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IA Summit 2014

San Diego, CA

Michael Adcock

Tools for Uncovering Arrangement & Meaning

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Concern over tools goes way back…

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Andrew’s 25 Theses (Oct 2002)

http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/research/25_theses.php

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Need better tools!

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Responses to Fred’s question included: SPSS, Nvivo, Dedoose, ATLAS.ti

Need more tools! Need fewer tools!

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Need better fitting tools!

@adcockmhttps://medium.com/p/f755c6515368

Need to think about them differently!

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We need a toolbox!

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NO. Stop talking about tools!

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Children already know how to do it.

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But we have less time to play.

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What is Information Architecture?

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http://www.jarango.com/blog/2013/06/28/for-the-world-wide-web/

What is Information Architecture?

Thanks to @Katalogofchaos for the inspiration!@adcockm

Understanding IA

http://understandinggroup.com/2013/07/presentation-at-uxpa-2013-understanding-information-architecture/

What is our medium?

Dan Klyn proposes: FRAMES@adcockm

Why are we doing any of this?

Karl Fast (or maybe Stephen Anderson!) in Wednesday’s IA Summit “Design for Understanding” workshop

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Where do tools fit in?

Adapted from Abby Covert’s “Make Sense: Information Architecture for Everybody”

What can we learn by doing?

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“But simple is good, in my view, because you can carry it around in your head. And simple is also good because you can combine many small, simple things to figure out a big, complex thing.” -- Andrew Hinton

Simple is good

http://understandinggroup.com/2013/03/some-simple-models-for-user-context/

Conversation

“Allow the information to tell you how it wants to be displayed. As architecture is “frozen music,” information architecture is “frozen conversation.” Any good conversation is based on understanding.”

-- Richard Saul WurmanJanuary 2000 issue of Knowledge Management

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WHAT and HOW

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Put the WHAT before the HOW

http://www.slideshare.net/The_Understanding_Group/what-before-how-making-a-home-for-information-architecture

WHATdoes the tool want to do?is the tool good for?does it consume?does it produce?is the effort required to learn & use it?

HOWcan we trust the tool?can the tool(s) be adapted if necessary?do the tools fit together? (possible? anything

missing?)

WHAT and HOW of a different sort

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http://sitcomnation.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/tool-time.jpeg

Text Editor

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

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NotePad++ (or TextMate/BBEdit)

http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

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Spreadsheet analysis

https://code.google.com/p/google-refine/

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Google Refine / OpenRefine

https://code.google.com/p/google-refine/

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Google Refine / OpenRefine

https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine

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Google Refine / OpenRefine help

http://googlerefine.blogspot.com/

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Textual analysis

http://classic.tiddlywiki.com/

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TiddlyWiki (classic)

http://classic.tiddlywiki.com/

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Tiddlywiki: Thesaurus

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Tiddlywiki: Thesaurus

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Tiddlywiki: Data Migration Tool

@adcockmhttp://charts.tiddlyspace.com/recipes/charts_public/tiddlers.wiki

Tiddlywiki: Data Migration Tool

@adcockmhttps://github.com/abego/YourSearchPlugin

TiddlyWiki (new)

http://tiddlywiki.com/

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TiddlyWiki help

http://www.giffmex.org/tw5mall.htm

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Connection analysis

https://gephi.org

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Gephi

https://gephi.org

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Gephi example

Plugin from: https://marketplace.gephi.org/plugin/gexf-js-web-viewer/

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Temporal analysis

https://code.google.com/p/gource/

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Gource example

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Visualization analysis

http://d3js.org/

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D3

http://d3js.org/

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D3 help

http://christopheviau.com/d3list/gallery.html

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RAW

http://raw.densitydesign.org/

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Readability analysis

http://www.hemingwayapp.com/

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Hemingway

http://www.hemingwayapp.com/

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Storytelling

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World IA Day Video

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World IA Day Video

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WIAD Video: Goals

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WIAD Video: Approach

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WIAD Video: Approach

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Storytelling with maps

http://www.animaps.com/

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Animaps

http://www.animaps.com/

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Storytelling with audio

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

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Audacity

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

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Storytelling with video

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

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Camtasia

http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

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Find more tools

http://alternativeto.net/

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What have we learned by playing with information and transforming it in different ways?

Do we use tools we’re comfortable with, or tools that help us frame information in certain ways?

Would we rather be an expert at using certain tools, or an expert at choosing effective tools to use?

Things to ponder…

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Thanks!

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Tools for Uncovering Arrangement & Meaning

Michael Adcock