IA Summit 2010: This One Goes to Eleven -- The Best Conversations Happen in the Hall

Anyone interested in catching drinks outside the summit and chatting about content strategy? Whitney, Ian, Margot, Whitney, Fatima, Lakshmi...I'm looking at you! -Julie from Phoenix @julieespinosa

Where are the best places to eat in Phoenix? The below restaurants looked fun, as did others reviewed by the Phoenix New Times at http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/restau...: 1. Fry Bread House (http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-fry-bread...) 2. Kai Restaurant - a contemporary approach to Native American cuisine (http://www.visitphoenix.com/where-to-...) 3. Tarbell's - locally grown ... [read more]

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Sue Fensore: Ooh yum! Richard, I'll send you my Keema Curry recipe.

Pam Green: Here's what I got from a good friend in Phoenix: 2 great mexican food places: La Pinata and Panchos (on central NOT the buffet). Central Phoenix: FEZ, Maiyzies. Postino. No time to look up links now but wanted to throw these out for the crowd.

Julie Espinosa: I live in Phoenix, and I would definitely recommend just browsing stuff at Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/pizzeria-bian... Don, Pizzeria Bianco is the most famous pizza place. Be ready for a 3-hour wait but you can avoid it by making a reser...

Hey! Game night was a blast last year! I have some great new games to bring this year. That is, if anyone's game. Who's in? Fred? Richard? Keith? Damon? Michael? Also, if there's anything I can do to help make this possible in terms of securing a room and/or food/beverage, please let me know. Thanks! Looking forward to it!

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Jennifer Bohmbach: I updated the schedule. I think there was a software update that caused some minor ripples in the site - let us know if you see anything else that doesn't quite make sense. :-)

Sue Fensore: Thanks Jennifer!

Sue Fensore: To indicate your interest in attending this event, please see: http://2010.iasummit.org/talks/show/1...

I'm looking to share a room at the Hyatt for Sunday. Are there any women already booked at the hotel for Sunday who'd be willing to split the cost of that room? UPDATE: to be safe I've booked a room across the street at the Wyndham. So while my request still stands (I'd rather not have to shift hotels), alternately someone could room with me on Sunday!

Andrea Gallagher: I'm actually up for sharing a room the whole time, and I do need a room Sunday night. I'm happy with either the Hyatt or the Wyndham, but feel like being cheap for the benefit of my employer.

Next question I've got for you guys in planning for my closing keynote [first, second] is: What role do you hope to have in 5 years and in what kind of organization? Tell me what you think the next major phase of your career will be, if you think you'll be at the same company you're at now, what kinds of projects you'll be working on what ... [read more]

Hi everyone, I have the tremendous honor of giving this year's closing plenary, and I want to make sure you're all involved. I'll be using this space over the next couple months to gather information and bounce some ideas off of you. After all, the IA Summit is for you, and I want to close out the event making you feel understood and inspired. My first question is this: What has been your most rewarding moment as a user experience designer?... [read more]

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Giles Colborne: The worst moment is always waiting to see if the stuff you've just put live is going to work. Even when you're 'sure' it will. The best moment... it'd be easy to say that it's seeing the results, but that's relief, not elation. The best is when I des...

Rachel Yang: There have been many fun moments with users in testing when you know a design is working. But the most difficult and frustrating is usually with my own colleagues. I had just started a new position as IA and I knew I had my work cut out for me when i...

Ren: My proudest moment came when working on a system that was critical infrastructure with potential loss of life and safety concerns. The developers were dead set on implementing a requirement to the letter of law. I was able to convince them with a qui...

In developing my closing plenary, I am periodically reaching out to you -- the IA Summit attendees -- to help me better understand your experiences in the field. My first question was, What was your proudest moment as a user experience designer? Now I want to know: What is the biggest challenge you face in your current position? You might be inside a big company, or at an agency or design sh... [read more]

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Gabrielle Hon: For me, it's trying to figure out if I need to face my fear of being a manager and at least try it. I've been independent for 16 months now and I love it--it's everything I was looking for. And yet, and yet--I see such a vacuum of real leadership in ...

