Welcome! TUG Notes: IA News & Insights
THE IA SUMMIT ISSUE
April 2014
We at The Understanding Group recently had the pleasure of attending the IA Summit (IAS) 2014 in San Diego. We were inspired and challenged by the presentations we saw (and gave), and by the people we met. In this issue, we hope to recapture and relay some of the delight of being immersed in IA-thinking with our friends and colleagues.
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TUG Thoughts
TUG Talk Takeaways
Articles We’re Reading
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TUG THOUGHTS
IA Summit 2014 Wrap Up: Taxonomy Workshop, Photos, & Looking Forwards to IAS15
By Jessica DuVerneay
Jessica shares the slides from her workshop and some great pictures, and looks forward to what next year will bring as she serves as a co-chair for IAS15. (Shameless plug: If you’d like more info on the event or would like to volunteer or sponsor, please drop her a line here: 2015.iasummit.org.) Read the full article.
Thought on Lenses: Why IA Summit is so Special
By Kaarin Hoff
After attending her second IA Summit, Kaarin reflects on why this conference is “so reliably freaking awesome.” Read the full article.
TUG Talk Takeaways: IA Summit 2014
Teaching IA by Learning about Architecture
By Dan Klyn
As information architecture is about creating structures that support meaning, Dan asserts that architecture in the built environment can provide “concrete” lessons on this interrelation of meaning and form. Read the full article.
Language is Infrastructure
By Andrew Hinton
Andrew shares that it’s “hard for information architecture practitioners to articulate what it is they do—and part of the challenge is that the material we use is so hard to pin down. This talk is part of my ongoing journey toward figuring out what it is we architect when we do information architecture.” Read the full article.
Modeling for Clarity
By Joe Elmendorf
Joe discusses how he’s used models to help clarify complex information systems, and gives examples of different ways he’s done it. His favorite part about modeling? “There aren’t a lot of rules. … You just work towards making something clearer, and if you’ve made something even a little clearer, you’ve succeeded.” Read the full article.
IA Summit Closing Plenary
By Peter Morville
Having attended every IA Summit since its inception 15 years ago, Peter reflects on what keeps him coming back. And takes off his pants. Read the full article.
ARTICLES WE’RE READING
Message from a Ghost Information Architect
By Noriyo Asano
As a kindred spirit or “ghost IA,” Asano recaps/responds to Peter Morville’s closing plenary talk at IAS, where he shared that “nobody understands information architecture…. And that’s okay. That’s why we’re here.” Read the full article.
What IA Summit 2014 Showed Me
By Amy Marquez
Marquez discovers that IA makes her OWN life better, in addition to knowing that through IA, she’s helping to make other people’s lives better and easier, too. Read the full article.
Cut with a Kitchen Knife: Thoughts on IA Summit 2014
By Donna Lichow
Lichow discusses the session that she participated in as a panelist, and how her background in film theory and production informs her choices when constructing digital spaces. Read the full article.
My Hymn to the IA Summit
By Carrie Hane Dennison
Dennison finds the IA Summit to be a “magical place … where I can talk about anything and there is someone who gets it, where sharing your passion about your work is the norm, where people come to talk about ideas.” Read the full article.
