information architect, ux designer
I believe in humility, clarity, and bravery.
Currently a principal information architect at Microsoft.
What I do
I create intelligible experiences by considering and modeling structure before we make messes. I clean up messes when that doesn’t work.
I guide user research initiatives and coach researchers and designers to become better facilitators.
I create safe spaces for teams to work transparently, happily, and effectively. I am a varsity-level cat herder.
I am part of a delightful IA team at Microsoft Learn. I speak at lots of conferences. I teach information architecture at the School of Visual Concepts.
What I say
Improvisation is a form of bricolage, making due with what we have in front of us. We can use tools from jazz improvisation to become better facilitators and collaborators. I have given several talks on this idea.
Library science has been looking at how people seek and use information for centuries. I am especially fond of re-visiting established information behavior theories to translate them for today’s ux designers who have no idea this repository of knowledge exists. Like Taylor’s Levels of Information Needs, for example.
Effective collaboration is hard, but not impossible. Working at a large corporation like Microsoft means that we are constantly working with strangers, surfing the waves of re-orgs, and trying to implement big fuzzy ideas that cross organizational boundaries and features. I do a lot of thinking and talking about how we can be better collaborators.