Tent Talks Featuring: Dan Brown

Here are the main points from the Tent Talks session with Dan Brown titled, “The Information Architecture of Products:”

Embracing Change in Design

Acknowledges the inevitability of change in design and the importance of flexibility.Emphasizes the alignment of understanding within a team, even if there's no agreement.Outlines a script and story arc for future-oriented design, akin to TV show creation, without filming every episode in advance.

Future-Oriented Design Approach

Discusses the impossibility of creating unchangeable designs.Advocates for understanding and appreciating underlying structures without rigidly defining every bit of a product.Compares product design to TV show production, including high-level mapping and teasing out definitions.Clarifies that it's abstract but provides a common language for the product team.

Conceptual Modeling vs Object Mapping

Shares the idea of using a conceptual model as a flexible tool for understanding a domain.Prefers the term "concept" over "object" because it doesn’t prescribe how it might manifest in the user experience.Emphasizes framing and the potential pitfalls of object-oriented UX, like unnecessary connections and data associations.

Insights into Object Map Creation

Acknowledges lack of knowledge about how others create object maps but recognizes potential similarities.Stresses a chill approach, listening to others and using the tool for personal understanding.Points out the risks of preoccupation with buy-in and making presumptions.

Value of Returning to Basics in UX

Reflects on three decades of design progress, highlighting continuous thinking on the same topics.Revisits the article on design revolutions and the influence of new technology, like cloud-based design tools.Distinguishes between learning past lessons and focusing on essential basics such as writing, presenting, and drawing.

Importance of Fundamental Skills in Design

Emphasizes writing, presenting, and collaborative drawing as core skills.Reflects on personal experiences, like college tours, to underscore the universal value of presenting.Advocates for building on these basics before adding technical skills of information architecture.

UX Education for the Next Generation

Acknowledges the progress in UX design, with personal reflections on continuous thinking.Discusses the paradigm shift in design processes, such as cloud collaboration and the elimination of file-sharing challenges.Stresses the significance of articulation through words, structuring meetings, and drawing pictures.Shares the importance of core skills, including writing and presenting, for the next generation of UX designers, emphasizing how these skills are now considered essential in education.

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!