Kent 2018

Information Architecture & Navigation Systems for Mobile Interfaces (Workshop) - Shari Thurow

Learn how to create and maintain mobile-friendly architecture…regardless of how your content is accessed by both human users & technology.

One main challenge of mobile information architecture is the migration of a broad-and-shallow architecture to a narrow-and-deep architecture. Narrow-and-deep architectures make content more difficult to locate, discover, and interpret.

Learn tools and techniques to ensure that mobile-friendly content, navigation, technical architecture, and metadata are effective for ongoing findability in a mobile-first environment.

Who Will Benefit From This Workshop

Anyone who designs, develops, and promotes mobile websites/apps should attend this workshop!

Key Takeaways Include:

• How to successfully modify mobile navigation for narrow-and-deep architectures
• How to construct a clear, consistent labeling system
• Communicate context & aboutness to both human users & technology
• Tools to help diagnose technical & accessibility issues

Downloadable materials included. Workshop also includes a Site/App Clinic to address your most pressing mobile architecture questions.

The Ultimate Guide to ADA Compliance for Website Accessibility - Todd Bertsch

With many companies, both large and small, being sued for non-compliance, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) website accessibility is one of this year’s hottest topics. In this session, I’ll discuss everything you need to know to about ADA compliance, including how to perform your own audit, fix any issues, use simulator tools and more. As UI/UX professionals, it’s our responsibility to lead this movement and help make websites accessible to everyone.

Empathy in Collaboration: The Client/Vendor Relationship - Jay Oldaker

Sometimes working together can be really hard. Collaboration isn't easy, but it also doesn't have to be draining. Together we will dive into the heart of collaborative work and come out with some observations and tricks that will help you the next time you choose to work with someone outside your organization.

Build Your IA/UX Bookshelf Starting With These “IA For Good” Suggestions - Jennifer Stencel

Did you know that Zappos has a Library, stocked with a selection of business books from the like of Jim Collins and Seth Godin, offered to all employees Free-for-taking?   Why not carve out a small space and start a mini “Pop Up” library of your own?  Librarian, Jennifer Stencel has curated a selection of titles which will educate, enlighten and empower your staff to make sound “good” IA and UX design decisions. Visit the Pop Up Library for inspiration on how to start one. She hopes in the end you will feel encouraged to start a monthly Book Discussion, or at least bring one to the beach!

Designing the Knowledge Ecosystem (Workshop) - Edwin K. Morris

An interactive and engaging workshop to build awareness and understanding of the concepts and practices of the field of Knowledge Management (KM) and how KM is essential to the success of modern organizations. You will participate in a thoughtful group exercise to create an organizational structure that fosters knowledge building, knowledge flow and an engaging work culture.

Takeaways:

• What is “knowledge management” and why is it important?
• How do organizations lose money by failing to “manage” our knowledge?
• What are the components of a knowledge organization?
• How should a culture engage its knowledge asset?

Content Editors are Users Too: Optimizing a Content Management System (CMS) for a Positive User Experience - Chris Hallahan

As UX Designers and Information Architects, we sweat every user-facing detail of a website or application’s design system, navigation and voice/tone.  Frequently overlooked, however, is the experience editors and clients inherit when tasked with using a content management system (CMS) to update the product with new content.  Editors are often faced with unintuitive systems that require unexpected levels of support and effort.  This could, in turn, negatively affect the end-product’s quality over time.

Chris will outline some of the most frequently neglected parts any common CMS, define actionable, non-technical design tips for creating an improved system and demonstrate a working example of an improved editing experience.

Attendees will learn how to apply these principles within their own teams and projects, advocating for an editing experience that’s as delightful and efficient to use as the user-facing product itself.

When In Doubt Test It Out: Getting lean with UX - Marc Majers

Software applications and websites fail because they do not incorporate enough customer feedback into their products. You think you know, but do you know you know? There are user experience (UX) tools that when put in place can get your whole team involved, allow you to change gears quickly, and gather user feedback to increase the quality of your products. How do you do this? What can steps can you take to get your organization moving in this direction? If your company has implemented Agile, UX and is looking to improve how they work together - this presentation is for you! Discover how the principles of Lean UX can be integrated into your business and move you toward a regular usability testing schedule. Teams need to move away from thinking they know what the customer needs to knowing what the customer needs and usability testing is the key to get you the answers.

Digital Genome - Ben Woods

The history of libraries is a history of loss. Nobody knows how much knowledge we have lost and had to re-learn (or have not yet re-learned) over the millennia. By extension, the history of the World Wide Web (the largest collected body of information known to humankind) may also become one of loss. While we see statistics touting the amount of data that is created every day, knowledge disappears from the web constantly. What we as UX designers have learned, and how we got here is disappearing – what are the ramifications for the future of our digital world?