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Wednesday, October 31, 2001

a history

paula thorton followes the life of IA from beginning to present... you get to write the next chapter....

Friday, October 26, 2001

your slip is showing

I guess when you've been doing this long enough, you start to see common problems crop up again and again. Noel pulls back the curtain with an interesting post on AA's new metanav.

Go Lou!

Bloug gets happy-- has the IA's day finally come?

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

and where the heck have you been

So, it's excuse time... I haven't gleaned, I haven't blogged, what have I been doing?

Well, other than "real work,"

I'm working on a secret project. more later...

I did usability testing for Movable Type, and will be writing up results and getting it to them this week. Many people have asked me why I did this for free. Well, two reasons. One, I like these crazy kids with their dream of a good free blog tool (I've got an open source heart). Two, I got to test some of my theories on usability testing. Again, more later...

Carbon IQ had an anniversay party. Two! Can you believe it???

I went to Big Sur for my birthday. Thank you, husband.

I signed a book deal. more later.

damn I'm happy these days.



I think this will be my best year ever.

I'm back

I'm back from my birthday trip to big sur, with a new entry to the The Mirror Project. I came into the office to be greeted by many glorious packages from amazon, including metafiction and deconstrutionist theory. Love you kids!!!!!

Thursday, October 18, 2001

thank you thank youthank you

Amazon didn't tell me who bought Chairman Rolf Fehlbaum for me, but I love this book so much! step up and take your thank yous..... you made my day!

amazon changes its mind

The Amazon.com: buying info removes it's tabs within tabs... and why oh why didn't I take a screenshot?

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

if you are reading this...

Consider yourself invited. I'd love to meet EH readers! Carbon IQ 2nd Anniversary Party - 10.19.01

Tuesday, October 16, 2001

It's not just me

Eloquent rant onTextism about you know who....

Monday, October 15, 2001

real answers for real minds

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Challis Hodge writes up a well-thought out, detailed and insightful article on Customer Relationship management. I know it's a completely different format than Neilsen's column, but still.

Smoothing the Path (Web Techniques, Nov 2001)

Simple answers for simple minds redux

End of Homemade Websites (Alertbox Oct. 2001)
He's at it again: Jakob starts with an outrageous statement, follows up with some uncited statistics, throws in a bad and excessive metaphor (bake your own bricks indeed!), moves to a left-handed pitch of his research product, and then shows that he doesn't get out much (heard of Bigstep, J?) and finishes with a conclusion built on a whole lotta nothing. Perhaps the increased publishing schedule is getting to him, but this column needs to go back to the drawing board. Or if Mr. Neilsen wants to throw out his theories half-baked, he should get a blog.

Compare it to this small gem where Mr. Neilsen puts his finger on a key problem... not sexy, but needed.

Is there no middle ground?

Sunday, October 14, 2001

Bored?

In Information Design A Graphic Designer’s Salvation
Roger Whitehouse suggest bored designers tired of of creating CD covers and magainze layouts consider Information Design to provide the kinds of challenges they are missing. the price? Your mom will have no idea what you do. where have I heard that before???

Friday, October 12, 2001

simple answers for simple minds

read Navigating isn't fun, Alan Cooper's latest article.

I have one thing to say: I am soooo sick and tired of people writing "The web is all about X" It's a medium, people. it's like saying paper is all about writing term papers, and pictures just waste ink. Even weblications have a wide user base and have wide user needs-- power users can take a page full of data, some people are more uncertain, and prefer wizards: one-task/one-page.

Cooper's article was full of oversimplification to a Nielsen-esque level and I was disappointed in him. The articles that have been coming in the newsletters have mostly been outstanding, and this issue was rather poor, I thought.

Then again, he's getting Nielsen-esque attention for it.

good discussion on CHI-WEB about it.

Thursday, October 11, 2001

amazon does it again

While shopping for a birthday gift for a birthday i missed (dang!) I tripped over Amazon.com's new product page. They now have tabs within tabs-- these new tabs are more like lenses, allowing different ways to view the product-- read reviews, peek in side, find items like it, etc. It's remarkably pleasent, and cleans up the page quite a bit. I wish yahoo would take a hint and do somethign aobut their tangled mess.... evolution is fine, but every so often you do have to take a leap forward....

yak attack

Peter Merholz, Jesse James Garrett and I are speaking about IA at Berekley. We promise not to define the damn thing again....

Title: Methods for Information Architecture
Speakers: Christina Wodtke, Peter Merholz & Jesse James Garrett

Location: 230 Bechtel Engineering Center, Sibley Auditorium
University of California, Berkeley
Date and Time: 7.00 p.m., October 16th 2001

About BayCHI-East: BayCHI-East is the East Bay arm of the BayCHI organization. BayCHI-East events are held mostly on the Berkeley campus and occasionally at other locations in the East Bay. The talks are free and open to the public. For questions about the organization and updates about events, go to http://www.baychi.org/bof/east/

Directions
Directions to Sibley:

Map of Berkeley
Directions to Campus -
Information about Parking around Berkeley

fun fact and heavy handed hint

today is one of the few bianary days this year

10-11-01

it's also half way to my my birthday... ... 11 doubled is 22, right? right? oh never mind....

my kingdom for padding

visted Slashdot for the first time in awhile to discover if bert really is behind OBL, and all i can say is "margins, people, margins!!!!"

Wednesday, October 10, 2001

V-2, version 2

A new v-2.org launched sometime yesterday, still full of content yuminess but with a new shiny exterior. I'm refraining from commenting until I get used to the new creature, since I --like so many folks-- have that first "change bad" feeling before settling into a comfortable relationship with a new design. But I'd love to hear what you all think.

