Design for Context | User Experience Design Consulting

My first Museum Computer Network conference (https://lnkd.in/eB6GzVcD) did not disappoint. In late October, my colleagues and I traveled to Lawrence, Kansas, for MCN 2024. The two-day conference was packed with interesting people, talks, and spaces. The conversations that most stood out to me were the ones around digital strategy, sustainable/strategic approaches to digital initiatives in museums, and cross-collections platforms. It comforted me to learn that other institutions are struggling with familiar data and institutional challenges as they combine collections and create streamlined digital experiences. My top 3 Takeaways: 1. Main website redesign projects remain mammoth, challenging projects – but some institutions are responding to the increased pace of technological innovation by breaking up a website redesign into smaller, more sustainable and more frequent project phases. 2. Combining data from different sources is still difficult. Institutions, such as the Judy Chicago research portal (https://lnkd.in/ei_T-7fi), that integrate objects from multiple collections (whether within that single institution or across multiple institutions with relevant collections) are finding solutions to variances in data quality, quantity, and vocabularies. 3. Institutions that hold collections across libraries, archives, museums, even gardens – like the Huntington – are looking at how their collections and website can be streamlined so that users don’t need to embark on separate online journeys to view objects and data from different collections. Bonus takeaway: The Ignite sessions on the first night of the conference were energizing and thought-provoking – and I’m going to delete my emails more frequently from now on. #mcn2024

Looking for ways to improve your software or SaaS product? As experts in design for complex applications, we find that icons provide tremendous value when used thoughtfully in a UI. One important way that they impact the user experience is by making it easier to navigate through the product. To find out more about this and other ways that well-designed icons can make a big difference that goes beyond visual appeal, read our latest article, “Why Icons are Useful in UX Design”. If your product could benefit from new icons, please get in touch, we’d be happy to help! #UXDesign #IconDesign #SaaSDesign #UserExperience #UserInterface #DesignExpert

Looking forward to connecting with everyone at the Taxonomy Boot Camp in a week! And I get to start the week off on Monday morning with a talk, sharing case studies and exploring #taxonomy, #design, #IA, creating "Aha!" moments and #findability. If you can't make it, slides will be available so you can follow along.

Duane Degler from Design for Context | User Experience Design Consulting talks about ‘Enabling Exploratory Discovery Through Taxonomy’ on Nov 18 at the 2024 edition of Taxonomy Boot Camp in Washington DC. Not everything can just be searched. “Aha!” moments deliver value. Exploration leads to insights and surfaces contexts. How do you prepare your content for these user experiences? Degler will demonstrate some interfaces that integrate public archives and cultural content collections. These projects show how taxonomies and knowledge graphs play a direct role in the UI (not just in the backend). From there, Degler broadens out to other domains, looking at how knowledge graphs provide focused “discovery glue” across repositories and how taxonomies can signpost insights across departments, partner organizations, or countries. Degler's session is Nov 18, 2024 at 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM. Link is in the comments. Taxonomy Boot Camp 2024 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences this November, including KM World, Enterprise Search & Discovery, Text Analytics, and Enterprise AI World #taxonomy #TaxonomyBootCamp #KMworld

Highly recommended annual conference about Information architecture; the 2025 theme is: the bridge between humans and technology. April 29-May 3 in Philadelphia. Call for proposals closes on October 20.

The UXPA International annual conference is one of our favorite conferences. It provides valuable networking opportunities with colleagues in our industry and knowledge sharing about trends, tools, techniques, and UX strategy. We're looking forward to the 2025 edition which takes place in Amsterdam. Proposals for speaker sessions are due October 4.

On November 18, Duane Degler from Design for Context | User Experience Design Consulting talks about ‘Enabling Exploratory Discovery Through Taxonomy’ at the 2024 edition of Taxonomy Boot Camp which takes place Nov 18 - 19 in Washington DC. Not everything can just be searched. “Aha!” moments deliver value. Exploration leads to insights and surfaces contexts. How do you prepare your content for these user experiences? Degler will demonstrate some interfaces that integrate public archives and cultural content collections. These projects show how taxonomies and knowledge graphs play a direct role in the UI (not just in the backend). From there, Degler broadens out to other domains, looking at how knowledge graphs provide focused “discovery glue” across repositories and how taxonomies can signpost insights across departments, partner organizations, or countries. Duane’s session: https://lnkd.in/eqeSwwA4 About the conference: https://lnkd.in/eJdk4jPi Taxonomy Boot Camp 2024 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences this November, including KM World, Enterprise Search & Discovery, Text Analytics, and Enterprise AI World #taxonomy #TaxonomyBootCamp #KMworld

Design for Context is happy to be a sponsor of the MCN conference. We'll see you there! October 22-24 in Lawrence, Kansas. Conference website: https://lnkd.in/ebAEUUK8

Video now available for ‘AI Explanations as Two-Way Experiences, Led by Users’ In human communication, explanations serve to increase understanding, overcome communication barriers, and build trust. They are, in most cases, dialogues. In computer science, AI explanations (“XAI”) map how an AI system expresses underlying logic, algorithmic processing, and data sources that make up its outputs — but this is one-way communication. How do we craft designs that “explain” concepts and respond to respond to user’s needs? Can AI identify, elicit, and apply relevant user contexts, to help us understand AI outputs? How do explanations become TWO-way? Watch this video by Duane Degler from Design for Context | User Experience Design Consulting presented at the UXPA International conference: https://lnkd.in/gM6a49nJ We must create experiences with systems that will be required to respect user needs and dynamically explain logic and seek understanding. This is a significant challenge that, at its heart, needs UX leadership. The safety, trust, and understandability of systems we design hinge on the way we craft models for explanation. #XAI #ExplainableAI #UXforAI #TrustworthyAI #TransparentAI #UXPA2024

On 19 September 2024, the International Image Interoperability Framework Consortium (IIIF-C) held an event at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) that brought together 21 people from 8 institutions that are IIIF-C partners or IIIF implementors. The program consisted of my introductory talk, a technical update by Glen Robson (IIIF-C Technical Coordinator, virtually) and four invited speakers: Duane Degler (Design for Context | User Experience Design Consulting for Context); Kristin DeAnfrasio (National Archives and Records Administration); Vincent Rossi Rossi (Smithsonian Institution); and Matthew Westerby (NGA). Nick Sharp, Chief Digital Officer of the NGA opened the meeting and spoke of the value of IIIF. Thanks to NGA staff Rachel McPherson and Jaime McCurry for their organization on the ground and Caitlin Perry (IIIF-C Communications and Community Coordinator) for long distance coordination.