Session type: Main Conference Talk

When structuring and organizing content, it’s tempting to develop a single end-to-end information architecture that governs everything from content creation to delivery. But how do you balance serving upstream authors and downstream consumers, especially when the latter includes several distinct groups of users, systems, and needs? The answer is to separately define multiple IAs—one for management (how content is created and stored) and one for each delivery channel (how content is presented and used). In our presentation, we’ll discuss the key differences in these two forms of IA and how interaction between them enables business success.

Cynicism is easy. Hope takes work. Trust bridges the distance between them, and it’s under attack. Our users suffer from a crisis of confidence in services, brands, interfaces—and in themselves, when they need to assess information or make decisions. Years of gaslighting cause sales cycles to slow and people to question the goods, services, and science that could benefit them. But through choices of design and content, we can empower people and renew their sense of trust. Drawing examples from GOV.UK, America's Test Kitchen, the NHS, Crutchfield, Zoom, and others, gain a bold vision for the future and a three-part framework of voice, volume, and vulnerability to nurture user confidence, renew trust in your organization—and even strengthen society itself.