Dan Brown and Chris Detzi
Abstract
Information Architects work in environments that demand close collaboration with other people, primarily clients and colleagues. Design teams of any size need to manage the logistics of the design process, collaborate with each other to solve complex problems, and communicate those ideas effectively. Clients also exert pressure on the design team, presenting the design problem and vetting potential solutions. Successful senior designers and team managers must know how to navigate these waters delicately. Every one of these activities–from clarifying requirements to presenting design ideas to walking through revisions–requires working with other people. Every task on a design project has some element of communication and collaboration. And these infinite touchpoints within the team (designers, managers, stakeholders, and clients alike) represent risks to the project: one misstep and the project can come to a screeching halt.
This workshop is for information architects to help them understand and improve the core communications skills for working with teams and clients. Junior information architects seeking advancement will benefit from this opportunity to explore the crucial skills that separate them from senior designers. Through role-playing games and informal discussion, the facilitators will give participants ample opportunity to reflect on their approach to several common encounters.
Workshop Details
Let’s face it: even the most talented information architect has to work with other people, and working with other people means navigating the difficult waters of ego, personality, and insecurity. Compelling designs don’t sell themselves, brainstorming sessions require careful planning, and bad ideas can flourish in the hands of dominant personalities. Information architects typically find themselves in the middle of complex projects, serving as a focal point for user experience activities, and therefore in the middle of lots of conflicts, both major and minor.
In this half-day workshop, facilitators will lead participants though a series of exercises and role-playing games that help them practice these “people” skills. The day will cover six different skills, used for working with clients and collaborating with team members—critiquing, presenting, interviewing, directing, responding (to feedback), and brainstorming. For each skill, the facilitators will role-play a scenario, lead a discussion around the scenario, let the participants role-play, and provide tips and suggestions. At the end of each discussion, participants will have not only food for thought, but a structured way of considering similar scenarios in their own work.
These scenario discussions will make up the bulk of the day. At the beginning of the workshop, we’ll cover some basic topics and establish a framework for the discussion.
This introduction will include our thoughts around establishing a communication philosophy, different personality types of clients and colleagues, different communications media. The workshop will also cover a handful of day-to-day skills that may be used in a variety of scenarios, like writing emails, holding difficult conversations, working with people who report to you, delegating, and observing.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Establish a framework for thinking about difficult interpersonal situations in creative environments.
Provide opportunities to discuss and analyze difficult situations.
JUSTIFICATION for PRE-CON
The topic demands giving participants an opportunity to role-play and share their own experiences. Because difficult situations can be complex, we want to provide sufficient time to discuss and elaborate on them. We also want to provide a smaller, more informal setting that would facilitate these conversations.
AGENDA, FORMAT & EXERCISES
The workshop will be divided into three sections: Basics, Skills, and Tips & Tricks. The Skills section will occupy the most time and will give participants an opportunity to explore different interpersonal skills. Basics lays out some fundamental concepts and offers a basic framework for approaching difficult situations.
Closing out the workshop is Tips & Tricks, which will highlight a handful of techniques for managing both day-to-day situations and the especially difficult ones.
The session will have a handful of formal role-playing exercises around specific skills.
CORE IA ISSUES
Communication; Client Management; Creativity.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Senior User Experience Professionals
Speaker Details
Dan Brown is founder and principal at EightShapes, LLC, a user experience consulting firm based in Washington, DC that has engaged with clients in telecommunications, media, education, health, high-tech, and other sectors. Dan has been practicing information architecture and user experience design since 1995.
Prior to founding EightShapes, Dan consulted with organizations ranging from the US Postal Service, the World Bank, and the Federal Communications Commission to USAirways, FirstUSA, and Fannie Mae. From 2002-2004, Dan was a Federal employee, leading the content management program for the Transportation Security Administration. His portfolio includes work on public-facing web sites, intranets and extranets, and addresses most aspects of the user experience, from information architecture and content strategy to interaction and interface design.
Drawing on his expertise in communicating complex ideas and abstractions through high-quality visual documentation, Dan wrote a book on user experience deliverables – Communicating Design (New Riders, 2006). Amazon reviews call it “authoritative”, “practical, personal, comprehensive” and “a cool nerdbook”.
Dan has participated in nearly every IA Summit since its inception in 2000. His participation included moderating a panel on enterprise information architecture, leading a workshop on Microsoft Visio, presenting a poster on wireframing, and sitting on a panel on Web 2.0. He’s written more than a dozen articles for Boxes and Arrows, an online journal dedicated to information architecture, on topics ranging from PowerPoint to the information architecture of home audio devices. He’s also written for UX Matters, the CHI Bulletin, and Interactive Television Today.
Chris Detzi is an accomplished user experience professional with over 10 years of experience spanning design, user research, and internet strategy. He’s led a number of large design and research programs throughout his career as both a consultant and employee of Fortune 500 companies.
Chris has also successfully built and integrated design teams into organizations and a deep appreciation for what it takes to achieve success. His interests lie in design research, strategy, and information design though he’s also an award winning Information Architect.
Prior to joining Eightshapes, Chris led a team of designers at Sprint-Nextel that was responsible for creating the experience customers had when interacting with Sprint’s self-service tools and systems (web, voice, and paper interfaces). In this role, Chris transformed how the teams operated and delivered designs, building a reputation for quality and consistency throughout the organization. Chris also built a web user experience / information architecture team from the ground up at Nextel Communications (pre-merger with Sprint), where he worked to successfully integrate the function into web development processes.
Prior to this work at Sprint, Chris consulted for Arnold Interactive and Circle.com, where he won a Webby award for his efforts leading the Information Architecture of the Humane Society Web Site redesign (Best non-profit web site, 2001).
Chris joined Eightshapes in November of 2007 to lead a range of projects and initiatives for the company and looks forward to helping build out the company and the overall User Experience practices. In his spare time Chris enjoys reading, running, golfing, and spending time with his wife and two incredibly energetic daughters.