IDEA 2006 conference on designing complex information spaces

Peter Merholz of Adaptive Path and president of the Information Architecture Institute asked me if I could mention the IA Institute’s IDEA 2006 conference on Putting People First, especially since the discounted registration ends Friday. Of course I gladly comply.

IDEA stands for Information: Design, Experience, Access and is a conference on designing complex information spaces of all kinds.

The IDEA 2006 conference, which takes place on 23 and 24 October at the Seattle Public Library, addresses issues of design for an always-on, always-connected world. Where “cyberspace” is a meaningless term because the online and offline worlds cannot be made distinct. Where physical spaces are so complex that detailed wayfinding is necessary to navigate them. Where work processes have become so involved, and so digitized, that we need new processes to manage those processes.

This conference brings together a diverse set of designers, creators, and researchers who are addressing these challenges head on. Speakers from a variety of backgrounds — including museum design, information visualization, librarians, environmental design, user research, engineering, interaction design, and product strategy — will discuss designing complex information spaces in the physical and virtual worlds.

The final programme features these speakers: Bruce Sterling; Linda Stone; Jake Barton (from Local Projects); Dave Cronin (from Cooper); David Guiney (from the National Park Service); Deborah Jacobs (the City Librarian for Seattle); Ed Vielmetti; Alison Sant; Ian White (from Urban Mapping); Mike Migurski (from Stamen); Fernanda Viegas (from IBM Research); Robert Kalin (from Etsy); Dan Hill (from the BBC); and Paul Gould (from MAYA Design).