ia play

I was making a hotel booking recently and got stumped by the currency converter for a while. The UK currency was listed in the alphabetical list as ‘pounds sterling’.

Whilst technically correct, UK pound or British pound are more normal in these lists, giving precedence to the country name rather than the currency name. With most countries that makes finding the relevant currency easy but it is still a bit tricky when dealing with the UK as you never know whether it’ll be listed under U or B.

So it would help not to throw P into the mix as well.

In the midst of Jared Spool’s gadfly-esque “UCD never worked, maybe we should retire it” opening plenary at the IA Summit was a rope prop. The rope represented the number of visitors to a website. It had a knot to show the small percentage of visitors who are customers and another for the even smaller percentage of big spenders/ultra-fans. Jared suggests that a smart business person doesn’t worry about the huge percentage for whom the website clearly isn’t working and just focus on selling a little bit more to those ultra-fans.

Fair enough.

But oddly not everyone in audience is just trying to make lots of money. I was reminded of this in a recent presentation from the BBC’s marketing team about audience segmentation. Like any other organisation we have a segment of highly passionate fans but, as the presentation made clear, the BBC cannot just up-sell to our the high approvers. That’s not public service.

So BBC IAs have to think about the whole rope, I’m afraid.

At the BBC we divide our large UX team into a number of fine grained distinctions: visual designers, interaction designers, information architects and usability engineers. The reality is that the actual people in the team don’t fit neatly into this divisions, even if you could come up with a clear definition of the differences.

I’ve been recruiting juniors recently and it has been noticeable that the applicants struggle with the differences between the various UX job titles.

At the same time I’ve been having a look at the job adverts on a few job websites & mailing lists (Monster, TotalJobs, Chinwag, Mad, Jobserve, London-IA, London-Usability) to see if there was any consistent connection between job description and job title. I went through 50 ads in detail and skimmed a load more.

information architect - far and away the most common job title (3 x more than the nearest rival UX architect). Every single job description asked for wireframing skills and only one didn’t mention sitemaps/blueprints. At least half asked for experience in working with multi-disciplinary teams (project managers, designers and developers), client facing skills and a pragmatic approach to balancing user needs and business constraints. Half also asked for usability testing skills, interaction design experience and persona creation. Where tools were mentioned (a third of ads) it was usually Illustrator, Photoshop & Visio rather than any particular package.

interaction designer - rarer than I expected, when this did crop up the job description was pretty much identical to IA. The rarity may indicate a loss of popularity in favour of user experience designer.

user interface designer - similiar to IA and interaction designer but with a slightly more technical angle, often including HTML, CSS and Javascript

user experience architect & user experience designer - very similar to IA and Interaction designer. The only noticeable difference was the remit of these roles often included ‘visual design’ which I didn’t see once in an IA job description

usability specialist & usability analyst - usability engineer seems to have lost popularity as a job title and this appears to have coincided with a broadening of remit. These roles are very similar to the IA and UX job descriptions but with a greater emphasis on designing, conducting and analysing usability tests.

So essentially the job descriptions are very, very similiar for all these job titles. They *must* mention wireframes to be an IA, the UX prefix may widen the job description to include visual design, UI designer is probably more techie and a usability prefix will mean more emphasis on user testing. But these are subtle distinctions. A great deal more unites than divides.

Now job ads aren’t the end of the story but it is interesting that we’ve created so many different job titles and then essentially described them the same. No wonder the applicants are confused.

There wasn’t a strong theme like tagging or RIAs in earlier years but I did take away a theme of performance (which in its serious form focused on storytelling and in less serious form was all about IAs swearing).

Journey to the Center of Design - Jared Spool
Jared gave everyone else carte blanche to exploit expletives. Controversially he based his plenary on the concept that UCD never worked and it was time to retire it. Actually, the substance of the message wasn’t quite so revolutionary. He encouraged the audience to rely on tips & tricks not dogma & methodology.

He said the 3 core UX values for great experience design are:

• vision - can everyone on the team explain the 5 year vision for the experience?
• feedback - is the team regularly exposed to users using the products?
• culture - is failure rewarded?

Integrating web analytics into information architecture and user-centered design - Hallie Wilfert
I think Hallie made the only CSI joke I heard. Perks of doing the first presentation, I guess. She reminded us that analytics is user research and that it gives you what not why. I’d like to see lots more on analytics at the conference, although maybe as a pre-con full-day workshop rather than trying to fit it into 45mins.

