In a world that’s overflowing with information, we need to make sure the content we’re creating brings real value to the people who use it. When information is hard to find, vague, dense, or filled with complex terminology, we can’t understand it. This leaves people feeling frustrated and may lead to misunderstanding. Paying attention to the barriers we build into information and removing as many of them as possible makes our information accessible to more people and enhances its value. Luckily, there’s already a roadmap for this using plain language guidelines. When plain language is combined with sound information architecture, these two approaches give you the power to bring clarity, understanding, and alignment to your information.
Read more"GPS" At The Scale Of Your Living Room - So What?
“GPS at the scale of your living room” means that the location of every item in the environment is established, checked, and ongoingly mapped by sensors in devices including smartphones and smart speakers, and made available for incorporation into products and services. It’s not literally using global positioning satellites: it’s using data collected by sensors embedded in networked devices.
The advent of geo-spatial (GPS-like) technologies at livingroom scale shifts the conversation from an internet of things, to a matrix of emplacements. And it begs a corresponding shift in the focus of digital product designers from things to systems, and from spaces to places.
Read moreCognitive Principles Driving Design
Daniel O’Neil reflects on the different kinds of cognitive approaches people use when confronted with certain kinds of information.
Read moreWhat Before How; It Applies To Models Too
If you aren’t clear about why you want to make a model, you’re not going to be able to create a useful model.
Read moreUnderstanding What It's Like To Not Understand
As part of his work researching and writing Richard Saul Wurman’s biography, TUG co-founder Dan Klyn has been reviewing videos from previous RSW projects. This video was shot as part of the promotion of the 2nd edition of Information Anxiety, circa 2000.
Read moreBeing In The Understanding Business
TUG’s been fortunate in so many ways in the 8+ years we’ve been in business. Among the earliest and most substantial has to do with how and where we got our name…
Read moreSetting Artificial Intelligence Projects Up For Success
The need to let operational concerns drive technology is especially true with the emerging field of (AI). But you might never know this by talking with many data science teams…
Read moreIn/Tension Models In Action: A Preview Of The World IA Day Archive
As with all of our projects, we began by setting out to understand the kind of place the World IA Day Global Coordinators wanted the archive to be…
Read moreConfident In Our IA Value Proposition
We here at World IA Day events in 2016 are in a new-ish field that isn’t well understood by the world. It would be a relief to have our own stereotype—for people to say, “He must be an IA!” What might that definition, that approach that defines us, look like? What IS the IA value proposition?
Read moreBig Data And Real User Stories
From Google Analytics to our merchant and fulfillment systems, insightful customer-centered marketing strategy is just a spreadsheet away! What is key about this explosion of data is that it requires an even greater commitment to story-driven strategic marketing. If data is not judiciously applied to the human narrative, marketing departments can be pushed into reactive, tactical activities against tiny bits of information. We think you should go big instead, and use the data for high-level marketing strategy and planning.
Read moreMaking Things Be Good With Servant Leadership
We apply servant leadership to every element of our organization, from the ways that we help each other on our team to the way we approach our work.
Read moreRSW: Better Is No Longer Good
Read more"In the past, it was possible to get along by doing a much better version of what you were doing previously. In the future, you're going to die on the vine if you do only a better version of what you're already doing. It will be increasingly important to explore alternatives, parallel ways of buying and selling ideas, services, products, et cetera, in brief transactions."
From The Archives: Big Wireframes For Mobile Circa 2011
A photo of the wireframes that we were working on in the Grand Rapids office on June 22, 2011.
Read moreThe Role Of Information Architecture In A Web Design Project
Many people start web projects by talking to web developers (the HTML coders), and put them in charge of leading the project. For small projects, this can work. But for larger projects, that’s a risky approach.
Read moreAnnouncing: Free Online Video Library for World IA Day
A 2018 press release for a WIAD video archive that is no longer available.
Read morePlanning For Everything: Peter Morville's Latest Book
Planning for Everything by Peter Morville
An excerpt and link to a great review of Peter Morville’s book Planning for Everything written by Martin White at InternetFocus.
Read moreFind Your Information Sweet Spot
What makes a site "sweet"? Some would argue that this is a problem with complexity, and that "making the complex clear" is the way to solve it. But ultimately, both "complexity" and "clarity" are aspirational outcomes, not techniques. We can work towards the objective of making the complex clear, where complex means "the crazy world we live in" and clear means "understandable in context without extra ornamentation." So what techniques can we use to get there? Well, a key one is to characterize how users grapple with and understand information as a core element of the design. In other words, decide what you can expect cognitively of users when they use your interface.
Read moreToledo Design Week Keynote
A recording of Dan Klyn giving the keynote presentation at Toledo Design Week 2015.
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