America's Next Top Information Professional

I took the bus down to Seattle on Friday for InfoCamp (and because my brother just moved here from back East and my folks drove up from Portland for the  weekend). 

InfoCamp is “an unconference about user experience, information architecture, user-centered design, librarianship, information management & related fields.” This is the third year, and it completely sold out, with 350 people registered. An “unconference” is a gathering where the participants decide together what topics to cover. At InfoCamp, this happens in the form of individuals volunteering to lead a session on some topic. Some folks came with prepared talks, but others have suddenly evolved as the day went on. (You can see the schedule-in-progress here.) The Zine Librarians (un)conference I went to in spring was structured somewhat differently, where we brainstormed together at the start of the day, then assigned locations to discussions, without necessarily having a set leader.

Day 1 was eye-opening. I have to admit, I had no idea what UX was, but it is very, very interesting to think about. The keynote speaker was UW design prof Axel Roesler, who discussed both broad conceptualizations of design and some practical case studies. I found his use of the scientific method as a metaphor rather interesting: he said that, like science, design requires experimentation, but it’s an experimentation through change, experimentation as exploration. You’re not proving* or disproving your hypothesis, you’re just trying new options to see if they improve your (or the user’s) experience. He also set us up for the day’s interdisciplinary nature by discussing a model of design that involves innovators (designers, big thinkers), practitioners (who could be, in some cases, librarians), and technologists (folks writing the code). Better understanding between these groups can improve the ultimate product and its use. 

The most new-to-me session I went to was about User Interface Responsiveness by two fellas from Microsoft. Basically, they talked about the period of time users are willing to put up with between making an action (clicking, touching a screen, etc) and seeing some sort of reaction. It’s unsurprisingly short, but there is a range, depending on what the action was. One of the presenters, Steve Seow, has written a book about this, which I’m curious to read. It’s an interesting intersection of technology and social meaning. Throughout the day, I realized I have a lot to learn about (and from) the software industry. 

I met a few librarians, some of whom work in very nontraditional jobs or settings. But I think the most intriguing conversations I had or heard were between folks in different fields. The word “cross-pollination” definitely came up a few times, and it may be corny, but it certainly permits for rich exchanges. I ran into a few folks from BC, but didn’t have time to make serious connections yet. But the call has been made for InfoCamps to pop up around the world…anyone up for InfoCamp Vancouver?

* Remember, the scientific method doesn’t prooooove anything: it provides evidence that either supports or disproves hypotheses.