IA management fable: The little UX that went a long way - Dan Willis
This was bloody beautiful. And cranky. Perfect combination. The slides aren’t up yet so you won’t be able to understand. LukeW has summarised the take-aways.

Peer coaching - support for UX managers - Margaret Hanley
I was the guinea pig for this. I used a management problem I am currently experiencing and Mags demonstrated the Grow method of coaching. Since the session lots of people have been in touch to a) sympathise and b) offer suggestions. Which is very nice of everyone and I guess in the spirit of what Mags was trying to encourage.

Inspiration from the edge: New patterns for interface design - Stephen Anderson
Stephen called on the audience to look beyond the obvious sources of interface design inspiration, particularly not copying competitors who may be getting it wrong anyway. Went on to take on the ubiquitious Google search results pattern. As always with this tack, I buy that Google haven’t solved the problem but I wasn’t entirely convinced by the alternative put forward. This was one of those presentations chock full of websites to go look at. The painting browse interface was lovely for pottering and Cookthink was a useful discovery for a recipe geek.

Taxonomy is user experience - Dave Cooksey
A topic close to my heart. Dave divided his tips into five sections:

1. Leave your cubicle.
2. Focus on user interactions.
3. Speak the client’s language.
4. Test using real user.
5. Plan the future (governance)

Content page design best practices - Luke Wroblewski
Luke started from the position that much of a site’s traffic comes via search engines and yet page design often assumes you’ve come from elsewhere on the same site. I liked the calculations of what % of pixels a page dedicated to actual content. And BBC news got a thumbs up for their related links.

The information architect and the fighter pilot - Matthew Milan
Matthew was trying to connect IA with what can be learn from John Boyd, the military strategist. It was intriguing but too complicated for me who wasn’t concentrating as I was speaking next. Must read up on this.

Developing junior programmes in UX teams - Henning Fischer, Margaret Hanley & me
I’ll talk about this separately.

Creating career paths for UX professionals - Kristen Johansen
This was stuffed with useful resources for new managers.All good stuff about defining career tracks, setting objectives, giving feedback etc.

E-service: What we can learn from the customer-service gurus - Eric Reiss
The only presentation I’ve ever attended where the audience was provided with rubber ducks to throw at the screen when they saw something they disapproved of. Performance aside, I was delighted to hear Eric express outrage at the reviewers who dismissed his presentation submission as ‘old knowledge’. More on that another time.

Storytelling - a compelling design tool - Dorelle Rabinowitz
Dorelle chose quite a story to kick of Monday morning with. This was a fun session. Cartoons featured again - I beginning to feel quite incomplete for not have a nice cartoon strip scenario for any of my products. Good pointers to Smith and Taxi07.

Audiences & artifacts - Nathan Curtis
Nathan was aiming to help the audience produce better deliverables, faster, and suited to the audience. There’s a nice mapping of deliverables to audiences, and of the difference in the perceived values. Good stuff about the role of documentation for remote teams. And interesting ideas about using layers in documents for different audiences.

Data driven design research personas - Todd Zaki Warfel
I didn’t get what I wanted from this. I think it was cut down from a full-day workshop at UPA last year and it may have lost bite as a result. We probably needed to get beyond ‘why’ and onto ‘how’ and ‘what’ a whole lot quicker. I would have like to looked at different data sources in more detail and to have heard specific experiences of translating research into the persona with more specific tips and issues. In fact, a straight case study of creating a persona based on a set of data may have been more illuminating in the time period.

IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Martin Belam
Martin defined the target audience for his fictional website Nom Nom as teenage girls. My enthusiasm for the baby pandas scattered throughout his presentation may mean it could reach a wider audience. In a nod to the classic swing cartoon (which my mother, a computer programmer, showed me when I was a kid) Martin worked through widget design if technical, market, sales and the user each had their way. Good tips to follow and pitfalls to avoid. And baby animals.

Linkosophy - Andrew Hinton
Baby animals featured again (this time combining LOLcats with a gentle jibe at panicking Flickr-phobic IAs).There was lots of good stuff about communities of practice. And lots of worthy messages about defining the damn thing, or not bothering, or something. I liked the quote from William Gibson as it reminded me of my continual question about what the future technology is going to be that I will refuse to have anything to do with when old.

