Fringe IA (InfoCamp Seattle 2013)

@adcockm #FringeIA #infocampSEA

Michael Adcock

InfoCamp Seattle 2013

Sketchnotes!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26536462@N06/8625582734/

Understanding IA

http://si658.danklyn.com/Class-5-Fall-2013

Understanding IA

http://understandinggroup.com/2013/07/presentation-at-uxpa-2013-understanding-information-architecture/

Understanding IA

http://understandinggroup.com/2013/07/presentation-at-uxpa-2013-understanding-information-architecture/

#ReframeIAat the 2013 IA Summit

“Architect” vs. “Builder”

“Meaning” (Do we discover it, create it, or both?)

http://lanyrd.com/2013/iasummit/sccpbp/

IA as Scientific Discovery

“Discovery should come as an adventure rather than as the result of a logical process of thought.” - Theobald Smith

http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve

"...intuitions always appear at the fringe of consciousness, not at the focus.“

"...the great scientist must be regarded as a creative artist and it is quite false to think of the scientist as a man who merely follows rules of logic and experiment."

http://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve

“…the most difficult mental act of all is to re-arrange a familiar bundle of data, to look at it differently and escape from the prevailing doctrine.” - Professor H. Butterfieldhttp://archive.org/details/artofscientifici00beve

Tools and Structures

Tools for discovering Meaningyet

Structures to create Context

A quick example…

As some of you may know, I’m a mashup fanboy.

I commissioned Titus Jones to produce a mashup for this “Fringe IA” session.

A quick example: feedback

“This was awesome... I love when you do shit like this... something I would have never thought of. That's a very powerful tool for audio collaboration. It would be cool if different people/users could add comments (almost like soundcloud lets you select a time in the track, and add your comment?) Regardless though... I really liked being able to read your feedback at each point in the song. Very cool. ”

- Titus Jones

A quick example: feedback

A quick example: presentation

Ok, but what do I do at work?

I’m here:

Company Background

• SaaS solutions for libraries

• Electronic Resource Management

• Bibliographic & publisher metadata

Our Goals

• Relationship Management• Advocate for clients• Advocate for internal departments/groups• Advocate for a solution

• Advise and Assist• Offer historical perspective• Treat problems as a means of discovery, not a way to impose a solution• Connect people to subject matter experts / tools / information• Research and provide answers• Facilitate understanding

• Be Proactive• Make it easier to handle similar problems in future• Anticipate and solve before clients even ask, escalations occur, or a crisis

happens• Ask/answer better questions of the data/information we already have

Our Backgrounds

• Has been at the company “forever”, and built up the Support group

• Worked directly with folks all over the company, and mentored several people

• Knows about a lot of the weird issues that our products and services have (historical knowledge)

• Knows who knows what – if she doesn’t have the answer she can often point you to someone who does (connector)

• Seasoned in customer support and management

Michael

• Joined Serials Solutions about a year and a half ago

• Was a software engineer for 10 years doing all sorts of stuff using all sorts of programming languages

• Earned an MLIS degree from UW in 2008

• Has held project management roles and UX designer roles

• Currently identifies as an information architect, is very active in the IA community, and sometimes speaks at conferences

Fine, but what do I do at work?

Here’s an example:

Given nearly 1000 client configurations stored in multiple XML and JSON files, “migrate” the information over from an old technology to a new implementation.

RTA Migration

Oh, and by the way:

Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.

RTA Migration

Oh, and by the way:

Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.

RTA Migration

Oh, and by the way:

Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.Not sure how many clients must be migrated.

RTA Migration

Oh, and by the way:

Some files are for legacy/inactive clients.Some files are for trial/demo clients.Not sure how many clients must be migrated.It’s NOT a matter of “mapping” or “copying”.

RTA Migration

So, um… yeah. Can we do that?

RTA Migration: Approach

We needed a tool to help us understand.Something that could put all this stuff in a meaningful context.I decided to use aTiddlyWiki,and build onto it.

RTA Migration: Resulting Tool

Under the hood:

Other tools: Google Refine

Other tools: Gephi

Other tools: Gource

http://code.google.com/p/gource/

Other tools: D3

http://d3js.org/

Other tools: RAW

http://raw.densitydesign.org/

Final Thoughts

Freedom to experiment and play is needed.

Sometimes we need to be tool builders to solve certain problems.

We could learn some things from the realm of scientific discovery.

Thanks!

"What you must understand, is that as scientists we must embrace every possibility. No limitations, no boundaries, there is no reason for them.“

- Walter BishopU.S. Army ResearchHeadquarters, 1986

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