your website or product is user-centric, but how on earth do we articulate this crucial work to others, let alone get buy-in from key stakeholders? In today’s workshop, we’ll discuss the key components that make up IA, how to convince others of its importance, and the ways in which you can better engage your team mates in your…

Join fellow registered IACers on Gather for Poster Night! Much like a science fair for IAs, you can interact with presenters as you browse the virtual poster hall of presentations on a diverse range of topics relevant and related to information architecture. Have one-on-one conversations, gather as a group and discuss, or simply soak in the content, all while you mingle with other attendees. Poster topics and presenters will be…