LIKE 26 Information Architects
From sorting and classifying records to cleaning data for the burgeoning web: these activities span information architecture but perhaps the trajectory from one to another is not so obvious. Martin Belam took us through his career from record shop to doing SEO before it was SEO at the BBC, working in Greece before it was broke and to his current role where he can be found asking bored looking readers in the British Library to help with some research as lead user experience bod at the Guardian.
Some highlights:
- how differently our users can be from us: log analysis of how people search the web shows what people do when they can't find something and how their expectations may balloon into something we didn't foresee (e.g. using the BBC website as if it's Google).
- it might be helpful to come up with a fictional character to represent our users - reference this person in projects!
- the joy of faceted taxonomies especially tagging and how to encourage users (here journalists) to use them without making them do too much extra work
- how useful and low risk doing pencil and paper sketches of websites can be before you get a designer to do a prototype for you
- the magic of tags! Building a website that preempts new content, allows user input within boundaries of editorial control, supplies trends and Googlewhack combinations such as chessboxing. A catalogue of editorial obsessions at the Guardian - tags represent corporate memory, internal knowledge and future business drivers?
- while being pragmatic is great, idealism has its place - perhaps in future newspapers will be printed from the CMS content? Born digital content driven by user demand not just in terms of content but format also?
