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Making a difference through UX was a shared passion among an impressive line-up of 7 researchers, strategists, and designers from the global UX community at this year’s 100% virtual 3-day UX New Zealand conference.

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1. From bombs to bots: the evolving landscape of frontline research

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These days Darya Pilram, Senior Researcher at Twitter, spends her days trying to understand the motivation and techniques of groups who ‘hire’ technology to spread harmful narratives.  The desert of Mogadishu and the urban conflicts of South Africa are just some of the unlikely places she’s leveraged the power of frontline research to create change.

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"I realized the only way to influence change was by bringing folks along with me - and so I did.  I bought them right into the field with me."

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2. Beautifully accessible: why embracing inclusive design shouldn’t hold back your creativity

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Experience Designer Beth McPhail refuses to buy into the mindset that ‘accessibility is a creativity killer’. She challenges her peers to view accessibility as an opportunity to grow creatively while making technology more inclusive.

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“Accessibility is making it possible for someone to attend the party…and lose themselves in the music.”

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3. Innovating within the Justice sector | Part 2: For a fairer start - design’s role in shaping mana enhancing social & systemic change.

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Kelsey Gee is back challenging designers across all levels to think differently about how design can be used across different mediums and constraints to generate meaningful experiences and meaningful change.  In this session, she explores design’s role in creating empowering experiences that break both cycles of crime and institutional racism. (If you missed Part 1 from Mini Con head over here)

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"I truly believe that our superpower lies in our ability to redesign society, especially for our whanau and our most vulnerable communities…and once again explore design’s role in creating equal opportunities across safe, seamless, and healing public services."

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4. First do no harm: make your designs more trauma-informed and survivor sensitive

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In 1985, a researcher botched an interview question which led to a new understanding of trauma and its long-term effects. It grew awareness of the need to be trauma-informed in your work but what’s it actually mean?  UX Researcher Melissa Eggleston explores what it means to be trauma-informed and shares practical advice on how to achieve it.

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"Trauma is everywhere and something for us to think about…regardless of whether we’re working with people we know are dealing with traumatic events…it’s really all over the place."

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5. Changing the way we design high-risk products to make meaningful impact

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One in five people experiences “mental illness or significant mental distress” in New Zealand.  It’s a problem the Government knows needs to be addressed but how? In her powerful presentation, Rachael Reeves reveals what’s involved in balancing the complexities of Government with the need to rethink the way we design health products.

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"Be warned you can’t please everyone and it can be tough to keep product vision aligned when you’re talking about serious consequences for people."

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6. Remote research with new internet users (yes you can!)

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One billion new internet users (NIU) will come online for the first time over the next 5 years. These NIU's are using their first smartphones, with most of their online activities focused on communication, maintaining social connections, and entertainment. Tiane Lee, UX Research Lead at Google outlines the challenges and considerations behind adapting research for varying levels of digital literacy, including practical ideas for planning and conducting remote research with NIU.

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"NIU’s are typically less digitally literate, they may show lower confidence in digital capability, and they may perceive lower value of the internet for things like chatting and entertainment.”

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7. Conditions Design: weaving the invisible threads of service design, value orchestration, and culture building  

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Michael Tam introduces us to the niche field of conditions design and cites a purpose built high diving board on Wellington city’s busy waterfront in New Zealand as a good example of conditions design.  Find out why in this fascinating talk.

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"What really impressed me here…hats off to the council because they didn’t design an experience that would discourage people from doing it. It’s designed for people to have fun (vs Hong Kong where public spaces are designed for Tai Chi not fun like this). The design allows it to happen by influencing human behavior to stay safe but encouraging fun and exploration.”

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For a taste of what even more speakers from UX New Zealand 2022 had to share, head over to our highlights reel

Thanks to an ever-growing digital world, businesses are spoiled for information and data. The more complex the business, the more information there is and the more complicated the business requirements are. But where there are challenges, there is opportunity. That’s where information architecture and data architecture come in.

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Information and data architecture both seek to make sense of the plethora of information a business handles. However, the two have different roles to play in the way businesses use, move, maintain, and present data - both to internal and external stakeholders. So what are they and why should businesses take note?

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Defining Information Architecture 🗺️

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Information architecture is the structure used to organize and label content on websites, mobile applications and other digital environments. Its primary purpose is to enhance user experience by ensuring information is structured in an accessible, usable and relevant way.

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Information architecture seeks to understand user needs and goals by analyzing both existing and required information, then building an information framework in a logical and user-friendly way. It deals with three main components:

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• Labels: How information is represented
• Navigation: How users make their way through the information
• Search: How users look for information

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Whilst this information sits in the background, it’s the layer upon which you build the design of your digital products.

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Information architects bring data from file systems and databases to life by building meaningful narratives and stories. Outputs can include site-mapping, information architecture diagrams and content inventories. These outputs are supported by user research techniques such as card sorting, tree testing, user surveys and first-click testing.

