All Thinking and Making Entries
Lazy Site Map Generator
Jason Pearce has put together a Lazy Site Map Generator that takes a site architecture in Excel, converts it into a Visio-friendly format, and then creates your sitemap in Visio. — Sun, Feb 10, 2008 from Houston.
Fancast officially launches
We've finally launched Fancast, and the response has been fantastic. — Thu, Jan 10, 2008 from Philadelphia.
The best books on innovation
Whether you're honing your design thinking or hoping to boost innovation, Victor's survey collects a list of books you need. — Thu, Jan 10, 2008 from Philadelphia.
Too many feeds to read? Ration your feed subscriptions!
Too many feeds on your list? Is your daily read eating up all too much of your day? Then dole your feeds out in small bite-sized rations!!! — Fri, Jan 4, 2008 from Houston, TX.
Web standards didn't kill HTML
Web standards never said browser developers couldn't come up with crazy new, proprietary features. The web standards goal was that if browser makers would implement some standard in a standard way, then the web would be a better more accessible, easier to create, and easier to maintain. — Tue, Dec 18, 2007 from Houston, TX.
Assessing your team's UX skills
Jared Spool writes a brilliant article over at UIE: "Assessing your team's UX skills". — Mon, Dec 17, 2007 from Houston.
There and back again, a return to Houston
The last three weeks have been beyond crazy and bizarre. I've moved back to Houston and am slowly settling in and adjusting to the change. — Mon, Nov 26, 2007 from Houston.
The International Conference on Managing Design in Global Environments call for papers
The International Conference on Managing Design in Global Environments will take place on November 20, 2007, in Seoul, Korea. The Korea Institute of Design Promotion -- with the assistance of DMI -- is now seeking submissions of a broad range of papers that discuss the globalization of design and design management, including those focused on theory-building and empirical research as well as case studies. — Sat, Sep 29, 2007 from Philadephia.
Changing the Channel (interview with Livia Labate and Austin Govella)
Last March at the IA Summit, Christina Wodtke grabbed myself and Livia Labate for a quick discussion about how information architects can better interface with the business. The interview is up at Boxes and Arrows. — Sat, Sep 15, 2007 from Philadelphia, PA.
How to not boil lobsters: strategy keeps projects on track
If your team knows what your strategy is, then they know where you're going, and your less likely to end up somewhere else. — Sat, Sep 15, 2007 from Philadelphia, PA.
Products as duck-billed platypi
Wherein the author bitches, whines, and whinges about personal information management an GTD for several hundred words. — Fri, Sep 14, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Link blog back on the web
Though her feed never disappeared, last year when I was migrating bits about, the web-friendly version of my link blog was accidentally nuked. Thanks to modern science, we've rebuilt her. — Mon, Sep 10, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Thinking Links
Links to websites about information architecture, design, business, and web development.
— Mon, Sep 10, 2007 from the Sprawl.IDEA 2007?
Who's going? Anyone? — Mon, Sep 10, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Ma.gnol.icio.us - Combined Ma.gnolia / del.icio.us bookmarklet
A bookmarklet that eases the carpal strain of saving bookmarks in both del.icio.us and Ma.gnolia. Easing the obsessive participation in online social networks is left to young Jungs. — Thu, Aug 23, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Video
The success of sites like YouTube and longform video syndication to network sites makes video look like a golden ticket for web success. The real golden ticket is giving people access to something they want or something interesting. Video, in an of itself, is a red herring. — Wed, Aug 15, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Today's random anecdote
Have you known long pants? It's never too late. Wear them today! — Fri, Jul 27, 2007 from Philadelphia.
‘Maximum Value Design: Strategies for Creating a Larger Impact on the Business’ - Thur, Jun 28 in Philadelphia
This Thursday, I'm presenting a collection of six stories that illustrate how strategic design isn't a type of work: it's a way you work. — Tue, Jun 26, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Build styleguides into content management systems
All organizations need styleguides, but they're useless if they don't appear adjacent to the content. — Mon, Jun 4, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Search connects people to communities
Search lets users find disparate and disconnected communities while browse tools let them optimize their interaction within those communities. — Wed, May 9, 2007 from the Sprawl.
Does Comcast have the DNA to compete in a 2.0 world?
