Conference Program
This year we
had many great proposals for presentations, ranging in
topics covering UX, IA, UE, IxD and more.
We’ve tried to select the best and most interesting for you. We hope you’ll enjoy our program.
Short sessions run for 25 minutes, advanced sessions run for 50 minutes including Q&A time, with either a 5 minute or 10 minute break between sessions.
Program Schedule
Thursday 1st October
Day 1: Friday 2nd October
- Registration
- 08:00—08:40
- Opening Comments
- 08:40–08:45
- The Evolution of the Agile IA
- Matthew Hodgson
- Keynote
- 08:45–09:35
- Guiding the way to living greener: how psychology helped IA for a new government website
- Ben Crothers
- Short session
- 09:45–10:10
- Morning Tea
- 10:10–10:25
- Information design standards and performance
- David Sless
- Advanced session
- 10:25–11:15
- UNSWTV: Publishing Everywhere at Once
- Geoffrey Bowers
- Short session
- 11:25–11:50
- Audience based navigation – is it the right choice for your website?
- Joji Mori
- Short session
- 11:55–12:20
- Lunch
- 12:20–13:20
- Bringing them online: using design research to identify online opportunities
- Patrick Kennedy & Alun Machin
- Short session
- 13:20–13:45
- Tears, tantrums and triumphs; a UX and IA case study
- Meghan Hayes & Ladan Wise
- Advanced session
- 13:50–14:40
- Social network analysis: uncovering the secrets of information flow for our information architecture
- Mia Horrigan
- Short session
- 14:50–15:15
- Afternoon Tea
- 15:15–15:30
- Navigation models - efficiency versus user preference
- David Humphreys
- Short session
- 15:30–15:55
- We’re still too fluffy
- Anthony Colfelt
- Short session
- 16:00–16:25
- The Theory of Content Objects
- Geoffrey Bowers
- Short session
- 16:30–16:55
- Spoilt for choice. Which prototyping tool is right for you?
- Suze Ingram
- Short session
- 17:00–17:25
Day 2: Saturday 3rd October
- IA failures in Social Networking Platforms
- Andrew Boyd
- Short session
- 09:00–09:25
- The Art of Skywriting – The Demise of the Tag Cloud
- Gary Barber
- Short session
- 09:30–09:55
- It’s not easy being green: Challenges faced when designing software for the Army
- Matt Fisher
- Short session
- 10:00–10:25
- Morning Tea
- 10:25–10:40
- Playing Games with Culture
- Matt Moore
- Advanced session
- 10:40–11:30
- IA tools for measuring cultural readiness for Web 2.0
- Matthew Hodgson
- Short session
- 11:40–12:05
- Huge Data, Little Screen: Assisting mobile users find information quickly using site search on the go.
- Melissa Cooper
- Short session
- 12:10–12:40
- Lunch
- 12:40–13:55
- I don’t know much about the Web but I know what I like
- Jonathan Cooper
- Advanced session
- 13:55–14:45
- Not to Prime is a Crime...
- Jodie Moule
- Short session
- 14:55–15:30
- Afternoon Tea
- 15:30–15:45
- These are a few of my favourite things - personal mobile information architectures
- Rod Farmer & Oliver Weidlich
- Advanced session
- 15:45–16:35
- Sharing information in an Augmented Reality environment
- Rob Manson
- Short session
- 16:45–17:10
Conference Session Descriptions
- IA-Beers - Pre-Conference Welcome Party
- Sponsored by Happener
- Pre-Conference Drinks
-
Happener, specialists recruiters for the digital media industry, are sponsoring the pre-conference welcome party.
Come join us for a few drinks at The Point Hotel in Pyrmont, meet your fellow delegates, meet the presenters, and have a good time!
Bar opens at 5.30pm!
