ia play

2 month contract with Defaqto, no salary mentioned. Yet again junior means at least one year of experience.

“We require a Junior Information Architect to join the business, supporting
ongoing web site development. Working with the Senior IA, you will be
responsible for producing wire frames, sitemaps, user journeys / story
boards and user scenarios considering the usability of the client’s
Websites. You will need a minimum of one year of experience as an
Information Architect, preferably for a major agency”

from London-IA

I’m very happy with our customisable homepage. There’s no sport anymore for me, weather has top billing, and science & history get more space than they used to. Wimbledon was a useful addition over the last fortnight.

What I want from future releases is:

• A food box with a recipe search + the latest recipes + any reasons to celebrate with food that day.
• The week on TV at 9 o’clock at glance. That’s the only time I really watch much so it would be good to see it all in one go. And I’ve only BBC1 & 2 anyway.
• Gardening box with plant(s) of the day. Big shiny flower pictures, perhaps of something good to plant now and something that’s looking good right now .

But as we’re all about user centred design (well, most of the time!) my particular wants won’t decide what we get.

I love Found Objects of Industry for the folding beds and benches, the industrial labs and assorted paraphenalia. But mostly for this cabinet with the little drawers.

Yet another I want.

Idler editor Tom Hodgkinson follows up How to be Idle with How to be Free in which he exhorts us to live simpler lives, get off the capitalist hamster wheel and indulge in a bit of anarchism. Jolly medieval peasants seem to feature a lot. As reviewers have pointed out, he does seem to forget an awful lot of the nasty bits about the medieval period.

And for Hodgkinson, governments are responsible for wars and taxes but he conveniently ignores the NHS (which is the bit that vexes me about all this self-sufficiency stuff…. I’d still quite like having highly trained medical staff around and I don’t think they want to be paid in turnips or with a nice tune on the ukelele).

I felt compelled to follow this up with Medieval Lives by Terry Jones, which evened things out a bit with a healthy dose of corruption, pestilance and violence.

I’m knackered. What with work, freelance stuff, studying, and then trips to hospital with PW, it’s all been a bit too much.

I’ve noticed that being tired has made me more abrupt and more likely to put voice to my frustrations. It isn’t very me and makes me uncomfortable, but it is more honest and there’s some satisfaction in saying how annoyed you are, rather than going home and kicking something (hopefully not the chickens).

Sorry if you’ve been on the receiving end but the chickens are grateful.

another I want…. a Treepee

I reckon that’d be a good use of the huge ecalyptus that has decided over the years that our garden is way nicer than the place it was planted.

We do annual appraisals at work. They help book-end a year, create a framework for reflecting and making plans. I’m glad we do them but there are inevitably a compromise, a negiotiated contract between boss and employee. I don’t feel morally and emotionally held to the resulting document, just professionally obligated.

Every year there will be stuff on there that my boss needs me to do but isn’t something I get that bothered about. And there’ll be really big things I want to get done that year that won’t feature, either because they are not about work at all, not things my boss is supportive of, or just because there wasn’t space.

So I thought I’d do another one this year. All for me.

I’m not drawing distinctions between my main job, other paid work and general endeavours. In the world of my appraisal there is no such thing as work-life balance, there’s just lots of stuff I want to get done.

Learn

• finish my certificate in contemporary science (by Jun)
• start a more substantial academic course (by May)
• re-learn to play my guitar (by Feb)

Write

• write a little every day
• write for a new publication (by June)
• select and attend some editorial training (by May)

Talk

• talk to a family member every week
• correspond with at least one person from event I attend
• comment on a blog I read at least once a week

Go

• visit 4 new places in the UK (by June)
• at least one new place a month in London
• the library once a month

Save

• end my last magazine subscription (by Jul)
• buy a sheep for the freezer (by Sep)
• quit buying coffee at work (by Aug)
• drop a zone from my travelcard (by May)

Grow

• buy blackcurrant bushes and plant them (by Feb)
• propagate at least 5 of the following: yellow pansies, lamium, sedums, vinca, winter jasmine, dogwood, mallow, red honeysuckle, yellow honeysuckle, golden hops (by May)

Eat

• breakfast at least 6 days a week
• at least one dish each of foraged elderflower, wild garlic, blackberries and mushrooms

Teach

• give 1 presentation to university students (by Jun)
• propose an IA Summit workshop or panel (by Dec)
• register as an IAI mentor (by Sep)
• write something each week aimed at people learning IA

Make

• one item of clothing (by Dec)
• muffins, pita and roti (by Sep)
• at least one handmade Xmas present for everyone (by Dec)
• a cake or biscuits every week (but not cheesecake every week)
• my deer mosaic (by Sep)

Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior is the first book from the Rosenfeld Media stable.

