Scott Rocketship

2012 Information Architecture Summit Schedule

I’m excited to be attending and humbled and terrified to be speaking at the upcoming 2012 Information Architecture Summit. The Summit is a week of programming aimed at people who design, plan and build things like websites and software applications. Folks at the Summit have job titles like User Experience Director/Designer/Manger, Business Analyst, Content Strategist, User Researcher, and, of course, Information Architect. If those mean nothing to you, try try this description: it’s for technology people who love sketches, whiteboards, diagrams, surveys, charts, wireframes, process, research and other stuff that makes technology strategy work easier and more successful.

The event is being held at the end of March in New Orleans. Organizers recently released the full schedule, and thoughts about the event have loomed large in my mind this week.

I’ll be debuting a solo presentation I call “Communicating Change”. It’s scheduled for 2:30 on Saturday in the “Exploring and Thinking” track. I’m sandwiched between Veronica Erb’s session on Sketchnoting and my e-pals Adam Connor and Aaaron Irizarry’s session on The Art of Critique, which I had a chance to chat with them about on The Flyover Effect. I couldn’t be happier with my spot on the schedule.

Here’s my session overview:

Communicating Change

Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

Q: What did the developer say to the users in the changelog?

A: Minor bug fixes and enhancements.

Whoops, sorry, that’s not a joke. It is unfortunately common, though. Far too often, changes in software and websites are communicated to users with a cavalier attitude — if it all.

In this session, you’ll learn why it’s important to communicate clearly about change, why we often don’t, and how to do it better. We’ll explore examples of industry best and worst practices, from the rollout of #NewNewTwitter to the bizarre PR backpedaling of the Netflix/Qwikster saga.

BONUS: Be prepared for a lightning round of comically-curt changelog text collected from apps and sites across the web. No brand is safe.

As stoked as I am about all this, that jerk Impostor Syndrome has been creeping around the edges of my brain and trying to bum me out. I think I’ll cover that more in another post, but for now I’ll say I’ve been doing my best to remember I wasn’t selected to be an end-all/be-all expert, but rather just to give the most thorough, professional and interesting presentation I’m capable of. There are a lot of really neat people who organize and attend the IA Summit, and I’m not embarrassed to admit I want to impress them and make them happy with their selection.

My flight is booked and I landed an adorable little spot near the conference site through AirBNB. If I’ll see you in NOLA this March, say hey! I’m getting in on Tuesday of the conference week and have Wednesday free for exploring the city a bit and getting oriented. Would love to make some new friends and meet more of you lovely internet people in real life.

DeMo Des Moines January 2012 Recap

I’m often asked if DeMo is just for “tech stuff”. It’s definitely not, and the conversation we had at January’s DeMo session proved that out. Four presenters shared a diverse group of projects and ideas including web startups and brick-and-mortar initiatives.

I used this slide deck to start things out. While it doesn’t contain info about the presentations (those are generally improvised on-site by the presenters), poking through it may give you a better feel for the event.

Below are my notes on the January 2012 #DeMoDSM presentations.

Presentation One: Locusic Social Sharing

Jake Kerber from Locusic presented at DeMo for the second time. Locusic hadn’t even launched yet when Jake first presented. Locusic has generated a lot of buzz since then, and Jake is looking to add to that buzz with social media integration features. Discussion ranged from the literal (you could add a Like button right there) to the conceptual (could you encourage users to share “stories” generated by their behavior on the system).

Jake said he’s looking for a few hours of help from a developer experienced with social integration for web services and is open to discussing trade or pay.

Presentation Two: iDealer.co White Label Dealership App

Yas Kuraishi from iapps24 (also the sponsor of January’s DeMo) went through a sales deck for iDealer, a white-label app available to be branded and customized for deployment as a B2C app from auto dealerships for their customers to use. Yas sought ideas on how to best market the iDealer service to dealerships and how to structure the feature/benefit pitch.

Presentation Three: Bike Shop / Coffee Shop Concept

Nicholas Casber and Scott Bents talked through an idea for a combination bike shop and coffee shop they’d like to see launched in downtown Des Moines. They’re excited by a successful cafe with a similar model in nearby Minneapolis and thought it would be a great fit for Des Moines’ developing downtown. The group talked through possible various models, such as partnering with existing organizations and businesses, as well as potentially launching a traditional business such as a bar or restaurant with a strong focus on being cyclist-friendly, showers and all. Nicholas and Scott seemed most interested in simply connecting the right people to start making this happen, and are looking to have conversations with others excited about the idea. Ping me if you’re interested and I’ll put you in touch.

Presentation Four: “Iowa Stimulus Club”

Local ad man and buy local advocate Michael Libbie talked through an idea for the “Iowa Stimulus Club”, an organization designed to connect a network of local-shopping supporters with truly local businesses. Discussion included the plusses, minuses, and appropriate ways of integrating a charitable component as well as what kind of benefits and access consumers are interested in with local businesses.

What’s next?

You might not guess it from the above, but it’s still a bit of a struggle getting presenters to volunteer for DeMo. I plan on holding a session in February, but may play with the format a bit to see if I can make anything happen. I don’t expect to change the time or date for February (4pm on third Tuesday).