- The Evolution of the Agile IA
- Matthew Hodgson
- Advanced session, Keynote
- #zenagile
From the dawn of time, IAs have contributed to the organisation of human knowledge through their user-centred design approach, investigating and analysing language, memory and behaviour to produce usable designs and engaging experiences. To get where we are today, at the top of the user-experience profession, has been something of a game of ‘survival of the fittest’. We’ve stolen from industrial design, borrowed from library science, and even bent patterns from theatre and environmental planning to our discipline’s needs. Some call us shameless thieves. Some call us digital mutants. Whatever we are, we’re certainly good at evolving. The question is, though, what’s next? What tools and techniques should we be stealing now? Or have we reached the peak of evolution and are now bound for extinction?
Matthew will explore the evolution of the Information Architect, where we’ve been and where we’re going. He’ll look at IA practices, both old and new, the wars waging in other disciplines to adapt the secret success of involving users, and why our future might just depend on us becoming Agile
- Guiding the way to living greener: how psychology helped IA for a new government website
- Ben Crothers
- Short session
- #livinggreener
-
Government websites are breaking away from the dense and impenetrable text-laden internally-focused patterns of old and embracing user-centred design. Even so, they can face big challenges when it comes to communicating government content and agendas. How can they push large amounts of information in light, easy-to-digest ways? How can they appeal to all demographics, and earn trust from – let alone encourage and mobilise – the community?
This session will demonstrate how personas, information architecture and user interface design tackled these issues in the newly released government website www.livinggreener. gov.au. Find out how applying psychological principles contributed to an approach that treated people holistically, putting not only them but their individual life experience and situations at the centre of their online experience.
It will also show how a regular approach of lining up information into topical categories wasn’t enough; a ‘concierge’ guide-style model was conceived to cater for people of all levels of ‘green’ knowledge to move them on a journey through to action.
- Information design standards and performance
- David Sless
- Advanced session
-
How ready are information architects to meet the challenge of information design standards?
By the late 1980s information designers had established that the application of certain systematic design methods and accumulated research findings could be used to improve the acceptability, accessibility and usability of everyday information. By the mid 1990s, before the wide-scale use of the internet, information designers began using these methods and findings to set minimum standards of acceptability, accessibility and usability for designed information. Subsequently, these standards have been applied in a variety of information domains, most notably in the regulation of health and financial information for public and professional use.
David Sless will explain the types of standards that are now applied routinely to designed information, and the methods used to achieve these.
Viewed from the broad perspective of information design, web designers are still playing catchup when it comes to the informed application of these methods and findings in routine professional practice. Some of the elements are in place, and there are probably some sites that would meet acceptable standards, but there is a long way to go before we see standards being met on a large scale. Regulators of public information may require such standards ahead of what current professional practice could deliver.
Information architects are well placed to take a lead in setting and applying these standards to web sites. Are you ready for the challenge?
- UNSWTV: Publishing Everywhere at Once
- Geoffrey Bowers
- Short session
-
UNSW have released a world first solution allowing students, staff and faculty alike to publish media to iTunes, YouTube, and the unswtv video portal. Join us for an IA war story about how we rationalized these disparate publishing models into a single unified information architecture, allowing users to publish everywhere without having to understand the intricacies of each media destination.
- Audience based navigation – is it the right choice for your website?
- Joji Mori
- Short session
- #audnav
-
There is a growing trend for websites to use audience based navigation on the homepage. It is commonly used on university websites, where information for current students, prospective students, staff, alumni, etc, forms the main navigation of the website. Whilst it is encouraging to see audiences getting so much attention on homepages, there are some important considerations when using this technique as it is not the panacea to address all challenges.
In this session, we will provide practical guidance for how to go about determining if an audience based navigation approach is right for your website. We will draw on case study material to put this topic into context, and provide examples of where the audience based navigational approach is used to maximum effect. We will also look at some examples where the approach would be inappropriate. Attendees will leave the session with a clear set of guidelines for how to proceed with evaluating whether the approach is best for the situation at hand.
