User Experience, Information Architecture & Other Obsessions

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The Journal of Information Architecture Debuts

May 5th, 2009 · No Comments · Information Architecture

Congratulations to Andrea Resmini and all the hardworking, brilliant people who just launched the Journal of Information Architecture.
I’m not saying this just because I’m fortunate enough to have an article in it, either. In fact, I hope my tortured prose can live up to the standard set by the other writers.
Link to contents [...]

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You Are (Mostly) Here: Digital Space & the Context Problem

March 26th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Information Architecture

Here’s the presentation I did for A Summit 2009 in Memphis, TN. It’s an update of what I did for IDEA 2008; it’s not hugely different, but I think it pulls the ideas together a little better. The PDF is downloadable from SlideShare. The notes are legible only at full-screen or on the PDF.
TheContextProblem
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Flickr and Market Governance

September 30th, 2008 · No Comments · Information Architecture

Erin Malone points to an article on the challenges of managing the Flickr community in the SF Chronicle:
"People bring their human relationships to Flickr, and we end up having to police them," Champ says. …
Lest your inner libertarian objects to such interventions, Champ is quick to correct the idea that the community would ultimately find [...]

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Denis Wood: A Narrative Atlas of Boylan Heights « Making Maps: DIY Cartography

September 20th, 2008 · No Comments · Information Architecture, Stuff

In my talk for IDEA Conference, I’ll be referencing the work of Denis Wood.
I’m so utterly intrigued by a particular long-term project he did back in the 80s, which ended up in an episode of This American Life.
In a blog post at the “Making Maps” blog, Wood goes into some detail about this [...]

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Context and “Choice Architectures”

June 23rd, 2008 · No Comments · Information Architecture

Within a larger, and more political, point in his column, George Will explains something about structuring systems so as to “nudge” people toward a particular behavior pattern, without mandating anything: George F. Will: Nudge Against the Fudge
Such is the power of inertia in human behavior, and the tendency of individuals to emulate others’ behavior, that [...]

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Edward Tufte on the iPhone

June 20th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Uncategorized

I don’t know how I missed this before, but I’m glad I ran across it.
If you haven’t seen this very brief clip of Edward Tufte critiquing the iPhone interface, check it out.
A couple of salient quotes:

“The idea is that the content is the interface, the information is the interface, not computer-administrative debris.” [...]

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The Hyperlink

June 18th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Information Architecture

Whenever I say that the Hyperlink changed the world, people look at me like “huh?” The lowly hyperlink is often overlooked as just a ‘feature’ of the Internet or the Web in particular. But I’ve always thought that was a bit backwards. The hyperlink is what made the web possible — it is for the [...]

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IASummit 2008

March 10th, 2008 · No Comments · Uncategorized

Some very nice and well-meaning people have asked me to speak as the closing plenary at the IASummit conference this year, in Miami.
This is, as anyone who has been asked to do such a thing will tell you, a mixed blessing.
But I’m slogging through my insanely huge bucket of random thoughts from the [...]

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