Tuesday, October 9, 2001

my eleganthack

Recieved yet another notice I had become somebody's friend via amazon (hi brad!), and once again was perplexed to see this line

"Click on the link below to see Brad Lauster's About You area:"

and my first thought is "what has that brad lad been writing about me???" Oh, it's a slippery slope. Time to reread Peter's old chestnut from 98, Whose "My" Is It Anyway?.

C'mon Amazon, you're better than that.

Monday, October 8, 2001

you get what you pay for.

Deborah J. Mayhew points out you get what you pay for: discount usability will not do the entire job. She goes on to say that guru's also aren't worth the money. While I do think she generalizes a bit, I agree with her on several points, especially the fact that websites are far more complicated and need more extensive testing beyond typical discount methods.

However, there are aspects of discount I still think are right on, including ditching labs and using smaller samples when time is limited. Some usability is still better than none. I think the key problem is that discount usability should have been a fix for projects with tiny budgets and timelines-- instead they've become the defacto standard, and that isn't the way a grown-up company should go.

hire this woman

I know recruiters lurk about here sometimes... a former protegé of mine and Jesse's has moved to New York and is job hunting. I strongly recommend you consider hiring Andi Lewis.

movable feast

Morality may not be a movable feast, but thanks to ben and mena, I've been able to use movable type to make a food blog. I'm liking it very much, and will be moving eh into it shortly, I hope.

I've also volunteered to do usability testing for them next week, along with chad. If you are in San Francisco, are interested in movable type and have not installed it yet, and are a blogger (whew, now that's a screener!) let me know and we can use you for usability testing!

Saturday, October 6, 2001

you get what you ask for

WebWord Interview > The Face of Information Architecture is Webword's first interview with a woman this year... three guesses who it is! Anyhow, enjoy!

Wednesday, October 3, 2001

I am the face of information architecture

noel was playing with the new google tab interface, and looked for images for information architecture. funny!

new and improved

I just tripped across movable type, and I think it has what I want in blog management system. With the redesign on the horizon, I smell convergence. things I'd love, if anyone has time to help:

anyone use movable type and have feedback on it? (I know it's not released yet)

anyone have time to help me build the css layout of the page? I'm really stuck.

alternatives

Nooface: In Search of the Post-PC Interface is an interesting new blog that tracks the developemnt of the non-WIMPy interfaces.

the happiest place on earth?

Lou points to The IA of IKEA Stores, in which an IA looks are the fine art of experience design (though she calls it IA). The is an IKEA near us, and I've always been amazed at the Disney-level care given to the user's experience as one wanders through the store. Perhaps it's time for another field trip. Or maybe I just need a lamp.

Tuesday, October 2, 2001

job description

Richard Saul Wurman defines an Information Architect

"the individual who organizes the patterns inherent in data, making the complex clear. It's a person who creates the structure or map of information which allows others to find their personal paths to knowledge, and it's also the name of the emerging 21st century professional occupation which addresses the needs of an age, focused upon clarity, human understanding and the science of the organization of information."

Monday, October 1, 2001

a womanly touch

Came across an interesting article, What Marketers Need to Know About Women

"REACHWOMEN: What are the biggest mistakes companies are making in reaching women?

MLQ: Companies often wait until they have spent all the money and the project is practically complete before involving and talking with women. I see opportunity for involving women earlier and more fully in the marketing process. Companies are still waiting too long, when they could have brought women in at the outset of an issue in order to build something rather than to simply judge and diagnose it.
For example, a retail company may ask: "How can I make my store more relevant." They may attempt to fix it themselves first, create concepts and models and then go out, finally, when it is practically ready to be built, and say, "Hey what do you think?"
The company is almost reluctant to show the product until everything is perfect. Women are used to life not being perfect. They would rather you acknowledge, "Hey, our store is not perfect. Talk to me about how I can make it perfect for you.""

one could easily replace "women" with "users" and get a pretty good strategy in general...

do designers hate themselves? how about us?

On BiggerHand Mike calls attention to a passage in the CIQ interview on digital web that refers to designer's boredom with IA matters, and suggests that any designer worth his salt cares rather deeply about them and that digital web is teaching self-hatred.

At Seybold a creative director came up to me after one of the panels wondrering why he couldn't teach himself IA, or suggest his designers learn IA, and skip hiring one. I had to admit that if he had good designers, and the site was not overly complex, he could easily do exactly as he proposed-- and if he considered IA to be sitemaps and wireframes. However, if he needed to consider metadata-theasuri-controlled vocabularies, if he needed to plot out multiple use scenrios, if he had multiple user groups whose needs had to be plotted out, prioritized and met, he might wish to expand a team to someone whose was a specialist in this area. Kind of like he might hire an illustrator to do some illustrations for a design. Or he might say, my kids can do it.

We often forget in these theorectical discussions that teams are made of people. It's entirely possible a CD might say, hey my lead IA Joe can design quite respectably, and this data input form requires no brilliant innovation, just excellent information design which Joe can provide. Or a CD might say, hey, my lead designer Carla is an outstanding informtion designer as well as getting the brand down pat... I've going to send Joe over to do some card sorts while Carla makes this messy form usable.

Design and IA have an overlap-- they aren't identical by any means, but they share some turf. That turf can be a cause for turf-wars, or it can be a place where a savvy CD can get a lot from his team.

These are my thoughts, from having the pleasure of having worked with Mike as well as other excellent designers in the past. I'd like to hear your thoughts on our ongoing struggle/collaboration with graphic design.