Session type: 45 minute talk

Using clear language is an ethical imperative in today's world. Learn why, and see how you can ensure your communications are clear by following the eight guidelines for writing with plain language.

Whether we're talking about design, content, search, or engineering, we all need an information model that captures what the user needs and cares about. But we don't all need the same parts, or even start in the same place. I'll look at information modeling approaches I've encountered across programming, design, content architecture, and SEO teams, and the priorities they serve. Then I'll share how we can integrate these approaches to align cross-discipline work, reduce conflicts, and ensure a consistent end-to-end customer experience. An integrated information model ensures that our user experience, search experience, and content architecture stays aligned as our users needs and business problems change and evolve.

Emotion has always played a role in how humans make sense of the world, yet taxonomies, categorization and information architecture practice tend to privilege logic over affect. While UX methods like card sorting and tree testing don't necessarily dictate to users what criteria they must use to create categories and arrange content (especially if its open or hybrid card sorting), these methods are still generally considered quantitative and encourage users to think logically, especially if asked to reason out how or why they sorted content in a particular way. However, this privileging of logic in human sense-making and thus of information architecture and design has always been limited, and the compounding effects of a global pandemic; rises in racist violence and oppression against trans folks; limits on reproductive freedom; and the ever-increasingly impossible-to-deny degradation of our natural environment and the effects of climate change only make the limits of this view all the more obvious.

In this talk, we'll discuss what it might look like to not only abide or allow for emotion in information architecture, but account for it, embrace it, and actively seek it out. What would an IA of joy look like? Or sorrow? Of rage? Of justice or radical empathy? I'll include some examples of conducting UX interviews, card sorts and other quantitative and qualitative UX methods in ways that intentionally mine for emotional and affective states, as well as practical methods for mapping these out and translating them into actionable data and designs that reflect more resonant and human IA and systems.

Around the world not everyone views time in the same way, and its perception has a striking impact on how cultures have developed and how they act both in business and in the personal sphere.

Time and its understanding affect more than how we schedule or how we structure our days, and they are one of the many dimensions we should be aware of when we are working among other cultures. When leading a global team, differences in how we agree, make decisions or deliver feedback can make or break your relationships with and between team members, and with stakeholders and clients.

This session will explore time and other dimensions of operating in multi-cultural environments, help you understand your team members and colleagues better and give you a few pointers on how to leverage cultural differences to drive action.

Enlightenment means many things. A state of wisdom, a well informed understanding, an elevation of knowledge. Enlightenment often includes mindfulness, the practice of being present and focused in the moment. Design can sometimes feel nearly opposite, out of the box, haphazard, abstract, and creative, pulling inspiration from a variety of sources and situations and thrown on the wall like spaghetti to see if it sticks. How can we enlighten our design process? Join me for this talk where we explore three key tenants to successful a design project: Setting an intention, mindfulness, and reflection.