PreConference @ summit

OK... Day -1 at IA summit. I went to two workshops: Communication Design and Guerilla Persona. I went around to trade the trading cards. I met lots of people. Because of the trading card, I got to talk to more people than I have ever done. Also, we were forced / helped to know more people in class, more connections were formed because the "common ground."

Communication Design was a good class. It is totally something I am lacking - clear design of wireframe. We went through flowchart, wireframe, and then design critique. At the very beginning, I found the class might be too trivial because it's in between what I know and a little what I might not be clear. However, the class went a bit deeper (not much).

Some of the major steps of designing a flowchart are to have a purpose, target audiences, perspective, and the content (situation analysis, establish purpose, list of elements, priority elements, and identify key relationships). These concepts were not foreign to me however, I felt it's lacking from my process of designing a flowchart.

In term of presentation of documents: we talked about we should have: talk points (theme and context); questions (validation, clarifications, and resolutions); implications (functional and organizational).

Despite how much I don't like about documentation, one thing he had in his wireframe was history of changes... it's something I refused to do because it made readers of the document don't see the whole picture. However, the way he put it was more for the sake of myself. I can keep track of conversation and decision. I buy it! Another way to have a smoother meeting is by anticipate all participants' agenda.

Compare to the morning session, the afternoon session was just over-promising in the description and it is considered as wasted of money for me to attend. I sat in class, and was working my email and coordinating sync. Boring. She focused too much on the usability of the webpage. I don't feel she actually tackle the PERSONA - which I really want to learn, how to design one and stick with it.. even involve other stakeholders to use it. It's waste of time.. but I guess I used it WISELY.

There is a session for the first timer to the IA Summit. Dennis said 5 1/2 things for us to remember: reflect, focus, go to 5 min madness, go depth,... hmm... talking to people (networking)... something like that.

The party was a bit sucky. I had fun trading cards and chatting with a few people I met in the day time.

Another thing I have done was for Dave Robins from Kent University. I went through his study and learn about MYSELF... what do I like vs what I don't like. Very interesting especially the conversation that I had with Rebekah on the side.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the real summit... time for bed so I can be less tired!