In 2020 I presented ‘Teaming with the Virus’ at UX New Zealand. As well as featuring an excellent pun in the title, this talk focused on ways to build and maintain an effective team. It reflected some of the challenges that we faced during the COVID pandemic, but the insights apply to any teaming activity.…

In 2017 I did lots of reading and thinking about information seeking and navigation. I’ve written about it in the blog but never shared the resources that I was prototyping. These are still work(s) in progress. But in the interests of sharing a work in progress that might inspire your work (because this is definitely…

For the last few years we’ve been running workshops to share our practice and teach and learn from other designers and IAs. In 2018 we lived up to our values by being playful and exploring new ideas for how to architect experiences in invisible structures. We used the example of designing for voice. But our…

Due to humidity and air conditioning and magic trick was almost ruined in this talk. Nonetheless, I soldiered on and talked about how invisible assumptions run the risk of undermining our natural creativity. Here is the introduction to the talk that I delivered on the day: A thin, sliver of time between the past which…

In 2017 I gave my ‘What’s the point of information architecture talk’ with some CanUX-flavoured additions. Here is how I described it beforehand: What’s the role of the IA in a world that’s seen Brexit, President Trump and an erosion of trust in facts and experts? IA has always been focused on ‘meaning’ as well…

In Sofia I shared three stories that highlight the importance of the intentional arrangement of design elements. Here is a partial transcript of what said: In April 2014 a congressional hearing began into the recall of 800,000 cars. A faulty ignition switch had been used in the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5. A weak spring…

At EuroIA in 2016 I helped to deliver a workshop on design sprints over 80 people. The number of attendees presented challenges. But the 4 hours went without a hitch and we got great feedback after the event. I’ve written more about the content of the workshop in Design Sprints at the BBC – EuroIA 2016…

At EuroIA in 2015, I talked about Trajectories – a design and storytelling technique that IAs and designers can use to bridge gaps, share ideas and seed a culture of quality connections. I promised to share a free download detailing more about the technique – I always keep my promises. I think designers should be…

My IA inspiration cards are no longer available. Before an issue with the printer I was using, the cards have had a substantial facelift – new design, new print quality and new inspiration. There are 50 cards. Each card contains a prompt or piece of advice to get you un-stuck when you face a tricky…

Here is my talk from World IA Day 2015. I talked about how everyone makes IA. Unintentional architecture is created when designers are unaware of the impact and importance of IA decisions they make, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. I talked about how IAs can share their skills and perspective to empower everyone to create…

Crowds are wise – that’s a fact. When I wanted to make a pack of my inspiration cards for people who are new to IA I didn’t want to rely on advice I thought was useful, I’m not nearly wise enough for that. I thought I’d rely on the IA community to contribute simple advice…

I’m glad you like my IA inspiration cards. They come in a set of 50, in a lovely small box you can carry them around in. They’re still designed for IAs (and designers facing IA-like challenges) to get you unstuck with a statement to make you re-approach the problem you face – ‘slanted strategies’ to…

I worked on lots of ideas around the development of Guides. From early concept prototypes, through to URL design, being the UXA in the BBC’s Knowledge and learning team during the development of this new format gave me plenty to get my teeth into. Creating a content-managed rich online format is a challenge. Guides represented…

Service design sprints combine ‘design sprints’ with a service design and trajectories approach to design new products and ecosystems to support and deliver them. 1. The sprint process follows the same pattern – understand, diverge, converge, prototype, test 2. Understanding means that you have a better understanding of the problem. You can define questions that address specific…