Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Jeff Parks

Jeff Parks — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:59 GMT

Brilliant article Sarah!

I can recall telling a room of Vice-President’s that by not taking the time to organize the web content that hadn’t been consistently managed in nearly 10 years was like their child coming home in grade 6 and refusing to clean up their room for that same period of time.

Nearly ten years later your child calls you up from University and asks for their report card from grade 10. They tell you it’s somewhere under their desk. When you open the door to their room a wall of “content” falls to their feet. Wading through everything it takes you a week to find the report card.

After several requests, you as parents, finally get the courage and open the door one more time. It takes you several weeks, but eventually you get everything cleaned up and organized. Now when your child wants anything, you can quickly and easily find what you need.

Taking the time to organize all of the information on the web will enable you to clean up the room where all of your clients are seeking critical information from you.

If they don’t understand technology, find something they can relate too and see the value in. As parents, every single one of these executives instantly understood the chaos based on their own experience of having children who never clean up their room!

Cheers!
Jeff

Jeff Parks — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:06 GMT

Great article, Matt! I am also co-vice chairing an HCI group here in Ottawa – CapCHI – http://www.capchi.org/. Some of the members are Masters and PhD students completing their thesis in HCI at the Hot Lab at Carleton University who I think would find great value in this article.

Jeff Parks — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:20:25 GMT

I also use the pyramid analogy in speaking with clients. However, I invert the pyramid with Data being at the top or widest portion of the pyramid – showing clients that most of what they have is Data – the noise the universe creates – and the role I play as an Information Architect is to help them make sense of all of that “noise” by organizing all of the Data into logical structures of Information. I also add another layer between Intelligence (I use the term “Knowledge” instead of “Intelligence”) and Wisdom, and that’s Experience. As adults we learn through Experiences. These unique and shared experiences allow us to make Wise choices in our personal and professional lives. I think it was Einstein who said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results!” We can’t possibly get to Wisdom without sharing and learning from our own and others’ Experiences.

Jeff Parks — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:46 GMT

A great interview, Liz! I have referred to Dr. Schwartz’s work on a couple of Podcasts I’ve completed to date and his book on the paradox of choice.

Another interesting book, related to these ideas is “Enough – Staying Human in an Engineered Age” by Bill McKibben. As he states – “We need to do an unlikely thing; we need to survey the world we now inhabit and proclaim it good. Good enough. Not in every detail; there are a thousand improvements, technological and cultural, that we can and should still make. But good enough in its outlines, in its essentials. We need to decide that we live, most of us in the West, long enough. We need to declare that in the West, where few of us work ourselves to the bone, we have ease enough. In societies where most of us need storage lockers more than we need nanotech miracle boxes, we need to declare that we have enough stuff. Enough intelligence. Enough capability. Enough.”

Once we have limited choice to improve overall satisfaction with our decisions, we also need to proclaim, as Mr. McKibben points out, we have enough of what we need. I think from that point, we can start to look at how much more we can contribute, rather than trying to keep up with the pace of life, technology, and the like.

Jeff Parks — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:31:34 GMT

Clifton,

Great article and thanks for sharing!

I was Vice-Chair of Ottawa’s HCI group last year. I’m an Information Architect by trade and surround myself with graphic designers; programmers; and the like to learn from their experiences. (It’s my belief that you can’t see the whole picture if you don’t learn from others’ professions and experiences.)

You’ve noted, “Even as a social science, the dominant belief HCI research as the most effective way to design interfaces leaves too little room for real creative design talent.” I agree with you.

Though the science behind design is an important foundational element, it does not provide the complete picture. We are designing systems and solutions for other people, not other programs and machines (most of the time). If one doesn’t understand how people think, interact, and learn, how can you create a positive user experience? Usability, for example, has come to the forefront b/c there isn’t a one-size fits all when building web services. Information Architecture recognizes the need to not talk about “rocket science” using the professions vocabulary if you aren’t addressing other rocket scientists – so anyone can find anything they need; and the list goes on with other professions and the value add they bring to the table when designing.