Jackson Fox: My challenge is that the great people I work with aren't sitting in the same room (or timezone) with me anymore. It's a challenge to immerse yourself in the work of collaborative design when all you've got is Skype.

Ren: I find that I have two problems. The first is that developers do not see the value of UX Design and IA. Most developers that I work with have never worked with a UX professional before. The developers often try to develop interfaces and navigation ...

Your Search Sucks! -- That’s the phrase I hear most often when testing finding interfaces. Google set the bar very high. People expect to find products and content easily on your site and if your site does not make it easy, people get frustrated and leave. In this talk, I will cover some of the most common issues with finding interfaces on the web and mobile, and show how to fix your interface to turn limitations into opportunity. I will pres... [read more]

Hey, folks. I help organize events for the Los Angeles User Experience meetup (LA-UX). I'm looking for attendees/presenters from SoCal who might work with me on an IA Summit Redux in LA (or at least a highlights presentation at the May LA-UX meetup).

Janette Shew: Hi Weston, I'll help you put it together (but not present!); let me know what you need!

Let's see... We IA are a customer-focused bunch. What topics would you particularly like to see as part of this talk? Mobile? iPad? Faceted Search? Dynamic breadcrumbs? Sliders? Agile Finding Design? Augmented reality? Please leave me a note and I'll do my best to oblige!

Is a Wall of Deliverables activity being organized this year?

Want to get out of the city and onto a horse? I'm raising a posse of city slickers: horses, hat wearing and maybe even bean eating. You'll kick yourself if you don't come. If you fancy coming and seeing the Arizona desert (or if you've done that and have any top tips) let me know.

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Lisa Rex: Horseback riding would be awesome. I'm in!

Eva Kaniasty: I hate to break it to you, Giles, you'll have a hard time passing for a real cowboy. ;) I'm totally in though.

Giles Colborne: I can't believe you said that, Eva! I've watched Blazing Saddles, I know how to do cowboy, you'll see! ;-)

I was inspired to propose this talk after I got the chance to teach hundreds of local elections officials how to do usability testing over the last year. They're not UX professionals, and yet, they embraced the idea of gathering data from voters to help them make better ballots, forms, and web sites. What's your thinking about empowering the whole team to do usability testing in your projects?

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Rob Fay: I have a question about "consuming" the results of user research. What are the most effective ways to communicate results and recommend design changes as a result of the testing you do? One of the ideas I am pushing the entire team to embrace com...

Dana Chisnell: Rob, there are a couple of pointers about consuming results that I could talk about. First, I think it is of the utmost importance to have the whole team involved in planning and carrying out any usability test or user research. When that happens...

Rob Fay: Yes, it does. I generally have a "debrief" time with a smaller portion of the development team (those that actually participated in user testing in some fashion). If I am able to get more participation from other folks on the team, an expanded "deb...

At the summit, we have great conversations in a lot of places. One of the most popular is lunch. I am organizing topic tables for lunch again, and I'd really like your input! What I want to know is what topics are you most excited about at this years IA Summit? Who are you most interested in hearing from? Feel free to respond to me here or send me a tweet @labrandt. Thanks, see you all at lunch! -Larisa

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Pam Green: I second Rachel's suggestion and would also add that I'd be interested in connecting with others working on intranets and IA within organizations in general.

Carlos Torres: I have some Ideas: 1. IA and organizations that doesn´t care anything about user experience. 2. The resistance to change talkin about web projects. 3. How to sell IA in traditional organizations that don´t know the topic.

Adelle Frank: I'd like to update my suggestion to: Persuasive Design. It's not just cognitive science, it's also game theory, learning theory, behavioral economics, psychology, etc.

Why can't Crowdvine remember my friends and profile from conference to conference? Sometimes I remember faces, sometimes I remember names, sometimes I remember both. But I suspect that I piss people off because I don't immediately tag them as "friends" even though I will undoubtedly think of them friends when next we meet face-to-face. How can we build a little CRM into Crowdvine? Can we link Crowdvine to LinkedIn? Do we need a different tool ent... [read more]

April, considered by many baseball fans as one of the best months of the year as baseball season begins. Would anyone be interested in attending a game, perhaps on Friday, April 9 @ 6:40?

