This talk brings to light some considerations for information architects as they design information spaces for users. Specifically, at times information will appear based on display logic/user input as users navigate spaces. In some cases, the user may be asked if they would like additional information, which may contain self-relevant feedback (e.g., what is your credit score? What is your risk for developing breast cancer?). Dr. Novell’s research over the last 10 years has focused on how people navigate feedback environments in medical, academic, and sales settings, specifically investigating the factors that may influence a user’s receptivity to feedback. In this talk, Dr. Novell presents different research projects she has worked on, which examine the influence of both motivated factors (e.g., expected feedback valence and perceived fixedness of the feedback domain), as well as unmotivated factors (e.g., feedback default settings/choice architecture) on users’ navigation within feedback environments. Her research offers insights for information architects as they design information environments by providing a new lens on user information interaction behaviors.
2019 IAC
Cliff Notes on my Pursuit of Reinvention – 11 Years in 20 Minutes
Reinvention is a necessity for longevity. The 11 years spent as a designer, as well as the years spent in school, have been an extended exercise in reimagining myself at each company I’ve been employed as well as each role. Your growth as a creative professional lives at the intersection of various factors, which are both in and outside of your control, yet you can still proactively plan for them and evolve on your own terms. During this talk, I’d like to share lessons I’ve learned, insights gained, and patterns recognized, which you can take and leverage for yourself.
Telltale Techniques: Applying Storytelling to Enhance Information Architecture and UX
Stories are composed of a series of events and the thresholds between them—each event is a potential gateway to others, according to the logic of cause and effect. In fact, storytelling is one of our most ancient practices as humans. By using it to shape information architecture, we seek to realize gains in creativity and intuitiveness for the user experience.
This presentation covers how to model information as a story, with narrative twists on three conventional techniques for user experience design: the construction of user personas, card sorting, and navigation layout.
Consider two statements from the writer Edward Morgan Forster: “The king died, and then the queen died,” versus, “The king died, and then the queen died of grief.” Although both invoke a sequence of events, the second is a story plot—it reveals causation and implies the stakes for the characters. By doing so, stories make the reader want to know what happens next. Authors have the power to lead readers on captivating journeys through complex environments.
What if information architects and designers had similar powers to guide users through content? Most information systems represent an indefinite state in which the information is related topically and hierarchically, but not necessarily portrayed causally or sequentially as a story does. A story is a predetermined journey through moments crafted to evoke certain effects. Drawing on elements such as character and plot development to inform where and how users encounter information, we can help people reach an ending that satisfies.
Cues from storytelling can be productively applied to the design of information architecture, because stories are quintessentially human. This makes storytelling a shared logic that architects and designers can tap into to achieve creative yet user-friendly ways of managing information.
Accessibility & Color: Addressing Color Blindness in the User Experience
It’s estimated that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some form of color blindness, or color vision deficiency as it is more accurately known. While not considered a serious medical condition or a disability, color blindness can make aspects of everyday life difficult.
One area of frustration for people who are colorblind is the use of color to impart information. Whether used in charts and graphs to communicate numerical data or in calls to action and hyperlinks to indicate possible paths, color can make any experience difficult for colorblind users.
In this talk, Dave will explore the science of color vision and discuss how color matters to both usability and accessibility. He will introduce a practical approach to designing with color that keeps users with color vision deficiencies in mind.
Designing AI for Humans
Artificial Intelligence seems to be all around us, and many organizations are feeling the pressure to implement AI solutions. But like with any technology, especially the emergent ones that get a lot of buzz, it’s critical to let your business and consumer needs lead the technology, not the other way around.
I believe that it is the IA practitioners in an organization who can and should be the ones leading when AI and machine learning makes sense, which interactions it can best support, and how to architect and design those interactions so that they best support humans – whether those humans are employees, end consumers or citizens.
In this talk I will ensure we all understand why we should be forefront in creating AI experiences, why they are exciting and yet challenging (and even risky) and how we can immediately get involved.