User Experience & Information Architecture Links for Beginners
The problem with Information Architecture and User Experience is, that most people tend to only have a very vague picture of what those two areas mean in terms of what professionals are doing every day in their jobs.
Actually, most people don’t even know that IA & UX even exist. This makes it very hard for young emerging information architects or user experience designers to find out more about those professions. Luckily there are some really great websites out there, where one can find tons of information, written by some of the brightest minds in the industry. I have written down a very short list of websites I visit on a daily basis to give beginners an easy start to find more information about the profession they are interested in. So here we go:
Basics
Lets start with one article you should read if you have never heared IA/UX before: A Complete Beginners Guide to Information Architecture
Websites
BoxesandArrows
BoxesandArrows.com is maybe THE website about information architecture out there. Online since 2001, some of the brightest minds in the industry have written articles for BoxesandArrows. I have to say that BaA.com can get very theoretical, so it is great for a more academical approach. You can find some great articles on the site, giving you a detailed insight into thoughts behind IA. But take your time when you read those articles, because they require some thought to get the essence.
UXBooth
Another great site dedicated to Information Architecture, Usability and User Experience in general. A team of bloggers writes about their practical experience, offers great tips and reviews websites in terms of usability.
Wireframes Magazine
The Wireframe Magazine is a smaller blog dedicated to practical techniques for information architects. Various short posts describe different ways to do wireframes, sketches and how to produce deliverables during your IA project.
UsabilityCounts
UsabilityCounts.com is another great site about user experience and usability with a lot of useful posts written by three experienced authors. They don’t just write about IA but also about various other topics you might find interesting.
User Interface Engineering
On UIE.com you can find some very good articles written by famous IAs like Jared Spool. They also have a podcast, so if you prefere audio instead of written text, give it a try!
Experiencing Information
This is the blog of James Kalbach, author of “Designing Web Navigation” and User Experience Designer at LexisNexis. He writes about how we experience information and about his experiences in his daily life as an UX specialist.
UXMatters updated (03/23/09)
I just found another site dedicated to User Experience. Looks great, but I haven’t had much time to give it a closer look.
Podcasts
Most of you will have a mp3 player so why not use it to obtain some knowledge through podcasts. There are quiet a few very good podcasts out there, some even contain live recordings of various IA conferences. Personally I listen to podcasts every morning when I go to work since most of the time I’m to tired (or to lazy) to read a book.
BoxesandArrows Podcast
The podcast of boxesandarrows.com - really good information in here!
IA Podcast
This is the podcast of Jeff Parks, an IA specialist based in Ottawa, Canada. He’s also doing most of the BaA Podcasts, so again, some really good content in here.
UIE Brainsparks
This is the podcast from the User Interface Engineering website mentioned above. Again, great content, worth listening to!
Boagworld
Although this isn’t specifically a IA/UX podcast, I think it’s worth mentioning. Boagworld adresses a wide range of topics in the webdesign/development universe. Since I strongly believe that any IA/UX specialist should know a bit about design and coding, this is a great way to know what’s going on. Besides, it’s always real fun to listen to Paul and Marcus.
UXPod updated (03/29/09)
Yet another podcast about Usability and User Experience. Haven’t listened to it yet, so please add your feedback to the comments of this post.
Do you know any other good blogs, websites or podcasts about Usability, Information Architecture or User Experience? Please add a link via the comment form to help other readers. Thank you!
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