The Psychology of Design. There are a number of debates about which additional skills designers should learn. Should designers code, write, or understand business? These skills are incredibly valuable but perhaps not essential. How Information Architecture Improves Customer Experience. Have you ever had a problem finding information on a website or app?
If so, you were experiencing a poor information architecture (IA). Conversely, a great experience with a site or application is only possible with solid IA under the surface. While information architecture doesn't get the headlines that personalization or chat bots receive, when built on a unified information strategy, IA can improve the overall customer experience (CX) in several ways.
What is UX Writing? There’s a new job in town.
Well, maybe not “new,” but certainly popping up with increasing frequency. Google’s looking. Amazon’s looking. Dropbox, Paypal…many of the big players in tech are now looking for User Experience Writers. Documation 2017: defining the future of information and Industry 4.0. For those working in information and content strategy, Documation 2017 promises to hold some interesting developments.
The event takes place in Paris later this month (29-30 March) and, for the first time, content strategists and information specialists will come together in a coordinated effort to understand, discuss and begin to define the future of information in light of Industry 4.0 (the trend towards so-called ‘smart factories’, which includes cyber-physical systems, cloud computing and the Internet of Things). A new track at Documation 2017, called Information 4.0, will facilitate this directly by looking at the impact of future technologies surrounding Industry 4.0 on information delivery.
TECH’advantage, a Paris-based software company, and Adobe Technical Communications, a provider of software tools for information specialists, will be sponsoring the track, along with Antidot, Ixiasoft, Magellan and Ermeo. Plain Language as an Equity Issue. Why do I provide plain language work?
As an educator, I value plain language as an equity issue for adults with low reading skills. Here is a snapshot of the problem in the United States: In my plain language work, I assist organizations serving urban families in high poverty areas. These organizations truly want parents with low reading skills to understand their written communications, such as. What do we mean when we say what we say? In my thesis class at SVA Products of Design this week, I talked to the students about ontology.
Unlike lexicography, which is the collection of meanings, ontology is the designation of a specific meaning within a given context. In other words: Book Review: The Visual Organization by Phil Simon. The lingering seduction of the page. In an earlier post in this series, I examined the articulatory relationship between information architecture and user interface design, and argued that the tools that have emerged for constructing information architectures on the web will only get us so far when it comes to expressing information systems across diverse digital touchpoints.
Here, I want to look more closely at these traditional web IA tools in order to tease out two things: (1) ways we might rely on these tools moving forward, and (2) ways we’ll need to expand our approach to IA as we design for the Internet of Things. First stop: the library The seminal text for Information Architecture as it is practiced in the design of online information environments is Peter Morville’s and Louis Rosenfeld’s Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, affectionately known as “The Polar Bear Book.”
Successful approaches to organizing electronic data generally make liberal use of both top-down and bottom-up design tactics. Architecture, design, and the connected environment. Just when it seems we’re starting to get our heads around the mobile revolution, another design challenge has risen up fiercer and larger right behind it: the Internet of Things.
The rise in popularity of “wearables” and the growing activity around NFC and Bluetooth LE technologies are pushing the Internet of Things increasingly closer to the mainstream consumer market. Just as some challenges of mobile computing were pointedly addressed by responsive web design and adaptive content, we must carefully evaluate our approach to integration, implementation, and interface in this emerging context if we hope to see it become an enriching part people’s daily lives (and not just another source of anger and frustration). 2014 Information Architecture Summit. I've just returned from the 2014 Information Architecture Summit, the 15th one.
I first attended this event in 2001 in San Francisco, and I've been going ever since (barring illness). I've pondered in the past why I keep going to the IA Summit. A Book about Environment, Language, and Information Architecture. Creating Shareable Visuals is Easy with these 7 Online Design Tools. We all know that when it comes to consuming content, text alone no longer makes the cut.
We are multi-sensory beings and the more we can plug into our senses to absorb content, the bigger its impact. Slidedocs: Spread Ideas with Effective Visual Documents. 8 tips for an awesome powerpoint presentation. The Future of TechComm in the Content Era – Take 3 - Acrolinx. Date: Thursday, July 31stTime: 12pm ET.
The Future of TechComm in the Content Era – Take 2 - Acrolinx. Date: Thursday, March 13th Time: Noon Eastern Time (17 Central European Time) Duration: 60 minutes. The Importance of Visual Content. Tom More is CEO and Founder of Slidely, a popular creator of Slideshows, videos and imagery. A picture is worth a thousand words, and when it comes to capturing your audience’s attention, you want to take full advantage of every chance to communicate your message. Short attention spans have made lengthy explanations less effective – so how do you keep interest? The Sound of Silence: Why Your Content Gets Ignored. Marketers know that content is vital for building an audience. But sometimes the most relevant and witty content simply doesn't get traction. It might be the most insightful blog post, but it doesn't spark interaction or engagement with the intended audience.
So what went wrong? Technical Writing: How to Interview a Subject Matter Expert. Technical writing requires versatility in writing style to shape the voice and tone of a document, and hunter-gatherer teamwork between the writer(s) and the subject matter expert(s) (SMEs). 7 things good communicators must not do. In this simple but informative TED Talk, Julian Treasure offers up seven things that effective communicators must exclude from speech. This list of seven is a kind of "bad habits to avoid" list. Reuse is a good tactic but a poor strategy. Confessions of a first time sketchnoter. Should you teach the world a new word? A long time ago, I was a "book packager. " I didn't actually make the package that books came in... I was a producer of books, the way someone might produce a movie.
Sometimes I wrote them, too. A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. Rendering Content in the Manner It Deserves. Infographitweet. Manuals. Fryford : An unsurprisingly beautiful... Scaling Up the Effort: The Process Behind Great (Contracted) Content.