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Defining Data Architecture 💻

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Data architecture bridges the gap between business needs, goals, and system requirements related to data handling. It sets out a framework for managing data assets, the flow of data and the maintenance of data systems. As such, it has a slightly more macro view than information architecture and concerns itself with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain.

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Where information architecture centers around the end-user interaction, data architecture centers around practical handling and operation of data processes i.e. collection through to transformation, distribution, and consumption. Because of this, data architecture must take into account the businesses ability to scale operations, integrate with third party systems, support real-time data processes and the reduction of operating costs. Modern data architecture may point to artificial intelligence to tackle some of these challenges.

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The Importance of Enterprise Architects in Information and Data Architecture 🏗

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Enterprise architects are big-picture people. Data architecture and information architecture both fall within their remit, and they often oversee other data management job specialities within an IT department.

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As a leader (and often, visionary) within a business, enterprise architects shoulder the responsibility of ‘mission critical’ projects. As a result, they tend to have several years experience with IT systems, backed by a bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT management, data science or similar. Many will hold a master’s degree and specialty certifications.

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The role involves collaborating with senior business leaders, solution-delivery teams and external stakeholders, and requires creative problem solving and excellent communication skills. Therefore, enterprise architects very much steer the ship when it comes to information and data architecture. Combining high-level business strategy with knowledge of ‘the nuts and bolts’ of IT data systems and processes, they command an annual salary in New Zealand between $150,000 and $200,000 per annum..

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Continuous improvement within any business that has substantial IT infrastructure calls for serious investment in enterprise architecture.

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Designing and Implementing an Effective Information and Data Architecture 𝞹📈🧠📚

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Once overarching business goals are aligned with the scope of data and system requirements, information and data architecture design (or redesign) can begin.

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Crucial to the design and implementation process is developing an architecture framework. This is a set of guidelines that lays out principles, practices, tools and approaches required to complete the design. It supports system design decisions, assigns key tasks and provides project guidance throughout the design process. The framework essentially aims to unite disparate teams and maintain business and IT alignment.

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The choice of architecture design is also critical. It should consider scalability, performance, maintainability and adaptability to emerging technology. Which is why cloud platforms feature so heavily in modern data architecture. Cloud architects will navigate the architecture design and technical requirements of cloud-based delivery models, which offer the solution to those scalability and adaptability challenges. They are responsible for bridging the gaps between complex business problems and solutions in the cloud. Modern data architecture tends to involve some form of cloud delivery component.

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Throughout implementation, data and information architects will work closely with designers and engineers until testable architecture is ready. User research and testing will be carried out, and a feedback loop will commence until requirements are met. Users, as always, should be at the center of your digital product.

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Summing Up the Complexities of Information and Data Architecture 🧮

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Whilst the difference between information and data architecture can appear nuanced on the surface, they hold unique roles when delivering a cohesive, user-friendly digital product.

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Think of a sliding scale where business operations sit at one end, and users sit at the other. Data architecture addresses challenges closer to the business: aligning business requirements and goals with how data flows through the system. On the other hand, information architecture addresses the challenges related to how this data is organized and interpreted for the end user.

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At the end of the day, both information and data architecture need to work in harmony to satisfy the user and the business.

Every month we have fun and informative “bite sized” presentations to add some inspiration to your lunch break.  These virtual events allow us to partner with amazing speakers, community groups and organizations to share their insights and hot takes on a variety of topics impacting our industry. 

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Join us at the end of every month for Lunch n' Learn.

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Susanna Carman

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Leading design processes amidst a world in transition requires all practitioners to continuously invest in their own development. One aspect worth investing in, is an ability to integrate holistic thinking into our design leadership practice. This includes re-evaluating our own biases and how that bias is reflected in the tools we choose to work with when understanding and designing for/within complex systems.

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Recently our guest Susanna Carman, Strategic Designer and founder of Transition Leadership LAB, introduced us to a holistic approach to qualitative design research using Ken Wilber’s 4 Quadrant Model. Susanna explained the fundamental principles underpinning the framework, and showed how it can be used to ensure a multi-perspectival harvest of critical qualitative and quantitative data on any design project.  

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Speaker bio

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Susanna Carman is a Strategic Designer and research-practitioner who helps people solve complex problems, the types of problems that have to do with services, systems and human interactions. Specialising in design, leadership and learning, Susanna brings a high value toolkit and herself as Thinking Partner to design, leadership and change practitioners who are tasked with delivering sustainable solutions amidst disruptive conditions. 

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Susanna holds a Masters of Design Futures degree from RMIT University, and has over a decade of combined experience delivering business performance, cultural alignment and leadership development outcomes to the education, health, community development and financial services sectors. She is also the founder and host of Transition Leadership Lab, a 9-week learning lab for design, leadership and change practitioners who already have a sophisticated set of tools and mindsets, but still feel these are insufficient to meet the challenge of leading change in a rapidly transforming world.

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Grab your lunch, invite your colleagues and we hope to see you at our next Lunch n' Learn 🌯🍱🍜🍲