- Bringing them online: using design research to identify online opportunities
- Patrick Kennedy & Alun Machin
- Short session
-
How can a website play a significant role in a leisure activity that is traditionally enjoyed offline? How could such a website cater for the vastly different needs within its target audience? This presentation will provide some insight into answers to these questions and many more, in the context of developing a major new media website. Our case study will take you through a recent project from start to finish, illustrating the methods used and the challenges faced. We will touch on the business objectives, the use of user research, the design process we followed, and we will finish by introducing you to the latest addition to the News Digital Media stable.
Patrick Kennedy and Alun Machin are members of the User Standards and Innovative Technology (USiT) team at News Digital Media.
- Tears, tantrums and triumphs; a UX and IA case study
- Meghan Hayes & Ladan Wise
- Advanced session
- #iattt
-
This presentation tracks the 18 month journey (to date) as a large organisation consolidates its 50+ websites into one website and its 40+ intranet sites into one intranet. And it’s not over yet.
The organisation chose to recruit UX and IA experts to work within the organisation’s own IA and project team. This case study explores two previous (unsuccessful) attempts at the project, the approach taken, activities conducted, the organisation’s climate, and the timing and involvement for each stage. Benefits, challenges and lessons learned are highlighted throughout
- Social network analysis: uncovering the secrets of information flow for our information architecture
- Mia Horrigan
- Short session
- #sna
-
Understanding modern users’ information needs is becoming more and more complex. The rapidness of communication and the interconnectedness of our stakeholders presents enormous challenges in documenting their wants, needs, online behaviours, attitudes, expectations, and motivations as well as understanding the contextual issues of the environment and dynamics of those who influence them.
We need tools, therefore, for analysing “who is who in the zoo” – the flow of information into and out of social networks that articulates not only who has the information we need to create an information architecture, but also the environmental and socio-behavioural issues that influence users’ preferences for information delivery.
Mia will present a case study in which she explores the use of Social Network Analysis (SNA) to model her users’ network and map the relationships between people, groups, organisations and information. She will explore how understanding the degrees of centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness in the network can uncover the flows of knowledge between them to create a deeper understanding of users to complement other artefacts like Personas and Want Maps.
- Navigation models - efficiency versus user preference
- David Humphreys
- Short session
- #navmodels
-
Peak Usability is working with a local university to explore user preferences and efficiency across several navigation model options. Over the years we have observed users struggling with some navigation models such as horizontal cascading menus but some designers argue these are more efficient as they allow deep linking. There is also an increasing trend towards ‘mega dropdown menus’ but we have seen little research to support this menu model.
We have our thoughts regarding the most efficient model for navigation, based on a range of usability testing we have done. However, we wanted to formally investigate and research this further to see if our thoughts had validity.
Different navigation models being researched include:
- Single level vertical drop down menus
- Multi-level horizontal fly-out (cascading) menus
- Use of landing/index/navigation pages with in-page links
- Mega drop-down navigation menus
The talk will discuss results from our past usability testing projects as well as the results and preliminary findings from the university research we are supervising. We’ll be looking at what is most efficient and what users prefer and is there any correlation between the two?
We will also briefly highlight a new information architecture prototyping tool developed by one of our partners based in Melbourne used in the research to evaluate the navigation interfaces.
- We’re still too fluffy
- Anthony Colfelt
- Short session
-
A presentation by the Creative Director of one of Sydney’s premier User Experience design firms about how experience designers mostly miss the point when trying to get their clients to agree to adopt best practices (or other recommendations).
Practical suggestions will be offered on how to increase the efficacy of the experience designer in persuading business people to do the right thing by the user.
- The Theory of Content Objects
- Geoffrey Bowers
- Short session
-
Applying object oriented design concepts to information architecture. Learn how OO principles can be used to develop iA solutions for complex content hierarchies. See this approach applied to the Australian Olympic Committee, Uni NSW and other web sites.
- Spoilt for choice. Which prototyping tool is right for you?
- Suze Ingram
- Short session
- #prototyping
-
Seems like every time you turn around there’s a new whiz-bang prototyping tool popping up. So which are worth your time (and money)? Suze has done the leg work for you. She’s used the tools and asked others around the world what they think too. She’ll show you which tools are good for what and which are just good-for-nutin’ in a fast paced whirlwind tour of as many tools that can be crammed into one short presentation.
