Taken out of context: old tricks, new dog
Short Session, presented by Margaret Louise Ruwoldt.
Case study and lessons learned: can IA and UX techniques help solve a business strategy problem?
This case study examines whether well-known techniques from the IA and UX fields can be successfully applied to a different type of project.
First, take one new dog...
Having introduced sweeping changes to its teaching, learning and research activities, this year the University of Melbourne turned to creating a 10-year strategy for its scholarly information and technologies. How to develop and curate the University's extensive library, archive and museum collections? How to manage the data and documents created during the course of conducting research? To store, share and deliver materials created for teaching and learning purposes? Give published research a high public profile?
Next, apply some old tricks...
Given a six-month deadline, a small project team — the CIO, an IT strategist, an IA and a librarian — used a grab-bag of techniques from information architecture, user experience and other professional fields to:
- Identify business needs and priorities
- Understand external trends and developments
- Explore individuals' requirements and expectations
- Synthesise and analyse the learnings
- Win buy-in and support for the recommended strategy
In this case study we review the project team's overall approach and the specific techniques used. We also evaluate the benefits (and hazards!) of applying UX and IA tools outside their normal context.
Margaret Louise Ruwoldt
Margaret L Ruwoldt has extensive experience in a variety of user-focused, information-related roles, primarily in the higher education sector. She currently leads a small Enterprise Information Architecture group in the Information Services division at the University of Melbourne.