xkcd comic by Randall Monroe - mouseover to see the 'bonus' punchline; click to see the original.

PhD students and librarians, please note.

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• Nope, sorry, nothing springs to mind.

The aim was to show how well-known IA techniques can be applied to a different type of project, in this case a strategy development project.

There had been some discussion in earlier sessions about how to get started in an information architecture career, and about developing a strategic approach to doing IA work. My presentation, towards end of the second day, seemed an apt time to suggest that a solid set of IA skills can take you in new career directions.

Many thanks to Roger Hudson for the generous loan of his computer.

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Earlybird registrations are open now, and close next Tuesday 9 September.

Earlybird registrations are A$660, or A$550 if you quote the discount code MR0243. Register online at the conference web site.

The conference will be held in Sydney, on the weekend of 20-21 September.

Who should attend?

• Designers of navigation, organisation, labelling and search systems that help people find and manage information more successfully,
• Librarians, webmasters, and content owners responsible for creating taxonomies and information architectures,
• Application developers who design web and software solutions and select the technologies and staff to support them,
• Project and business managers needing to understand the benefits and challenges of information architectures in electronic information spaces.

[cross-posted at SneedleflipsockTheBlog]

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At the start of 2008 Company X  engaged a new supplier for its office stationery and other sundries. The previous supplier’s contract was not renewed.

Announcements about the new supply arrangements were published in:

• the weekly email newsletter sent to all 6000 staff (18 January, 7 March and 23 May)
• an email from the procurement manager to everyone who had dealt with the previous supplier (10 March)
• a formal memo to all heads of department (11 July), signed by the Deputy Director of Company Administration
• another formal memo (25 August), signed by the Director of Company Administration and sent to the same distribution list as the 11 July memo

Each of these messages was clear, concise, firm, easy to understand. Anyone involved in purchasing stationery would have had to work hard to avoid hearing about the new supply arrangements.

As well, the previous suppliers were asked to cease soliciting business from individual Company X departments.

Over to you

It is now 1 October. The September accounts show that some Company X departments are still purchasing supplies from the old vendor. The author of the 25 August memo, the senior director responsible for day-to-day operations of the company, is not happy.

Today you have an opportunity to advise that senior director about what to do next.

What kind of problem do you think this is? How might it be solved?

What will you say to the senior director?

To discuss this hypothetical, click the “comments” link below and start typing!

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This September I will be presenting a short (30 minute) session at Oz-IA, a case study based on the Information Futures Commission.

Session title: “Developing a business-led information strategy”

In it, we’ll run briskly through a strategy development process that:

1. takes an holistic approach covering several information ‘domains’
2. is founded on business needs and priorities (enterprise architecture)
3. is informed by external trends, developments (business intelligence)
4. and balances organisational needs with individuals’ requirements and perspectives (user research)

Because the Oz-IA audience is mainly people who work on web sites and applications, I’ll focus on how we used several standard user-experience research methods in the strategy development process.

If you have any questions you’d like me to address in this session, leave a comment below or send me an email.

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For interaction designers and information architects, some of the interest is in the design process itself — see Jesse James Garrett’s comments on the Aurora web page about the weekly ‘open design’ sessions that led to creation of the Aurora concept.

For the rest of us, part of the interest is in how much this project looks like an early prototype of the cool stuff Tom Cruise did with the police computer in Minority Report ;-)

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As the boss, Linda, noted last week, “The first stage of the consultation process has been focused on opening up the issues, exposing the complexity of the environment and the opportunities and challenges before us. In this way we hope to elicit a wide range of views and opinions and ensure that we have explored all the significant issues.”

We started by publishing a Consultation Paper that defined the questions we needed to address.

During March and April we have sought ideas and input from the University community and from external stakeholders. We have held forums with guest speakers, attended meetings, consulted widely, run an online survey, given presentations and invited written submissions.

This exploratory phase will conclude with a series of workshops in late April.

We have reached the widest part of the diamond shape in the diagram — it represents the half-way point for the process. Now we are entering a stage where we begin to refine our ideas based on what we have learned and the feedback received.

In early May we will hold a series of focus groups and other meetings to review all the input received and start drafting the 10-year strategy.

A draft document will be released for comment by the University community in early June.

Once finalised, the strategy will be submitted to an approval process that includes the Commission’s Steering Committee, Academic Board and University Council. An implementation plan will be submitted to the Planning and Budget Committee’s mid-year conference.

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