Session type: 20 minute talk

This session will share a project done in collaboration with the Anti Defamation League’s Center for Technology and Society to visualize this ecosystem in a series of models and to discuss the questions we looked at, the questions we still have, the continued investigation and how we are using these models to stimulate conversations about policy, product design and moderation with industry, academia, law enforcement and civil society organizations.

This year has accelerated the pace at which critical infrastructure has had to move to digital primary. Where these platforms had often been designed and tested for the primary user groups, they must now consider the needs of a much more representative set of audiences. Some of these audiences have mitigating issues that the IA needs to consider: a reluctance to use the platform; misinformation; or are facing a range of accessibility and exclusionary concerns.

Public health and higher education in particular, are two of the industries that were forced with accelerating their digital experiences. They have had to adapt to the reality that users at all stages of the customer journey will be relying on this digital experience.

In this session we’ll explore how public health and higher education have had to adapt. We’ll discuss case studies conducted by our team where we applied service design methods to assess and synthesize the needs of a representative audience. Through targeted recruitment and rapid prototype testing we developed an information architecture model for a complex range of user groups that helped to bring down barriers.

As more organizations rely on their digital services, information architects will be asked to take on more prominent roles in enhancing the customer experience. This session will help you prepare for that shift.