Chiara Fox .com (Now with more Fox)

Semantic Technology Conference

2009-06-19T22:31:31Z

*** Originally posted on the Adaptive Path Blog ***

This week I joined 1100 other folks at the Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose. I attended this conference back in 2007 and I'm happier to say I really see a difference in the past two years. Back in 2007, everything about the conference was about the technology. What was the code that made this stuff go? I tried to keep up in a number of sessions where they kept flashing XML up on the screen. I'm happy to report that my experience was much different this year.

From the moment of the first keynote, folks were talking about the user experience. Yay! Our message is finally getting out there. It seems to me that they have finally gotten the technical bits mostly figured out on how to make this semantic web thing go. Now it's time for the fun stuff: using it to power things that make people's lives better.

There seemed to be two big uses for semantic technologies that I heard at the conference. First were the groups of folks talking about plug-ins and snippets of code that anyone can drop into their browser or onto their web pages to make an enhanced experience. Yahoo!'s Search Monkey and Google's Rich Snippets are both examples of simple XML bits that you can add to your pages to enhance your results listing on their engines. Adaptive Blue is a Firefox plug-in that let's you see your friends' reviews of books, movies and other stuff as you look at these items on different sites.

The other use is more like what I traditionally think of when I think semantics. There were lots of examples of vendors who can create ontologies and connections by parsing the corpus of unstructured text you give it, whether that text be email, Wikipedia or the Bible. These tools let you see what topics occur in given populations (such as football and the Longhorns in Enron internal email) as well as moving through those related topics. The guys at The New York Times talked about how they use semantic tools to publish their topic pages as well as their news alerts, widgets, RSS feeds and to automate their editorial process.

It was a fun 2.5 days. I learned a lot and am eager to update my personal sites with Rich Snippets, RDFa and microformats.

Join me on Wednesday, June 24 for my virtual seminar on the semantic web. I'll explain the basics of how this stuff works and why user experience folks need to be involved.

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

2009-03-24T17:41:18Z

"I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same." — Suw Charman-Anderson

I signed up and pledged to blog about a woman in technology. Turns out 1832 other people have also signed up. I wanted to blog about Dr. Lene Vestergaard Hau, a Danish physicist who works in the field of quantum physics.

I worked with Lene Hau when I was a librarian at the Rowland Institute for Science in Boston, around 1997-2000. Lene ran the group working on atom cooling and Bose-Einstein condensation. While I and her team were working there, they slowed the speed of light! I remember walking into the Institute one morning, and the team had put up a spoof of those Volkswagen Beetle ads that said "0 to 60? Yes.", but with numbers for the speed of light: "300,000 km/sec to 17 m/sec? Yes!" Eventually they were able to stop it.

Lene now works at Harvard University. She has published numerous scientific articles and papers, and was honored with Harvard University's prestigious Ledlie Prize in September 2008. She was Elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on January 16, 2008.

In 2002, John Preskill wrote a poem about her, called Lene Hau.

I admire Lene for her amazing achievements. Physics is a branch of science that is still dominated by men. Lene is incredibility smart and talented. She has risen to the top of her field. I'm proud that I was able to work with her for the little bit that I did.

You can learn more about her on her lab's page at Harvard and on her wikipedia page.

Why I am no longer calling myself an information architect,

2009-03-23T16:31:30Z

--- Originally posted on the Adaptive Path Blog ---

About a year ago, Jesse came to me and suggested I change my title from Information Architect to User Experience Designer. He gave a number of reasons, but none of them resonated with me. I clearly remember commiserating with some dear friends at the IA Summit 2008 about this proposed change in title.

I didn’t want to give up the title. I considered myself an information architect first and foremost. I’ve called myself an IA for nine years now. I was proud of the name. It was who I was. So I didn’t change it.

In Memphis this past weekend, at the IA Summit 2009, I spent a lot of time talking with first time attendees and those new to the field of information architecture. I hosted a round table at lunch for those new to IA. They were a great table, with tons of questions.

One of the things they really wanted to know was how to become a great IA. My answers surprised me. I didn’t tell them that they had to master multi-faceted classification or be able to generate thesauri and controlled vocabularies from scratch. I didn’t tell them about stencils and templates for making better wireframes.

