Aug 27, 2008: Fall workshops in Chicago and Washington, DC

Steve Krug and I are at it again. We'll be teaching our new workshops this fall in Chicago (October 16/17) and Washington, DC (November 11/12). We're offering discounts for early registration, for groups of three or more, and for signing up for both days. More info here.

I must say, it's been fun to assemble an entirely new workshop (I just started teaching this one in the spring). When you teach the same class for many years, like my old enterprise IA seminar, it tends to get overloaded and difficult to squeeze into one day. I centered the new one from the start around hands-on exercises and discussion. Of course, it's still hard to squeeze into one day. But so far the evaluations have been good. Many say it's one of those topics that they didn't realize they needed to know about, and are now glad that they do. Not that I'm biased...

Anyway, I hope to see you there this fall.

Aug 26, 2008: Nate the Great

Pushing ten weeks and 14 pounds...

More photos here.

Aug 20, 2008: Must... kill...

I've long advocated for banning the term "redesign" from design discussions. (Crazy me, but I just think it's a good idea to keep clear of time-boxed projects that are ill-conceived and ultimately a waste of effort and money.) I think terms like "refine" and "tune" do a far better job of describing what we should be doing: instituting ongoing processes that help our sites evolve in response to a multitude of changing variables.

I hate to sound like a fascist, but I think "build community" ought to be the next one we throw on the pyre. Dunno, maybe I've read too many RFPs of late, but what the hell is it supposed to mean? Is it truly achievable? Is it even a good idea? How many organizations really want a community on their hands to repeatedly feed, burp, and diaper? I think what we mean is that we want to "better engage with more people". But until we find a replacement term, can we just bite our tongues instead of using this ridiculous, meaningless phrase?

Aug 14, 2008: Interviewed in IDJ

Saul Carliner was kind enough to interview me for the latest issue of the Information Design Journal. If only it was online...