I think this book, and others in the HCI field, would be an important resource for all professions. As you’ve pointed out, this is a reference book. I’ve created a library of resources from other professions related and unrelated to my profession as an Information Architect. This insight has allowed me to build creative and useful solutions for clients in ways I never would have thought of, without the sharing of such perspectives.

Jeff Parks — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:23:14 GMT

Kalle,

Thank you for your feedback. I’m working on putting together an iTunes feed so anyone who wishes can subscribe to shows via the iTunes Podcast directory. I am aiming to have this up and running in early January. In the mean time, If you click on the download button and open the file in iTunes you’ll be able to see links to our sponsors and the article in the album art window for this Podcast and the one I produced with Milissa, “Blasting the Myth of the Fold”.

I hope you’re enjoying the Podcasts. Feedback is always welcome! If you or anyone else would like to provide ideas feel free to email me at jefferyparks@gmail.com.

Jeff Parks — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:22:55 GMT

Great article, Andrew. From my own experience I wrote a Microsoft Certified Training program a few years back. The focus of the Adult Learning section was premised on David Kolb’s work. He outlined four principles of how adults learn:

1. Adults need to know “Why?” they are learning something.
2. Adults learn best when the topic is of immediate value.
3. Adults approach learning as problem solving.
4. Adults learn experientially.

I think all of these points reinforce your ideas around Personas and why Alan Cooper had such great insight while walking that golf course. While strolling around the 9th hole he was asking himself the purpose of the design and its’ inherent value based on different scenarios. By actively questioning this process he was problem solving and doing so in a way that allowed him to experience (even though it was imagined) how to best move forward.

I’ve had experiences where Personas work very well and where they flop. The ones that worked well, in retrospect after reading your article, were ones where the client bought into the old premise of “seek first to understand, then to be understood”. In other words, the client really got what it meant to be the end user and was able to use the Persona as a kind of “design bible”. In the instances where they flopped, it was, as you pointed out, just a deliverable.

Thanks for sharing your ideas – brilliant!

Jeff Parks — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:40:22 GMT

Terry,

Several of the presentations can be found on the IA Summit site http://iasummit.org/2008/conference.html You can also see a couple of slide share links on day one and day two, for example, where presenters have added audio to their presentations.

Happy to hear you’re enjoying the shows; ideas or feedback for future events are most welcome.

Cheers!

Jeff Parks — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:35:16 GMT

Hey Joost,

I’m publishing and testing in Fire Fox and have had no issues. I’ve had to record the longer shows like Jared’s and panel discussions at a lower bit rate to keep the file sizes to a reasonable level.

For the short term, you can subscribe to this and all Podcasts for Boxes and Arrows in iTunes. Simply click on the iTunes link at the top of every page. Alternatively, you can download only the shows you want and burn them to a CD or drop them into the MP3 player of your choice.

Apologies for your troubles with the audio in the browser. If you need to discuss this issue in more detail, drop me a note at jefferyparks@gmail.com and I’d be happy to discuss.

Cheers,
Jeff

Jeff Parks — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:04:30 GMT

While I agree with your point about users not knowing “back stories”, Rhonda, my hope is that people will simply enjoy the opportunity to hear from presenters at the Summit and to learn more about articles written on Boxes and Arrows through conversation.

I put the iTunes feed in place to make it easy for people to stay up to date with shows when they are published. (So they don’t have to keep returning to the site if they choose not too.) You can also download each show individually, or bookmark them in Delicious so you can find them no matter where your travels may take you.

I know your comments were about the navigation within Boxes and Arrows, but since I came on board to get this up and running not long after their re-design, please contact me off line to discuss a better way to integrate the Podcast into the existing IA, in your opinion, at jefferyparks@gmail.com You can also find me on Skype jeff_parks (Ottawa, Canada)

It has been a thrill for me to be able to interview some of the most creative minds in the fields of IA, UX, and IxDA for Boxes and Arrows, and my own show, over the past couple of years.

It is my hope that the BA Podcast will help to promote the ideas of others and in some small way bridge the divide between professions. In my experience there is a hell of a lot more that binds us than separates us.

Cheers!