IA Summit 2007, March 22-26 at the Flamingo Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Main conference presentation

Annals of experience: hacking it alone or the importance of being earnest or being mercenary

Jason Hobbs

Monday March 26 2007, 8:30 - 9:15AM

This presentation will be a personal sharing of the past 3 years of running an information architecture and user experience service offering in SA, where no one has a clue what information architecture or user experience design is.

It will cover:

Leaving the developed world for the developing

  • 2003: Coming home (from London to Johannesburg)
  • The pressure and encouragement to design wrong
  • The damning conversation that set me free
  • Surprise 1 (where others learnt we didn't)
  • Surprise 2 (Where did all my heroes go)
  • Surprise 3 (You're the hero! Now I know I know nothing)

The phoenix (advice on burn out)

  • The importance of caring for the subject matter you are IA'ing for
  • Arts and culture projects
  • The privilege of getting paid to work for the non-profit sector

Positioning IA in a market where no-one knows what IA is

  • Some good advice over coffee (the 'T' factor)
  • The burden of education: the trouble in getting your foot in the door. The other side of ignorance is trust
  • Choosing your client? the Ad agency, the web design company or the client?!
  • The importance of being multi-lingual (IA as an intersection)
  • How user experience design has helped (the argument in your pocket)

Productising

  • Process as product
  • I am not a consultant, I am a designer.
  • The importance of information visualisation and language

Unexpected successes

  • gaining client trust, ownership and unexpected responsibility

Managing growth and demand

  • how can you sell your work if it didn't turn out the way it was meant to
  • Remaining true to your core competence vs. the need for control (and thus extended services)
  • Entrepreneurship and opportunism: launching a content company

Dealing with the void: The loneliness of the lone wolf

  • All dressed up but no place to go: local community silence
  • gratitude to the international community
  • Future hope (UXnet and IA Institute local networking initiatives)

The richness of IA (future opportunities)

  • Publishing, public sector, research, education, product development, content, manifest

What the developed world just doesn't get

  • The brain drain
  • The opportunity and the feeling

IA Summit 2007