World Information Architecture Day (WIAD) celebrates information architecture and shares knowledge and ideas from analogue to digital, from design to development, from students to practitioners, globally and locally on March 8, 2025.
Join us March 8, 2025 in Providence
- Saturday, March 8, 2025, 9:00 am–noon (doors open at 8:30 am)
- Sprout Coworking in Olneyville, Providence, RI
Don’t live near Providence? Find a World IA Day event in your area.
Call for speakers
If you would like to speak, prepare your talk ideas now and submit a proposal for WIAD Providence!
Most talk slots are full, but we are still accepting ideas for 5-minute lightning talks. Last year’s conference might give you a good idea of what kinds of talks are fair game.
Register to attend
Donate or sponsor
To make sure we can keep all our events free, please make a donation today. All donations are tax deductible.
Venue, parking and transit
Sprout Coworking (Olneyville)
166 Valley Street, Building 6M, Providence, RI 02909
Parking: Free parking is abundant! Park in any of the Rising Sun Mills lots.
Public transit: RIPTA routes 17, 19, 27, 29, 92
Sprout is accessible for wheelchair users.
Program/Schedule
Doors open at 8:30 am!
We’ll start promptly at 9:00 am and wrap up at noon. There will be bagels, coffee, and tea!
Welcome
Speakers (15 minutes each)
Confirmed Talks
Mike Eng, “How to Make Sense of a Messy Project Brief”
When starting a project or starting to work with a new team, there’s a lot of information you need to get oriented, and usually it’s not all provided right away. Here are some things to look for and ways to get answers.
Clare Cady, “Building a UX Research Repository That Works”
“Hey, have we done any research on...?” is a common phrase UX researchers hear from designers, product managers, engineers, and senior leaders. It’s time consuming to dig through the archives to find past insights, and if your team has churn that institutional knowledge goes out the door.
The problem my team faced after years of data collection and research was: how do we continue to leverage our data over time and build a framework that is accessible to everyone?
This session outlines how the UX research team at Unite Us leveraged an AI tool to build a research repository that is searchable and effective for all team members across the company. The presentation will cover tool selection, protecting IP, training the AI model to provide accurate actionable results, and teaching team members how to use it.
Stephen Szermer, “Designing Information Architecture for Digital Heirlooms: Preserving Knowledge Across Generations”
This talk explores how Private Language addresses the challenge of preserving and transferring specialized knowledge across generations through innovative information architecture. I’ll examine how we’re tackling three key challenges:
- Structuring “heirloom datasets” that remain accessible and meaningful across time
- Balancing AI-assisted documentation with human expertise preservation
- Designing access control systems that support generational knowledge transfer
Coffee break
Discussion, networking, and activities
Coffee break
Lightning talks (5 minutes each)
Confirmed Talks
Asher Kolieboi, “Trust & Transparency: Accessible Information Architecture for Fintech Security”
Security in fintech isn’t just about protecting data — it’s about making safety understandable and accessible for all users. My talk will highlight examples of accessibility challenges and wins in fintech.
Mel Rainsberger, “Complexity as Colleague”
Financial services like insurance don't necessarily benefit from a lightning-fast, uncomplicated process. Some interfaces can only be simplified so much. However, in the context of financial and official services user flows, this complexity is expected and can be utilized to deliver a powerful experience.
Your Talk Here!
We’re keeping a few lightning talk slots open for the day of the conference. If you’re inspired, sign up!
