Tag: information architecture

  • Mind map of Shooting Sports

    The labels and groupings we use for the shooting sports would benefit from some thoughtful organization. Here’s my current approach at diagramming how the terms, like IDPA, IPSC, and Silhouette, are related.

  • Thinking: Taxonomy of shooting ranges

    I’ve been overwhelmed by feedback from a side project of mine, rangelistings.com, and am working on upgrading it so that site visitors can make some updates on their own without having to go through me. It’s great how even seemingly little projects like this raise information architecture questions so promptly. Wait…what the heck does “access”…

  • LinkedIn UX groups, data and questions

    Doesn’t it seem like there are a lot of user experience groups on LinkedIn? I’ve joined a few of them in hopes of staying up-to-date on topics, but after joining a couple groups, I quickly realized there were many more possible groups, and they all started looking pretty similar to me. Why would I join…

  • IxDA Lansing kickoff featured speaker Dan Klyn

    Last night was the inaugural event for IxDA (Interaction Design Association) Lansing, and information architect Dan Klyn presented “The Nature of Information Architecture.” Presentation overview Dan’s presentation was both informative and controversial. He provided some nice background on the naming of the field of information architecture, citing Richard Saul Wurman phrasings at the 1976 AIA…

  • How WordPress falters as a CMS: Multiple content fields

    WordPress is amazing and keeps getting better, but I want to be clear about an inherent limitation that WordPress has as a content management system (CMS). That limitation is that WordPress doesn’t handle multiple content regions on web pages. Too strong? With WordPress, you can try to use custom fields or innovative hacks like Bill…

  • A Sad Tale of Pagination

    I imagine some professional chefs are accused of over-analyzing a bowl of soup now and then. Like that, as a user experience designer, I get caught up in little pieces of user interface on a regular basis. This particular story concerns a navigation system that utilizes pagination in what at first seems an obvious choice,…

  • IUE2009: Thursday’s tracks

    Okay, that was a great conference. The last day was built on parallel tracks of presentations, most were about an hour-long. I’m only going to write about 3 of the ones I attended. Now That I See It, Dan Klyn, Flannel In-House Recruiting, Cora Bledsoe, Quicken Loans Grown-Ups Guide to the Social World of Web…

  • Zen rock gardens, accessibility, information architecture

    I was walking into work this morning, thinking about 1st, 2nd, 3rd orders of order (“Everything is Miscellaneous” by Weinberger) and came across a frozen pond. The pond is shaped like a teardrop and has three clumps of grass growing from it. As I considered the space between the clumps of grass, it reminded me…

  • Read: Everything is Miscellaneous by Weinberger

    I just finished “Everything is Miscellaneous” by David Weinberger. Fantastic read for information architects! I found it thought-provoking, educational, and humorous. I find myself thinking more creatively about designing information in my work. To honor the miscellany, I actually read through the Notes (references to sources used in each chapter), Acknowledgments, and the Index at…

  • Global nav is phooey?

    I guess I’m a little behind, but I just read this October 19th, 2005 post by Jared Spool: Global Site Navigation: Not Worthwhile? Jared makes the quick claim that global navigation is unnecessary and rarely helpful. Naturally, a discussion ensues. Some in favor of global navigation argue that it is needed for people to form…