I'm coming from Washington DC and having trouble finding a plane leaving Phoenix on Sunday evening. But then, I am travel-plan-challenged. What flight itineraries are other DC IAs planning?

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Adriana Machado: I registered and got a room, but not yet the flight. Looks like we only have 2 options: (1) Leave the conference early around 2:00 PM (2) Stay until the end and arrive home only on Monday morning

Paul Trumble: I'm staying until Monday. Been to Phoenix several times. Flights too long for an evening flight and really not long enough for a redeye.

Brian Verhoeven: I am taking the red eye back on Sunday. Not looking forward to it, but I wanted to stay to see Whitney Hess's talk.

Would love to get recommendations for a sitter/sitter service for 2.5 month old? It will be for a few hours each evening of the conference.

I want to involve the who

Larisa Brandt: Collaboration among the UX team. I am in an organization just building out UX - there are 6 of us focused on UX and ALL the projects move at the speed of light. The pace seems to foster silo's and we rarely work together. In addition I find tha...

My talk on the top 7 recipes for confusion analyzes many case studies of things on the Web that are confusing. While I have way too many examples to cover in 45 minutes, you may have some better ones. Post your nominee for the most confusing thing on the Web (screen shot and/or URL), along with whatever explanation is needed.

I've created an official sign up sheet for my facilitation workshop on Saturday, April 10, 4:00-4:50. There is room for 25 participants and 4 alternates. This is the official sign up list and your name will be checked at the door. Sign up now: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewf...

I'm going to be talking about designing for simplicity on the Friday. I'll be looking at how to achieve simplicity... and unintended consequences. So is there anything you'd like me to cover? Any examples you'd like to see me cover? Failed attempts? Exceptions to the rule? Hidden gems you think people should know more about? I'm looking forward to a lively session.

What are the best day trips from Phoenix? Here are some I've found: 1. Shamrock Dairy Farms Tour (http://phoenix.about.com/od/daytrips/...) 2. Sedona Energy Vortexes (http://gosw.about.com/od/sedonaarizon...) 3. Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments (http://phoenix.about.com/cs/daytrips/...) 4. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (http://www.desertmuseum.org) 5. Biosphere 2 (http... [read more]

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Noreen Whysel: Desert museum is good. Part zoo, part botanic garden, part cave, an indoor/outdoor natural history museum. It actually was raining when I was there last. We couldn't go riding so they took us to the Desert Museum instead.

Adelle Frank: I'm glad the Desert Museum is getting such raves. And, thanks, Dennis, for the tips about the Meteor Crater and cliff dwellings!

Lisa Rex: I'm planning to head to Tucson after the conference for a day or so... there's tons to do around there too. http://www.visittucson.org/

If you've been following the discussions about data-driven design in the past few months (focused primarily around Google) and have questions or direct experience, please share them. Its relevant to my session "Experience strategy: Dealing with a UX mid-life crisis" (http://2010.iasummit.org/talks/show/9730) and could help shape the presentation.

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Richard Dalton: I certainly don't believe that data should be the only thing to drive design. Our experience is that success criteria (data) can a) tell you if your experience is good or bad and therefor where to focus improvements, and b) improve your judgment and ...

Murray Thompson: Richard, thanks for clarifying. A lot of what I've heard about data-driven design is that it is used as the sole arbiter for design decisions, which I have a bit of trouble accepting. Good to know there are different perceptions of how to apply it, a...

Richard Dalton: Murray, my experience is that if you have very differing operations (or experiences) you have to choose between either a) common high level measures that aren't very connected to the experience or b) more detailed measures that are very connected to ...

Any chance we can get a one page 'at a glance' schedule similar to previous years?

Jonathan S. Knoll ("Yoni"): Yeah. It's coming. Hoping to get it done this weekend. ~ yoni