I told them how important it was to listen to the customers of the organizations they would be working for and to deeply understand their behaviors and motivations. I told them to be champions for the user. I told them to listen to the pain of their clients, and think about how their designs could ease it. I told them not to go in shouting about CVs and classification and indexing and how their clients were doing it all wrong. Be subtle, I said. Listen for their needs. Present classifications and metadata and all that cool stuff as the way to get your designs implemented, not as an end in and of itself.

And I realized… I wasn’t telling them how to do good information architecture. I was telling them how to do good user experience design. I realized while I love IA, and it is my core competency, it is also only a small part of what I do.

For that reason, I am taking on the title of User Experience Designer.

The Semantic Web

2009-03-20T16:55:08Z

Today I am giving a talk at the IA Summit about the Semantic Web, called The Semantic Web: What IAs Need to Know About Web 3.0.

It's hosted here on Slideshare:

The Semantic Web: What IAs Need to Know About Web 3.0

View more presentations from Chiara Fox.

Stop Design

2009-01-05T05:49:43Z

There's a brilliant little video over at AdFreak showing what it would be like if a stop sign were to be designed today using the typical big corporation design process. It's from the same folks who did the if Microsoft designed the iPod packaging video.

Designing a stop sign

It makes me more than a little sad that so much of this rings true for what life is like as a consultant.

Frustration Free Packaging

2008-11-17T21:08:58Z

It's amazing the change that can be made when one has power in the marketplace. Amazon.com has started a new program called Frustration-Free Package.

They are working directly with manufactures to eliminate the excess packaging that many products have these days. Rather than encasing everything in layers of plastic, they are using simple, cardboard boxes that can be mailed directly. This has the added benefit of getting rid of the box-in-a-box situation. And it removes the problem of having to fight with the box to get to your stuff. Everyone wins!

I'm so glad to see Amazon doing this. They have become a big enough player in the retail space that they can actually get companies to start changing their business practices. Way to go Amazon!

Women of Web 2.0

2008-11-11T18:14:30Z

Fast Company has an awesome article today on the women who are making Web 2.0 go. It's so wonderful to see these amazingly talented and inspiring women called out. And that fact that I know a bunch of them makes it that much more special.

Way to go Leah Culver of Pownce; Rashmi Sinha of Slideshare; Dina Kaplin of blip.tv; Marissa Mayer of Google; Cyan Banister of Zivity; Lisa Stone, Jory Des Jardins, and Elisa Camahort Page of BlogHer; Caterina Fake of Flickr; Gina Bianchini of Ning; Kaliya Hamlin of OpenID; Mena Trott of Six Apart; and Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post. You are all an inspiration!

IA as Stone Soup

2008-10-27T23:44:45Z

--- Originally published on the Adaptive Path Blog ---

I've been looking for a metaphor or a model that I could use to describe how the Information Architecture day of UX Intensive is structured. The day is focused on metadata, controlled vocabularies, classification schemes and search. They sort of build on each other, but not in a simple, neatly stacked way. I was thinking about this while in Copenhagen a few weeks ago, when the answer hit me: Stone Soup!

Do you remember the story of Stone Soup? It's a Grimm Brothers' tale about returning soldiers and their guise to get a selfish, starving town to learn the lesson of cooperation and its benefits. They can make soup from their stone, but it will be a more tasty and filling soup if they get the whole town to pitch in and add ingredients.

Information architecture is like Stone Soup. You can make a website without explicitly thinking about the IA. You don't have to use metadata or control your vocabularies or develop thesauri. You don't have to tweak your search engine and play with recall and precision to improve your results.

But it will be better if you do.

Putting structure into your unstructured data allows you to make your site that much better. It's a way to "plus" it. A way to add some "BAM" to your site, to borrow a phrase from Emeril Lagasse. Because it's easier to slice and dice and do interesting things with structured data than it is when your data is a big, undifferentiated mass.

IA from a stone? Fancy that.

Content Analysis Slides from EuroIA 2008

2008-09-26T21:03:48Z

I wanted to make a big shout out to all the folks who came to my talk at the EuroIA Conference today. Wow! Thanks! I had no idea so many people were interested in content analysis.

Here is a PDF version of the presentation: Content Analysis Slides [ PDF: 4.2 MB ]

And here is a link to a audit spreadsheet template that should get you going: Content Audit Template [Excel: 54 KB]

I am forming all kinds of things to talk about that I've learned here, but for now I need to get to bed if I have any chance of making to the morning sessions.