- IA failures in Social Networking Platforms
- Andrew Boyd
- Short session
- #snpfail
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Social networking platforms (SNPs) are now an accepted part of personal and professional life. It is a rare IA that does not have some presence on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The fact remains that many SNPs are not readily usable. If we take the wag’s description of Information Architecture as “finding the stuff and using the stuff”, most SNPs fail at least some of the time.
This short presentation will pull apart some of the IA failures in popular SNPs and look at how these could be addressed.
- It’s not easy being green: Challenges faced when designing software for the Army
- Matt Fisher
- Short session
-
Designing software systems for a military environment presents challenges and obstacles not often found in commercial applications. As a result, web apps and commercial-off-the-shelf software are not often a good fit for military needs. Assumptions that are justified in commercial scenarios are not necessarily valid in a military environment. These may include constant, high bandwidth connectivity, reliable power supplies, and not having people trying to kill you or your users.
The traditional contracting models used by Defence to commission software rely on requirements specifications that are essentially fixed at the beginning of the tendering process, with little scope to change or adapt. User testing is not included in the spec, and generally none will be done until user acceptance testing prior to roll-out, which is more likely to include contract managers than actual users. As a result, most applications used in Defence have bad reputations because there was no incentive for the vendors to put any effort into the design of the user interfaces.
Special Projects is a small cell in Headquarters Forces Command devoted to demonstrating and evangelising Agile and User-Centred Development of applications within Defence. Internally run development projects in close co-operation with the Diggers on the ground show great promise for streamlining Defence information systems.
- Playing Games with Culture
- Matt Moore
- Advanced session
- #cultgames
-
How often do you get to play? Information Architecture work is as much about human users and the cultures they operate in as content or technology. Techniques such as the development of personas have allowed IAs to describe some different facets of individuals but such techniques rarely touch on systemic cultural issues.
This session uses the Organisational Culture & Knowledge Management Methods Cards from Straits Knowledge – along with some other resources such as the Organizational Zoo - to explore cultural challenges & opportunities that IAs face on their projects. Participants will play 2 games then invent one of their own.
Rather than conveying ideas through just words and pictures, we will be focusing on “serious play”. The session will work at many levels: the content of the cards, the structure of the existing games and the new games that participants will invent for themselves. Betting is optional. There will be prizes.
- IA tools for measuring cultural readiness for Web 2.0
- Matthew Hodgson
- Short session
- #web2cards
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IAs have a great toolset that can easily be applied to a variety of circumstances. The humble card sorting activity, for example, can tell you lots of things – much more than just people’s preferences for categorisation of content and its labelling.
Matthew will present a case study in which he used a card sorting activity to determine organisational readiness for incorporating Web 2.0 tools as part of an intranet. He’ll go through the cards he produced, the rationale for their design, and the workshop activity that they were used in. Matthew will walk through the psychological and socio-group dynamics of the workshop, the cognitive factors employed by its participants, and the importance of the activity beyond gaining an understanding of what Web 2.0 tools people preferred.
- Huge Data, Little Screen: Assisting mobile users find information quickly using site search on the go.
- Melissa Cooper
- Short session
- #msearch
-
How does the designer handle large data sets on the small screen to create solutions that deliver satisfying search results simply and quickly for users on the go?
This session takes a closer look at designing the user experience of searching for content that originated on large screens, and is being repurposed for the small screen, given the challenges and opportunities the mobile platform presents.
By drawing on practical examples, you’ll be taken through various design strategies for creating effective mobile site search, considering the complex set of user scenarios unique to the platform.
- The Art of Skywriting - The Demise of the Tag Cloud
- Gary Barber
- Short session
- #ripclouds
-
Tag Clouds arrived like a breath of fresh air, the new child of the age of Folksonomy. Sure they look nice and can provide a snap shot of the information. However are they really in use outside of the technical community. Do the masses of the great unwashed, for who Folksonomy was meant to be the great leveller, really understand tag clouds. Are they really using them at all!
