Location: Rackham Graduate School - 915 E. Washington St. - Ann Arbor, MI 48109. The event will be in the Rackham Ampitheatre, which is on the fourth floor of the Rackham Graduate School. There will be signs directing attendees where to go.
- Please visit this link for some information about parking near Rackham: https://secure.rackham.umich.edu/Events/facilities-parking-near-rackham.pdf There is also a parking garage a few blocks away at 324 Maynard Street, as well as street parking in front of Rackham (limited, restricted times). Additionally, there is a neighborhood directly to the north of Rackham that has some street parking for free, but this is also limited and possibly covered in snow. (Yay, Michigan!)
Please note that there will be no food or drink allowed inside the Rackham Amphitheatre (except water, naturally!), but we have the entire fourth floor of Rackham with seating and tables for everyone to enjoy their delicious coffee and breakfast.
Venue, parking and transit
Location: Rackham Graduate School - 915 E. Washington St. - Ann Arbor, MI 48109. The event will be in the Rackham Amphitheatre, which is on the fourth floor of the Rackham Graduate School. There will be signs directing attendees where to go.
Please visit this link for some information about parking near Rackham: https://secure.rackham.umich.edu/Events/facilities-parking-near-rackham.pdf There is also a parking garage a few blocks away at 324 Maynard Street, as well as street parking in front of Rackham (limited, restricted times). Additionally, there is a neighborhood directly to the north of Rackham that has some street parking for free, but this is also limited and possibly covered in snow. (Yay, Michigan!)
Program/Schedule
Registration and coffee/breakfast
Join us for coffee from local coffee company Roos Roast as well as a catered breakfast from The Produce Station. We encourage everyone to get to Rackham as early as possible after 8:30am so they can enjoy this delicious breakfast (and sweet, sweet coffee). We will begin promptly at 9:30am, so we want to make sure we have a packed house ready for our first speaker!
Breakfast will consist of:
- Bagels & cream cheese
- Fresh cherry scones
- Zingerman's sour cream coffee cake
- Fruit salad with strawberry yogurt dipping sauce
- Croissants
**As noted above, no food or drink besides water will be allowed inside the Rackham Amphitheatre; however, we have three full rooms right outside the theater available for you to use to enjoy your breakfast and coffee with fellow attendees!
Welcome Remarks
Along with a special video from Abby Covert!
Information and Serious Leisure
From Jenna: My presentation for World Information Architecture Day at Ann Arbor is best captured in the form of the diagram, [featured on Jenna's website here: http://www.jennahartel.info/news.html as well as on @WIAD_AnnArbor's twitter & Facebook page]; it displays information architecture, happiness, and leisure in an interlocking framework. To start, I will celebrate the special work that information architects perform to envision and oversee the informational structures and patterns that reside underneath the surface of everyday life. Then, I will turn attention to one notably happy and cherished life experience – leisure! – and reveal the structures and patterns that exist therein, too. Finally, I will guide the audience to bridge and fuse these neighboring domains (information and leisure) in order to more mindfully design and manage products and services that generate happiness in leisure settings and beyond.
DUMB | Five Patterns from the Work of Richard Saul Wurman
Inspired by IA pioneer Richard Saul Wurman’s call to practice information architecture as “an understanding business,” Dan Klyn co-founded The Understanding Group with Bob Royce in 2011 and is on a mission to co-opt architectural thinking from the built environment and interpret it for use in the design of places made of information.
In addition to his duties as structural design practice lead at TUG, Klyn works as an editorial assistant to Mr. Wurman, teaches the IA course at the University of Michigan School of Information and has served as a board member of the Information Architecture Institute.
Architecting Lasting Happiness*
Kat King (http://katalogofchaos.com) is a graduate of The University of Michigan School of Information, where she first encountered Information Architecture by accident. Since then she has become obsessed with understanding how we attempt to control the arguments our information makes, and how these arguments control us. She is interested in language, meaning, and the ways we try to structure the chaos of existence. She lives in Ypsilanti, MI where she manages her own existential terror by reading, taking snapchats of her cats, and going to The Wurst Bar.
Lunch break
All attendees will receive a handout of places nearby to grab a quick, delicious lunch! We'll also have tables and chairs available if you'd like to bring a lunch back.
You can also take this time to visit our sponsor booths from:
- The Understanding Group
- ProQuest
- The University of Michigan School of Information
- Atomic Object
- Vitamin T
Lightning Talk: Taking the App Out of Happiness
How to live in and design for the present moment in an increasingly virtual world.
Lightning Talk: Life Lessons Dashboard Design Taught Me
In this talk, I will walk you through four lessons I learned when building RazorFlow and how they will help you in creating happiness for your users.
Lightning Talk: Crafting Camaraderie: A Few Lessons on Building Workplace Happiness
How do we build workplace happiness? Start traditions. Embrace co-workers’ quirks. Make meaningful connections. Eat waffles. Do planks.
Lightning Talk: It's not about the title, it's about the job.
Information Architect, UX Designer, UX Engineer, UX Strategist... Don't let job title mislead you. It's all about the job, not the title.
Lightning Talk: It's a User-Driven World After All
What three years working for a Mouse taught me about architecting happiness for users.
Lightning Talk: Lessons Learned from Choose Your Own Adventure
Lessons learned from Choose Your Own Adventure - every page is an opportunity for the story to continue. Stop saying THE END.
Delight, Discovery, and d'Arts: Experience Architecture in Ann Arbor
Omari Rush has a continually expanding role of service as both an artistic administrator and community leader, in part through his work as Curator of Public Programs at the Ann Arbor Art Center, and previously as Education Manager at the University Musical Society (UMS). Additionally, he has served in an advisory role for numerous organizations of varying cultural and geographic scopes: as Vice Chair of the governor-appointed State of Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, as a member of national advisory committees for the Kennedy Center and Association of Performing Arts Presenters, and as Chair of the Board of Directors for the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation. Omari earned degrees in music from the University of Michigan and Florida State University, and while his concert performances as a clarinetist are now infrequent, Omari fills his downtime with planning special events for friends (like shur! and the Fox Trot), reading (especially American Revolution literature), and eating kimchi (lots).
Understanding Context
Andrew Hinton (http://understandinggroup.com/team/andrew-hinton/) is an information architect at The Understanding Group, and the author of Understanding Context. Since the early 90s he's worked with companies to make habitable, delightful environments out of information. He lives in Atlanta, GA, where he considers the humidity an acceptable price to pay for easy access to collards, grits, and decent BBQ.
Closing Remarks/Giveaways
AFTER PARTY HAPPY HOUR!
Join us after the conference for happy hour and networking with all of the attendees!
We have a room reserved at Conor O'Neill's which is located at:
318 South Main St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
We encourage everyone to come out and spend time with each other to celebrate the end of a great event. There will be a large group walking over from Rackham, and we suggest that if you are able to walk there, you walk with us. Parking is available near Conor's, but if you have a good spot - keep it until after the party! (You could even plan ahead and park closer to Conor's in the morning - strategy!)
If you do need to drive, these are the parking structures/lots closest to Conor O'Neill's:
Parking structure at 4th & William
Parking structure at 4th & Washington
Parking lot at Main & William
Parking lot at Ashley & Huron
...and more! Street parking near there, other small lots, etc.
