The User Experience of Disruption

Information Architecture Summit, April 2011, Denver, Colo.

Internet downloads disrupt the CD industry; DVRs disrupt the broadcast television advertising industry; online classifieds disrupt the print newspaper industry. We’re user experience professionals, we GET disruption, right? We’re the folks who teach other people how to use disruptive technologies to their advantage. But how well do we handle disruption when it happens to us?

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Words #Fail: Collaborating on the Unexplainable

Information Architecture Summit, April 2010, Phoenix, Ariz.

Visual thinkers Dave Gray and Dan Willis decided to explore the murky glory of the unexplainable with an interesting experiment. Over the course of a large scale challenge, they collaborated without the benefit of spoken words or written narrative to first identify and define their primary challenge; then create and winnow the list of potential solutions; before finally developing a single solution.

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