Gary looks in detail at these information vapour bundles, tracing the history of the tag cloud, its varied usage and asks the question is the tag cloud still worthwhile including in any interface design tool kit.
Is it just a passing fashion fad, has the tag cloud truly cemented itself into mainstream online culture, or has it mutated into something else. Maybe the problem isn’t with tag clouds at all, Gary suspects the root of the problem maybe in the very information itself.
- I don’t know much about the Web but I know what I like
- Jonathan Cooper
- Advanced session
-
The Web is a bit like an art museum: an amazingly rich resource which is too easily squandered. The presentation will introduce principles and techniques used in art museum education and show how they can be applied in web construction, writing and design.
Insights will be offered into:
- transforming information chaos into information order
- eliminating inessentials
- making personal connections with visitors (or users) through relevance and participation, while minimising cognitive load
- structuring content in terms of what visitors want to know and do, rather than “internal, organisational imperatives”
- the need for unity and consistency, to allow visitors to build up a mental model of the site
- showing a human face, where appropriate.
An important part of the presentation will be live demonstrations of communication strategies and techniques, involving some audience participation.
- Not to Prime is a Crime...
- Jodie Moule
- Short session
- #primer
-
Clearly nowadays we have moved beyond a paradigm of purely assessing ‘usability’; usability is now a hygiene factor for all technology (...even if a poorly realized one a lot of the time).
We are starting to understand the role of fun and delight in users interactions - but how do we adequately tap into this mental space when we are often under the pressure of ‘no time’ and clients that feel they just don’t see the benefit in lengthy contextual research that allows us to better tap into the users day-to-day world.
Jodie will discuss how we can capture a little slice of a users life when they come to us by setting up effective homework and ‘pre-testing’ activities for them to complete that allow us to dig a little deeper into their psyche and mental frameworks, around how they view the world and what makes them tick; allowing us to better design and construct environments that meet their needs.
- Sharing information in an Augmented Reality environment - Information Architecture and our new sense of space
- Rob Manson
- Short session
-
At the birth of our industry, Xerox Parc were set the mission of mapping the Architecture of Information. Architecture and Mapping are both firmly based in the concept of space and our perception of it.
This presentation will look at the new advances in consumer level Augmented Reality on the PC and on the Mobile phone. Information rich and dynamic layers of text, images, video and 3D elements can now easily be applied to the real world spaces that surround us.
How will these new layers of information change our perception of space, collaboration and sharing?
Come along to see some working examples of these new tools in action and to join in the start of this exciting discussion for our industry.
In this presentation Augmented Reality is not an answer...it is a question!
NOTE: During Web Week we will also be running a number of AR based activities that are closely related to this discussion.
- These are a few of my favourite things - personal mobile information architectures
- Rod Farmer & Oliver Weidlich
- Advanced session
-
Advocates of mobile design frequently stress the importance of structuring information as simply as possible, typically resulting in information architectures that reflect linear task models. However, such approaches fail to recognise that mobile interaction is highly non-linear, contextual and opportunistic. As device capabilities advance, integrating social and media capabilities, mobile design must become more reflective of personalised, non-linear forms of interaction. Prime examples include integrated address books, social connectivity, and customisable user interfaces. These are just a few of our favourite (mobile) things.
In this presentation, Rod Farmer (Experience Strategist at Vodafone Hutchison Australia) and Oliver Weidlich (Founder, Ideal Interfaces) will discuss mobile design challenges and the emergence of technologies and platforms that promote personal mobile information architectures. The session overview comprises:
- Why mobile design is different
- Understanding the mobile ecosystem
- Designing mobile user experiences
- Mobile design challenges 101
- Mobile trends in personal information architectures
Drawing on practical examples, case studies, industry statistics, emerging mobile trends and just a sprinkling of theory, this session casts a spotlight on the future of mobile design.