One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real

Andrew suggested the internet was a phase transition, an idea I am instinctively skeptical about (although at least he didn’t say paradigm shift) but I’ve not put enough thought into this to have a grown-up discussion. Vitruvious also featured, which placated me somewhat. He defined IA’s central concern as shaping structures of context and connections. Which sounds reasonable but is still tricky. Context is a big word with wider usage and meaning. I’m not sure that being concerned with context excludes anything.

But that’s fine with me. Most things are interesting.

Saturday
Keynote: Journey to the Center of Design - Jared Spool
Integrating web analytics into information architecture and user-centered design - Hallie Wilfert
IA management fable: The little UX that went a long way - Dan Willis
Peer coaching - support for UX managers - Margaret Hanley
Inspiration from the edge: New patterns for interface design - Stephen Anderson

Sunday
Taxonomy is user experience - Dave Cooksey
Content page design best practices (repeat) - Luke Wroblewski
The information architect and the fighter pilot - Matthew Milan
Developing junior programmes in UX teams - Henning Fischer, Margaret Hanley & me
Creating career paths for UX professionals - Kristen Johansen
E-service: What we can learn from the customer-service gurus - Eric Reiss

Monday
Storytelling - a compelling design tool - Dorelle Rabinowitz
Audiences & artifacts - Nathan Curtis
Data driven design research personas - Todd Zaki Warfel
IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Martin Belam
Closing Plenary: Linkosophy - Andrew Hinton

Thoughts on these to follow…

According to the pre-registration lists there seems to be 19 IAs from the UK here in Miami. I think only 7 of them have worked at the BBC.

• Martin Belam, Currybet
• Christine Bovingdon, Proquest
• John Paul Clare
• Ian Fenn, Chopstix Media
• Sandra Green, Lovefilm
• Margaret Hanley, WTG
• Theba Islam, BNP Paribas
• Amanda Jahn, Yahoo
• James Kelway, Reed
• Jennifer Kone, Yahoo
• Laura Lessa
• Helen Lippell
• me
• Julian McCrea, Good Technology
• Tim Ostler, DDB UK
• Miles Rochford, Nokia
• Rafael Schouchana, Sapient
• Angie Vanhegan, Wellcome Trust
• Julian Warner, Queen’s University

I wonder if we’ve got a full pack of trading cards between us?

This is my first morning in Miami. Not looking too sunny at the moment.

I’ve been and picked up my summit stuff. You don’t get too much swag at an IA summit, a couple of Rosenfeld media bookmarks and of course the trading cards.

I’ve got a pack of ‘design patterns’ cards to trade. Angelina and Sandra would be proud.

It was quite exciting to see people milling about the hotel with the FatDux lanyards that mark out the IAs. I hear there may be FatDux tattoos to be had too.

I’ve always thought that there are two types of librarian. They can be identifed (and sorted into a suitable category) by presenting them with the aftermath of a shelving disaster in a library (perhaps like the one in the Mummy). All the books are in a big heap on the floor. Are they sent in an outraged huff or quietly pleased? After all, a heap will need sorting out. Do they like order or like ordering?

I’m firmly in the later camp.

(perhaps why I keep blurring The Pleasure of Finding Things Out and Sorting Things Out)

Ok, so now imagine that the librarian only just gets time to do a bit of ineffectual sorting before another shelf is tipped over in Sisyphean style. And all the time people keep wandering in and trying to find books.

I think this may be an IA torture technique.

(sorry about the dodgy metaphors)

I’m flying into Miami Thursday night. Not much planned for Friday: recovering, catching up with Mags & Henning to check we’re ok for our panel .

I never stick to my schedule but currently I’m intending to see the following:

Saturday
Keynote: Journey to the Center of Design - Jared Spool
Do real people really use tag clouds? - Garrick Schmitt
IA management fable: The little UX that went a long way - Dan Willis
Peer coaching - support for UX managers - Margaret Hanley
Inspiration from the edge: New pattersn for interface design - Stephen Anderson

Sunday
Taxonomy is user experience - Dave Cooksey
Content page design best practices (repeat) - Luke Wroblewski
Search patterns - Peter Morville
Developing junior programmes in UX teams - Henning Fischer, Margaret Hanley & me
What do innovative intranets look like? - James Robertson
E-service: What we can learn from the customer-service gurus

Monday
Embodying IA: Incorporating library 2.0 and experience integration … - Michael Magoolaghan
How to set up and run participatory design sessions - Greg Nudelman
Data driven design research personas - Todd Zaki Warfel
IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Martin Belam
What are your users really thinking? - David Robins
Closing Plenary: Linkosophy - Andrew Hinton

I fly out straight after for a night flight back to London. I normally do this as hanging around once the summit is over can be a strangely flat experience.