EuroIA Conference 2008

2008-09-25T17:18:03Z

Tomorrow is the official start of the EuroIA Conference here in Amsterdam. I'm so excited to be able to be a part of it this year!

Adam Greenfield will be giving the opening keynote. I remember first hearing Adam speak at an IA Summit about the issues of IA in the international space, especially as related to the work he had done in Japan. He talk was incredibly insightful and I was able to use some of his ideas in my work at PeopleSoft. He also gave a talk at Adaptive Path when his book Everyware first came out. I always find Adam a very engaging speaker, bringing together points in ways that are insightful and clever and always make me think. I can't wait to hear what he has to say.

There are a slew of great speakers that have be lined up. Some are names that I know from the IA Summit and others are ones I'm looking forward to meeting. There are two tracks each day, and it's going to be hard to chose. I'm on opposite Eric Reiss, tomorrow at 2:30, and will be talking about content analysis and how to really understand all the stuff that builds up on a site.

IA Summit Call for Proposal

2008-09-11T21:37:41Z

Call for Proposals: 10th Annual ASIS&T IA Summit
March 18-22, Memphis, Tennessee, US

The Information Architecture Summit is a premier gathering place for information architects and all those who touch on IA to discuss, share and learn more about information architecture. Last year's IA Summit attracted well over 600 attendees from a wide range of fields, from 21 countries, and from beginners to experienced IAs.

As this will be the 10th IA Summit, we are seeking proposals for presentations, panels, case studies, research papers, posters and pre-conference seminars, hands-on workshops and consortia that address this year's theme: Expanding Our Horizons.

Proposals can stretch this theme by looking back over our history, forward into emerging trends, platforms and technologies, in addition to addressing our core IA principles and the business of IA. The theme is wide open for interpretation and we look forward to seeing proposals that explore the field in ways that interest people most, and from a wide range of backgrounds, disciplines and functions.

Because user experience design is not just about methods and deliverables, but also about getting results for employers and clients, this year we will have a specific track devoted to business, strategy & management.

Building on the tradition from the past two events, we will continue to seek and present research papers that make empirical or theoretical contributions to information architecture. (You do not have to be affiliated with an academic institution to submit a research paper.)

We encourage submissions from both within the field of IA - practitioners, academics and students alike - and the related fields of library science, user experience, interaction design and user-centered design; as well as from those fields and disciplines that go beyond the traditional horizons of IA and the web.

How and when to submit:

For more information about the various tracks and how to submit a proposal, please see: http://iasummit.org/2009/

When: Now! We're currently accepting submissions until October 31st, 2008, if accepted we'll notify you via email during the first two weeks of January 2009.

For more information about the IA Summit and past events, please see: http://iasummit.org/

90 Mobiles in 90 Days Party

2008-09-10T16:05:12Z

Adaptive Path invites you to come celebrate the completion of Rachel Hinman's 90 Mobiles in 90 Days blog project.

WHEN: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 from 6:30pm - 8:30pm

DESCRIPTION: Our resident mobile design strategist, Rachel Hinman, took on the challenge of exploring a new idea for the mobile user experience every day for 90 days. September 17th marks the completion of her project and to celebrate Adaptive Path will be hosting a party that will include a discussion with Rachel about her experience. Come and celebrate!

Read about the project on the AP blog here: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2008/06/20/creative-recovery-90-mobiles-in-90-days/

Check out the project site here: http://90mobilesin90days.com/index/

Party info here: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1077637/

Champagne and nibbles will be provided.
Talk will start promptly at 7:15

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you there!

WHERE: Adaptive Path
363 Brannan Street
San Francisco, California 94107

Creative Failures

2008-08-30T04:29:20Z

E and I just finished watching Elton John on Inside the Actor's Studio. (Why exactly he was on the Actor's Studio we still aren't sure, but regardless.) At the end of the show, when the audience is allowed to question the guest, one of the students asked about Elton John's song writing process. As way of illustration, Elton John asked the audience for a book, any book, and proceeded to sit at the piano. He smiling said "now I'm going to make an ass of myself," and put some random lines from a play to music, singing them as he made up the melody.

This reminded me of one of my favorite Actor's Studio episodes, the one with Robin Williams. At the end of the hilarious show, a student asked how Robin Williams could stand to risk so much. And he asked, "but what I have risked?" In awe she replied "everything," but Robin disagreed. They were just playing around, having fun with the craft, with humor.

