LIKE 26 - "Information Architects"
The latest LIKE event (our 26th) saw Martin Belam, Lead User Experience and Information Architect at the Guardian, talking to our group about his route into his current role (starting with an obsession with classifying his music collection in his youth), via record shops, the BBC, and some freelance consultancy whilst based in the Greek island Crete.
Martin is a very engaging presenter, and spoke eloquently about how his interests have naturally led to a role in the developing field of information architecture. Listening to him speak brought home not only how important that work is to the experiences of information consumers, but also how powerful information management tools such as consistent tagging of content can be for connecting information and driving individuals to other relevant content both manually and automatically (e.g. system generation of Guardian website pages based on content tags). The Guardian has somewhere in the region of 9000 approved tags ("approved" being the operative word), and the positive experience that both I and others have when visiting the website are in no small part indebted to these.
I'm not going to give a full account of the evening, as there are already some excellent recollections from both Nicola Franklin and Donald Lickley. However there were some points that resonated with me personally, and which will inform some of my own thinking in future:
- You aren't your end user, and so what you think works may not work for others.
- The value of tags for combining content, not just for driving individuals to similar content.
- Sketching wire frames of interfaces/structures with a pencil and paper can be as powerful as any fancy software, and more flexible for editing.
- If you really want to understand how individuals work, and how they interact with systems, sit with them; watch them at work; work with them.
I'm currently scoping requirements for a new document management and collaboration platform for my organisation, and the intention is to develop the system iteratively whilst working closely with users to design and refine features. The aim, to build a system that meets the (diverse) needs of the business and those of the end users. My colleagues and I have had many discussions over how best to identify the information users work with, and how they work together. We have considered questionnaires, individual interviews, and group workshops as potential methods - most probably a blend of all three. However, I can't help feel there's something artificial about all of these methods. They either take individuals and teams out of their work environment, or provide content without context.
Martin's methods of watching internal users working with systems in their natural work environment to help monitor user experience is obvious when you think about it, but wasn't something that had come up in our discussions. Perhaps some of the logistical and cost implications of pursuing such an approach for our project gave us a blind spot when looking at the options. However, the more I think about it the more I feel we should engage in at least some form of observation work. Otherwise how can we get a truly reflection of how teams work, the issues they face, and their developing needs in terms of information management and collaboration?
So, thank you Martin for an excellent talk. I've learned a lot and got plenty of new ideas and perspectives to bring to my current work projects.
For those wishing to know more about the work of an information architect, why not check out Martin's personal blog, currybet.net, of follow him on Twitter?
