Orientation & Wayfinding

Wayfinding is a fundamental human activity and an integral outcome of good information architecture. Information architecture empowers us to find our own way in our own time by considering our experiences, expectations, and situations.

Join Us! Attending World IA Day - Richmond invites you into the global conversation around information architecture, featuring guest speakers Jen Strickland, Carrie Hane, Lutz Schmitt, Martina Mitz, Hilary Marsh, & Eric Reiss.

Schedule: (all times are EST)

9:30am - 10:15am Jen Strickland

The True Cost of Our Unknown Unknowns and Corners Cut

How often do prioritize one thing over another in our rush to deliver? How often are the things on the chopping block accessibility, equity, web performance, privacy, security, and environmental impact? At what cost?

Let’s reflect on the corners cut and human impact of our decisions, then reimagine a new process prioritizing security, equity, UX, and environment with thoughtful enhancements.

With 30 years of experience across roles and industries, an intersectional, non-binary identity of a multi-racial ethnicity and invisible disabilities, Jennifer prioritized inclusion from the beginning. They aim to ensure no one is excluded from products and services from the beginning. Inclusion — preferably equity — as culture, not a feature to be backlogged. Jennifer loves coding as much as designing, research, strategy, and heart-led leadership.

Additionally, Jennifer is an invited expert with the W3C, serves on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group, CSS, Web Performance, Sustainable Web Design, and Equity groups, and is a co-lead of the Structured Content sub-group. They volunteer with a number of organizations such as the U.S. Digital Response, AIGA (2021 AIGA DC DotGov Programming Director), IxDA (DC organizer), UXPA, Design Research DC co-organizer, and speaks on equity, accessibility, web performance, and CSS at a variety of events.

10:15am - 10:30am Jen Strickland Q&A

10:30am - 11am Carrie Hane

Carrie Hane is a creative problem solver and connector of people, processes, and technology. For more than 20 years, she's been helping organizations transform to meet the ever-changing needs of the people they serve and take advantage of the latest technology. Currently, Carrie works as a Principal Evangelist at the content platform Sanity and is the co-author of Designing Connected Content: Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow, a handbook for a pioneering approach to sustainable digital publishing. At Sanity, she passionately advocates for thinking about how content powers digital experiences that connect with audiences and help fulfill organizational missions while making life easier for the content operations team. Carrie has led workshops and been a speaker at events around the world, and has been a guest lecturer for undergraduate and graduate courses in user-centered design and content strategy.

Like most people working in tech, she has two degrees completely unrelated to her work. By far the most enlightening education she has received is being the mother of boys. When she's not working, you can find her at the pool swimming, wrangling college tours for her son, or reading with her dog.

11am - 11:15am Carrie Hane Q&A

11:15am - 12:pm - Lunch Break

12:00pm - 1pm  - Lutz Schmitt

"Design Is Invisible"

Design is invisible. It's not the object you're asked to design, that matters most. Every design decision is flawed, and results in more changes needed, so be careful with what you decide. Let's take a stroll through Lucius Burckhardt's ideas and explore them in today's digital context."

Lutz Schmitt is currently a freelance Service & UX Design consultant, with a knack for privacy and critical design. He started as a web designer in the late 1990s, graduating as a designer in the early 2000s, before taking on managing positions. He wrote a book about the perception of time and the influence of design on it, that barely anyone has read. Lifetime goal: Cooking something that brings tears of joy. Not achieved, yet. Lutz can be found at lutzschmitt.com

1pm - 1:30pm - Lutz Schmitt Q&A

1:30pm - 2:30pm -Martina Mitz

Diagnosis UX Charlatans: How to Spot Them Quickly and Stop Wasting Time, Money and Nerves 

User Experience (UX) is probably one of the fastest evolving and most exciting disciplines to be a part of these days. As the practical value of UX-work has become more and more obvious in the past few years, the demand for UX Designers and experts has grown exponentially. However, the market is not only confused or has at best a very narrow understanding of the term, but the huge growth in popularity also offers a soil for many amateurs and fake representatives of the discipline to evolve. Having had the (dis)pleasure to meet and work alongside some highly promoted UX charlatans over the past decade, Martina started spotting their patterns and systematically untangled their profiles. In this talk, she will share the nine symptoms to watch out for to avoid this UX diagnosis - in the hope to save you some time, money, and frustration – no matter if you are an evolving UX Designer or a Business/Project owner in need of UX expertise.

Martina is a UX/Service Designer and a certified Psychologist = UX Psychologist, working since 2001 on re-designing certain parts of the web. Since 2009 she was able to influence the eco-systems in big companies like Volkswagen, T-Online, eBay, PayPal, Emirates Airlines, Cortal Consors (BNP Paribas), StepStone, The Co-Operative Bank and many others. She has also supported some chosen start-ups in Germany and the UK, primarily by driving their research and strategy phases and therefore establishing a user-centred Design approach and the supporting structures. Further, Martina is very engaged in sharing the knowledge, so next to public appearances at conferences and meet-ups, she is a mentor for younger, but also experienced colleagues, as well as an instructor for UX in the Brainster Academy.

2:30 - 3:00pm  Martina Mitz Q&A

3pm - 4pm- Hilary Marsh 

The Facets of Content Strategy

Hilary Marsh is president and chief strategist of Content Company, a content and digital strategy consultancy. She helps content-rich organizations get better results from their content by improving their practices. Content Company’s clients include Allstate, American Bar Association, American Medical Association, Estée Lauder, Endocrine Society, Fulbright Teachers Exchange, Institute of Food Technologists, Intuit, NORC at the University of Chicago, Syracuse University, and Walgreens. Hilary has been a leading content strategy practitioner, mentor, speaker, and professor since 1999.

4pm - 4:30pm- Break

4:30pm - 5:30pm - Eric Reiss 

Random Rants From an Old Soldier

Eric Reiss has held a wide range of eclectic jobs: piano player (in a house of ill-repute), senior copywriter (in an ad-house of ill-repute), player-piano repairman, adventure-game creator, and stage director. His experiences have served him admirably as a designer, content strategist, information architect, interaction designer, and usability “expert” - although he can’t explain exactly how. In more mundane lives, Eric has been a two-term president of the Information Architecture Institute and Professor of Usability and Design at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. Today, Eric is CEO of the FatDUX Group in Copenhagen, Denmark, an innovative UX company with offices and associates in over a dozen cities worldwide. He also has several books to his credit, including the best-selling “Usable Usability,” which is now available in five languages.

5:30pm - 6pm - Eric Reiss Q&A