Building an architecture of “vibes”: affective IA in practice

Ashley Brewer

IAC24 Main Conference Talk

Description

It started off as a joke: while brainstorming with my team on ways to conceptualize the IA and plan user testing for a new web app to explore our library spaces, my web designer said, “what if we made a filterable category for ‘vibe’?” We all laughed at the time, but almost immediately the idea stuck in my head. What if we DID make “vibe” a filterable category by which users could explore our spaces? Thus began a fun, experimental and highly informative journey, working with our users to create an effective and affective architecture that would allow them to explore our libraries’ spaces based on so much more than how many people would fit in a room or what kind of technology different spaces were equipped with (though we of course included those things, too!)

About the speaker(s)

Ashley Brewer is the Senior Web and UX Librarian for Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. She has 10 years of experience in web and enterprise technology development and UX research and design in libraries and higher education. Critical UX is foundational to her approach, seeking to center inclusion, belonging, accessibility and reparative justice in the design and development cycle and to be continually reflective and responsive about UX tools, methods and practice. She writes, speaks and presents on CritUX; human-centered design; mindful relationships with technology; and innovative organizational strategies to foster a culture of UX, to meet organizations where they are in incorporating UX-thinking and practice. Grounded by her background in the arts and humanities, she’s a skeptical technologist and a gentle gadfly.” Ashley Brewer is the Senior Web and UX Librarian for Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries. She has 10 years of experience in web and enterprise technology development and UX research and design in libraries and higher education. Critical UX is foundational to her approach, seeking to center inclusion, belonging, accessibility and reparative justice in the design and development cycle and to be continually reflective and responsive about UX tools, methods and practice. She writes, speaks and presents on CritUX; human-centered design; mindful relationships with technology; and innovative organizational strategies to foster a “culture of UX,” to meet organizations where they are in incorporating UX-thinking and practice. Grounded by her background in the arts and humanities, she’s a skeptical technologist and a gentle gadfly.