For every organization, how do you best change your DNA to adapt to new ages? Is it as simple as adjusting your organization's architecture to enable more participation from good DNA? — Mon, Apr 30, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Andrew Hinton's Communities of Practice
Communities of interest, shared culture, is a more powerful framework for participation than communities coalesced around a practice. The former shares world-view while the latter only shares world-do. — Sun, Apr 29, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Personas (introductions, tutorials, articles, case studies, and references)
Every so often, I collect a range of articles on personas for one reason or another. This morning, I did this exercise again -- for the third time -- and decided that, maybe, I should just bookmark them. — Wed, Apr 11, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Lie #2: User-centered design as user-centered
For 90% of designers 90% of the time, design methods should address the system, not specific users. When we focus on user context, we lose the context of the system. — Wed, Apr 11, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Lie #1: User-centered design as exploration and discovery
For 90% of designers 90% of the time, user-centered design is less about design and more about documentation and validation. — Wed, Apr 4, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Shared passion
Shared passions sneak into our lives because we can't keep them out. — Fri, Mar 30, 2007 from Philadelphia.
Maximum value information architecture
Slides from my presentation at the 2007 IA Summit.
— Fri, Mar 30, 2007 from the Sprawl.Where does IA fit in the design process? (IA Summit 2007)
This was one of the presentations I really enjoyed.
— Thu, Mar 29, 2007 from the Sprawl.There is no demand for messages; site personas create better communication
Messages are one way, conversations two. Personify your product or service as someone your users want to talk to.
— Mon, Mar 12, 2007 from Philadelphia.Maximum value IA: creating a larger impact on the business (IA Summit presentation)
Presenting at the IA Summit, I’ll share six stories that illustrate how big IA is the way you do, not what you do.
— Sun, Mar 11, 2007 from Philadelphia.Making agile development and design work
Agile’s focus is wasted without a comprehensive vision from design.
— Wed, Jan 31, 2007 from Philadelphia.Information architecture as an alignment discipline
Information architecture, like business analysis and enterprise architecture, is a discipline of framing and alignment that ensures an organization's parts work together. — Tue, Jan 16, 2007 from the Sprawl.
How to be a good product manager
Jeff Lash’s new blog should be required reading for any product manager.
— Mon, Jan 15, 2007 from Washington, DC.Glorum: forum 2.0 is an example of invisible architecture
Glorum’s adaptive, emergent IA lets users invest and mold the system into what they need.
— Wed, Dec 20, 2006 from Washington, DC.Fighting project amnesia and communicating requirements
I’ve been working with people in Philadelphia from an office in Washington, D.
— Wed, Dec 20, 2006 from the Sprawl.I hate grey text
I hate grey text.
— Thu, Oct 26, 2006 from the Sprawl.IA is not about information problems
Information architecture models systems where users interact with discrete information problems. — Sun, Oct 8, 2006 from Washington, DC.
Tags
{PLUGIN_TAGCLOUD}
P.S. A polite -- and timid -- call to arms
Adam Greenfield has published Community requires discoverability
Community balances between keeping some people in and keeping other people out, but over time, communities must be discoverable.
— Tue, Sep 26, 2006 from the Sprawl.Stuff Management over time
All stuff management systems capture a default moment in time, usually the most recent moment, the most recent version of now.
— Thu, Sep 21, 2006 from the Sprawl.Managing, making, and finding stuff
Content, knowledge, documents, resources, files, etc.
— Mon, Sep 18, 2006 from the Sprawl.Media: Use versus storage
In the past, media products routinely optimized for use and storage; easy to access, presentable archives.
— Tue, Sep 5, 2006 from the Sprawl.Inspiring Creativity
I spent most of the day watching almost every single one of the TED Talks, but the one I enjoyed the most was An open letter to my friends
The other day, I met a bunch of DC IAs (and one from Philly) for dinner.
— Mon, Sep 4, 2006 from the Sprawl.Designing the Seattle Public Library
Libraries are the kind of obvious intersections of culture, media, and use that highlight the work at which information architects excel.
— Sun, Sep 3, 2006 from the Sprawl.Recommendations clarify relevance
Tenets for usable, accessible rich interfaces
We have specific benchmarks and standards for both usability and accessibility.
— Mon, Jul 24, 2006 from the Sprawl.The world keeps spinning
Apparently, depsite my absence, the world has not stopped.
— Thu, Jul 20, 2006 from the Sprawl.Measure, test, measure, compare
Part of the problem with metrics is that so much of what we do seems so fuzzy.
— Mon, Jul 3, 2006 from the Sprawl.