2002 Towards a New </Information> Architecture

2001-2002 Series:

Towards a New </Information> Architecture

series logo It seems that anyone who can letter a shingle can hang it out and claim to be an "Information Architect (IA)."

What level of competence and professional background should we expect from a person claiming the title of "Information Architect?" Is Information Architecture a significant new field important for businesses in the 21^st century, or just another case of title inflation? What is the relationship of Information Architecture to the 5,000-year-old, highly specialized and regulated profession of built-architecture?

This year-long series of monthly programs featured speakers who explored the following subject areas:

The craft of Information Architecture: tools, methods, and practices
The scope of Information Architecture: which disciplines are in and which are out, and why, and who says
Information Architecture as a profession: curriculums and certification

The series concluded in September 2002 with a presentation by Keith Instone, keeper of The Usable Web, (www.usableweb.com), one of the premier portals for human factors, usability, design and IA information for practitioners.

* See Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, 1923

Towards a New </Information> Architecture

September 2001

Introduction & Overview, Leo Frishberg, Phase II, Portland

A lively introduction to the series highlighting the current confusions about this emerging discipline.

Concrete Aspects of Information Architecture:
IA tools and approaches

October 2001

Lisa Boleyn, Independent IA, Portland
Sabrina Jetton, Ziba Design, Portland

Two IAs describe the deliverables an Information Architect creates. They show how User Scenarios, Interaction Flows, Architecture Maps, and Storyboards lead to better products.

Point / Counterpoint: What's the big IA?

January 2002

Christina Wodtke, Carbon IQ, San Francisco
George Olsen, Interaction By Design, Los Angeles

Two of the emerging IA community's noisiest voices debate the place of the IA in a company's organization. Is the formal role of an Information Architect even needed? Should there be a Chief Information Architect?

Panel: Something old, something new?

February 2002

Mary Devlin, Mary Devlin Associates
Eva Miller, Multnomah County Library
Allyson Carlyle, The Information School, University of Washington

Librarians have been organizing information and making it accessible for a very long time. What have librarians learned about the structure of information and user interfaces that would benefit information architecture?

Who Do You Really Work For:
The end user or those who pay you?

March 2002

Mary Lukanuski, Addis, Berkeley

Who are our real clients – the end users or those who pay us? How do we serve our employers' business needs and brand while creating the most elegant user experience/IA? What happens when our employers have a different vision of the "user experience"?

Immersive Telepresence

April 2002

Cliff Schinkel, MediaMania, Portland

Interactive "presence" involves both gathering sensory input and delivering your influence upon it. Cliff describes the Internet's Level 2 potential.

User Research All the Time:
Integrating User Research into Project Implementation

May 2002

Marijke Rijsberman, Interfacility, Palo Alto

Team-based ethnography grounds IA and interaction design in an increasingly thorough and evolving understanding of users, the work they do, and the evolution of their work in response to new technologies and information tools.

Architecture of bricks and clicks

June 2002

Fu-tien Chiou, Genex, Los Angeles, www.genex.com

How do traditional architecture and information architecture practices differ in the areas of the physical/web environments, building/site types, occupants/users, components, and design methodologies?

IA: A communicator's perspective

July 2002

Jean Richardson, BJR Communications, Portland

Professional communicators bring their specialty's expertise to bear on the topic of information architecture in a lively discussion of problems and solutions as they move into information architecture roles.

Teaching Information Architecture

August 2002

Lynn Boyden, UCLA, Westwood

IA and Library Information Science complement and reinforce each other. Lynn describes the major streams that inform both fields and prospects for the future.