And this got me thinking. Here are two brilliant professionals, at the top of their game. Their creativity and imagination seem endless to me. I love watching people like that. The athletes at the Olympics have the same effect. They make everything look so easy, so effortless. To watch them making their art, there is none of the blood, sweat and tears that I feel go into whatever I create. Yet I'm sure that Robin Williams would say that the jokes he made up that night were not his best. And that Elton John would think that little tune to the play was crap.

How much is that ease and lack of effort a result of not being afraid? They are so comfortable with their skills, with their tools and in their medium, that they are totally free to just... see what happens. They aren't worried about everything being a hit. They know some things will suck. But who cares? In going through the process of creating something less than par, they are finding something that they can take and turn into the next perfect piece.

I think it is their lack of self censorship and inhibitions that I find so inspiring. So often when I sit to make something, whether it's sketches for a design, a piece of knitting or a new recipe for dinner, I freeze up because I'm afraid it won't be any good. Rather than trying, and seeing what I come up with, I horde my ideas until I feel "ready" to bring them forth in all their brilliance. I have this innate tendency to only want to bring forth things that are polished and finished and brilliant. But that day hardly ever comes.

I know from my own past experiences, and from watching others like John and Williams and even others at Adaptive Path, that my work is better when I grow it, making it better over time. I start with something, and working it, shaping it, tweaking it until finally it is what I intended. Or even better, it has surpassed the initial idea and turned out more wonderful than I could have predicted.

I wish I could cast aside the drive for perfection out of the gate. To give myself the permission and the space to try, just try. Just put something out there. I think I would surprise myself with what I could accomplish.

Yes, Because a Video Spokesperson Is the Height of User Experience slaps forehead

2008-08-20T19:16:01Z

I just got the following spam in my inbox:

Chiara,
I thought you might be interested in this article: "10 Virtual Spokesperson Tips"

Adding a Video Spokesperson to your website can not only improve conversion rates but also help you explain your product or service with ease.

Here are the first few tips (Click to see the rest of the article):

10 HD Quality- Make sure the videos that you use are always shot in HD. We live in a world where we are judged by our appearance. If you have videos on your website that do not represent your business in an ultra-professional manner it's waste to even add a video. Quality is key!
9 Close Captioning- Adding close captioning is important. The reality is that some users don't have speakers or are deaf. Therefore, taking into consideration their needs is imperative.
8 User Experience: You have the ability when adding a spokesperson to customize it where if the same user comes back to the same page within a 24 or 48 hour period of time, then that user would not get "force fed" the same video again. The user would be given the option to play the video again if they chose to, but wouldn't be forced to watch it again. It is important to be courteous to your users and look at their experience when adding a video spokesperson.
Click to see the rest of the article, or go to www.i-video-spokesperson.com

Some companies do a very good job of using a Video Spokesperson on their website. However, there are a lot of mistakes that are being made that can significantly hurt a websites appeal.

I hope you find the rest of this article interesting and useful.

Regards,
iSpeakVideo

Wow.

I mean, I guess it's good that they are mentioning user experience at all. It wasn't that long along that such folks would have no idea that such a thing existed. I find it interesting that they don't have a problem "force feeding" (their term, not mine) the video to a user the first time (or if they come back a few days later). Just don't do it multiple times in a 24 hour period.

Um... how about never having auto-play audio or video? That seems like a much more considerate approach to me. I'm fine with using video to explain a product or process. But let the user have control of the experience. Let the user decide when and where they want to watch a video.

I wonder how much of their "conversion rates" are people just clicking on it to try to turn it off.

Comin' to Austin, Y'all

2008-08-19T00:05:31Z

We've just announced the last date for the UX Intensive workshop series this year. We'll be in Austin, Texas from December 8-11, 2008.

This intermediate-to-advanced workshop series examines the four key elements that contribute to a successful interactive experience: Design Strategy, Design Research, Interaction Design and Information Architecture.

The information architecture day is a deep dive into the wonders of bottom-up IA. We'll look at metadata, controlled vocabularies, how to create vocabularies and apply them. And then how to use all that structure to build innovative interfaces and improve systems such as site search.

As always, use the code FOCF to save 15% off the registration price. Early bird pricing is good through August 31 (which is in addition to my discount code).