Mental Models is a very detailed step-by-step guide that gives you everything you could need to know to follow Indi Young’s process. The name ‘Mental Models’ doesn’t really convey the most important (in my opinion) aspect of alignment diagrams, the aligning bit.

The original announcement of the book defined Alignment Diagrams as mental models married to proposed features. Indi explains the debate about the title at the Rosenfeld Media site but I do feel the title only refers to half the process.

Here’s how our UX trading card from the IA Summit explains ‘Alignment Models’:

What:
Diagram that breaks down user activities into discrete tasks, arranges these activities in columns, and then uses the same columns to align the product features, functions, and content that support these activities. May also align business objectives.
Why
Provides gap analysis, shows product opportunities, and helps develop task-based information architecture. Serves as a roadmap, and anchors conversations about future features and content in actual user needs instead of individual stakeholder agendas.

In spite of being familiar with the principle of the method I felt that the book launched into the detail of the first step a little too soon without selling the overall methodology. I found it easy to forget the overall point of the method whilst immersed in the (admitedly very helpful) details of participant recruitment and interviewing. Given possible confusion over the title, this might explain the more baffled review on Amazon.

This is a great book if you know you want to get stuck in and start creating one of these diagrams and to do it properly. It could be a bit overwhelming if you hadn’t already come across the concept.

More detailed review to follow for Freepint…

I’ve noticed that I don’t get stressed as easily working at home.

I’m getting non-work stuff done. My screen breaks involve stuff that would otherwise be done in evening and weekend. And if there’s a parcel to be delivered I’m in and that saves a Saturday morning trip to the main post office. That’s generally calming, I guess.

I cook for myself which is a happy activity. I eat well. Substantial breakfasts, fruit, decent lunch with fresh veg from the garden (canteen does tasty chips and overcooked veg ). No chocolate supplies because there’s no generous colleagues or holiday gifts. Still too much coffee but at least not as jitter inducing at the lattes from Mangiare.

Less exercise though as there are no walks to station and back. Occassional lunchtime plant potting doesn’t really count.

But a big part of it is setting goals and achieving them. The potential for getting distracted by new tasks and waylaid by events is much less at home. There’s also a curious pseudo-obligation to keep track off your achievements when you work at home to prove to yourself that you really are working.

I also communicate with a different set of people. At work I talk alot to the people I sit near. At home I email and call people and their location doesn’t come into it. I’m not a huge fan of phone calls (worst of both worlds compared to face-to-face or email) but lots of my meetings have no real need to be conducted face-to-face, particularly those with people I have know well already.

I’ve come across a few ads for a junior IA/designer that I think are for the same job. Always interesting to see the differences in how agencies advertise the same role.

From Skillbrokers, advertising for a Junior Information Architect/Designer

SME based in the centre of the West End is looking for a junior information architect/designer - the technical environment is made up of: photoshop, HTML, CSS, Wireframing tool (such as visio or axure), Ecommerce/ebusiness.

Ideally you will be able to demonstrate some experience in this area, have design experience, but want to become an information architect with a passion for user experience and business performance above design aesthetics - you will need to have a solid understanding of Web design and development along with a working knowledge of Web technologies, be well versed in tools such as illustrator, Photoshop and visio, an understanding of digital agency processes.

You will either be a Web designer with a good grasp of user experience design looking to move into information architecture or an Information Architect with a good eye for design.

And from ABRS, advertising for an Information Architect/Designer

Junior Information Architect / Designer sought by leading consultancy to create wireframes, site blue prints and input into the functional specification. You should be able to turn these into high quality site designs as well as contributing to other design projects.

You should have good photoshop knowledge, good understanding of HTMLS and SS, and wireframing tool (such as Visio or Axure).

To succeed in this role you will have some design experience and want to become an information architect with a passion for user experience. This is an excellent opportunity to develop competencies on high profile projects for someone with limited experience but with the right attitude and skills.