Presentations

I speak at many local and international conferences, on a range of topics. Here are some of my recent presentations:

• Information architecture: Beyond the hierarchy

  Presented at: CMF2007, Aarhus, Denmark; Web standards group, Canberra, Australia; Webstock 06, Wellington, New Zealand;

  This presentation describes different structures available for information architecture. It examines hierarchies; database structures such as metadata-driven databases and faceted classifications; and emergent approaches such as organic structures and tagging. It examines good examples of each and what to consider for our own projects.

  Read full description for Information architecture: Beyond the hierarchy

• Ethical issues and information architecture

  Presented at: Oz-IA 2007, Sydney, Australia; WIC breakfast, Canberra, Australia;

  This presentation examines some of the ethical issues that we face as information architects, including:

  • The myriad of effects of our design decisions on users
  • Working with clients and peers
  • The consequences of creating categories and classifying objects
  • What inclusive design really means
  • Personal beliefs and their role in projects
  • How can we design for sustainability

  Read full description for Ethical issues and information architecture

• User-centred design in practice: Is it working

  Presented at: OZCHI, Sydney, Australia;

  In this OZCHI industry keynote I talked about 3 things:

  1. my take on where the practitioner user-centred design field is currently up to
  2. a look at some of the neat apps practitioners are interested in (and I didn’t say web 2.0 once)
  3. what I think we need to do to move forward

  Read full description for User-centred design in practice: Is it working

• Lakoff’s Women, Fire & Dangerous Things - What every IA should know

  Presented at: OzIA 2006, Sydney, Australia; IA Summit 2006, Vancouver, Canada;

  In this presentation, I examine the fundamentals of cognitive linguistics and categorisation, based on George Lakoff’s theories and those scholars from which his theories draw. I explain prototype theory and basic level categories and discuss classical categorisation theory and how it fails to describe the real world we live in.

  Read full description for Lakoff’s Women, Fire & Dangerous Things - What every IA should know

• Information architecture: A how-to

  Presented at: Web Directions 2006, Sydney, Australia - Sep 06;

  This one-hour presentation covers all the ‘how to’s’ of information architecture: how to take a content inventory, analyse content, conduct card sorting, analyse user research, choose the right structure, create an information architecture and test it.

  Read full description for Information architecture: A how-to

• Usability for rich internet applications

  Presented at: Web standards group, Sydney, Australia - Aug 06; Webstock 2006, Wellington, NZ - May 2006;

  This presentation explores Web 2.0 applications and some of the traps associated with designing for these newer forms of interaction.

  Read full description for Usability for rich internet applications

• Designing websites that work

  Presented at: Open Publish 2006, Sydney, Australia - Aug 2006;

  This short presentation examines some of the non-technical needs to make a website project work - the right information, the right skills and adequate time.

  Read full description for Designing websites that work

• Identifying usability issues when testing

  Presented at: Software Testing Australia/New Zealand Conference 2005, Canberra, Australia - Aug 2005;

  Presentation files
  Download the presentation file (PDF, 875Kb)

  Read full description for Identifying usability issues when testing

• Deconstructing design: How did we get from there to here

  Presented at: Information architecture summit 2005, Montreal, Canada - Mar 2005;

  In this presentation, I showed a number of completed site designs that I had been involved in. For each ‘deconstructed’ each design - pulled it apart to show how various inputs (such as research, activities, politics, guidelines, previous experiences) informed the design. The presentation highlighted that each design element is informed by more than one input; and that each input contributed to more than one part of the design. It also showed how important it is to undertake a range of research activities and not rely on just one or two inputs.

  Read full description for Deconstructing design: How did we get from there to here