I’ll probably be in work on Tuesday morning. I’m not that committed but I find that ploughing through several days of email is as good a way as any of staying awake and beating the jet-lag.

Ilaria got in touch to ask me to answer some questions for her thesis about Information Architecture:

1. First of all, I’d like you to introduce yourself, your job, main stages of your professional career and of your education (studies) that have brought you to deal with Information Architecture.
2. Do you think Information Architecture is more of a scientific or arts subject matter? Why?
3. Can you tell me any advantage in your Information Architecture job derived from being involved in communication/journalism?
4. Why, do you think, Information Architecture is so important and relevant?

Here’s my waffly responses:
1. I studied Communications at the University of Leeds and when I graduated I took a graduate trainee position with the Guardian newspaper in London. The role was working in their research and information department. It mostly involved putting newspaper articles into the electronic and paper archives and carrying out research for journalists.

My manager encouraged me to apply to study for an MSc in Information Science. Around a month before I was due to start the course, the website manager for the Guardian emailed everyone asking if anyone was available to work night-shifts on the Guardian website. I realised this would be interesting and a good way to fund my MSc so I applied.

Whilst studying for my MSc I was introduced to the concepts of information architecture. I read Rosenfeld and Morville’s Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and had a ‘eureka moment’ as I realised that IA would combine my interests in media and information management and just generally organising things! I decided to base my dissertation on IA.

At same time I was still working on the Guardian website. One night one of the team came and asked me where the letters page was on the website. I didn’t know off the top of my head so I had a browse around and I couldn’t find it. I realised if two of the staff couldn’t find it then there might be something wrong with the site navigation. I decided that my dissertation would be about the IA of the Guardian website. I carried out a number of card-sorts and category membership expectation tests and subsequently proposed a simplified navigation structure in my dissertation.

On graduation I applied to the BBC for a role called Assistant Producer, Search & Metadata. At that time there were no information architects at the BBC but shortly after I joined the BBC hired their first IA. I talked with him and tried to learn where I could. Later the BBC initiated a content management project and hired Margaret Hanley who had previously worked at Argus Associates. She built a team of IAs which I subsequently joined.

2. It is both, I’m afraid. Individuals who approach IA in very different ways. Some are very focused on metrics, search log analysis, multi-variant testing and rigorous user testing (although we rarely test to levels of statistical significance). Others come from a more creative background and focus more on the ‘design’ aspects of the role. Personally I think the reason IA is powerful and that IAs are valuable to organisations is because they combine thinking styles and should be at ease with both logical/analytical approaches and with more intuitive and inventive styles, and be able to use whichever is more appropriate at a given point in time.

3. Studying communications was useful in getting a foot in the door in media organisations but I’ve also been surprised at how much of both my degrees I have actually used in my career, particularly the sociology of communications that I studied in my first degree. I often find myself going back to David Gauntlett’s work (http://www.theory.org.uk/).

Journalism has always been about structuring information clearly. This can mean that in a media organisation an IA will find allies amongst the journalists who also think about IA problems. In my experience, however, it is also true that these allies can be found in the software engineering teams, design teams and amongst the product managers too.

Sometimes it can be difficult to be an IA in a news organisation. In journalism-led organisations the journalist is king and other disciplines may be relegated to the status of support staff. This can make it hard to be listened to. Luckily this is less the case in the BBC, hence why I have stayed so long!

4. For me, IA solves two main problems:
* ensuring content is findable
* making the complex clear

You don’t have to have an IA to do this. Many sites run by smart non-IAs have cracked these problems without having a dedicated IA but if they have thought about and solved these problems then they were applying IA thinking.

So why have an IA do this? It might be necessary to have someone operate in the role of facilitator/connector, who can talk the language of both the designers and developers. Or the project may be large enough to justify a specialist who concentrates on the IA aspects and frees up the other disciplines to concentrate to concentrate on, say, the emotional design, or the scalability of the technical solution.

My experience at the BBC has been that once a project team has had an IA on a project then they want one on the next project. They can’t necessarily explain why but they know it mattered.

A dedicated IA might be a luxury for many websites but having someone who thinks like an IA is vital.