Donna Maurer is well known as an Information Architect,
Interaction Designer and much more in the field of IA. She is a
Marketing and Communications Director on the board of the IA Institute, holds a leading position at ASIS&T, has delivered significant speeches at IA conferences, and this year, she was in the planning committee for the IA Summit, where she gave
the welcoming speech. With her very charming Australian accent, she gave me some answers to questions about her IA background, the intention of her conference speeches (book summary: “Women, Fire and Dangerous Things”) and workshops ( e.g., Introduction to IA). We also had the chance to talk about her role in the IA Institute and what she thinks are the challenges for us IAs over the next two years. Let’s listen to her valuable thoughts right here:

Quick Jump in Audio (18min/6,4 MB):
women_in_ia_donna_maurer.mp3

01:07 Minute - Donna’s activites in the field of IA
04:55 Minute - Some words about her conference speeches
08:25 Minute - Her role in the IA Institute
11:26 Minute - The challenges of IAs

 

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Many IAs and others that are responsible for information systems worldwide try to develop application strategies - with more or less success. In this interview, we talk about a great IA and UX method of doing this very efficiently. It was developed by Indi Young, who is also one of the founders of Adaptive Path, a renowned IA and User Experience group in San Francisco. After attending her seminar during the PreCon of the IA Summit 2007, where visitors learned how to create a Mental Model (during the teamwork that needs to take place between IAs and their clients), I had the chance to interview her.

One of the things I really like about her is her great ability to describe complex things in an understandable way, using metaphors such as “the hallway test” to help communicate methods like the Mental Model to the business world.

Indi is currently writing a book on creating Mental Models and she has a blog at Rosenfeld Media. Does this grab your attention? Then let’s listen to the interview.

Quick Jump in Audio (40min/13,3 MB):
women_in_ia_indi_young.mp3

01:10 Minute - The beginning of Adaptive Path and Indi’s amazing IA background
13:25 Minute - Indi explains the idea and development of Mental Models
35:22 Minute - A quick look with Indi into the future of IA

 

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