<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>Key Pointe Usability Consulting, Inc.</title>
	<link>http://www.keypointe.ca</link>
	<description>User Experience &#38; Information Architecture</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:30:36 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	<!-- generator="WordPress/3.1.1" -->

	<item>
		<title>The Basics of Taxonomy Use and Maintenance</title>
		<description><![CDATA[While working on a project last year, I needed to educate my client on what a taxonomy is, how it fit in with the ubiquitous word &#8220;metadata,&#8221; when to use a taxonomy. The client also wanted to maintain their taxonomy on an ongoing basis, without my input, so I needed to give them the tools [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1501</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Information Architecture Practice Framework</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This morning I had the pleasure of reading Nathaniel Davis' articles "<a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2012/01/call-yourself-a-practitioner-prove-it.php">Call Yourself a Practitioner? Prove It.</a>" and "<a href="http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/09/framing-the-practice-of-information-architecture.php">Framing the Practice of Information Architecture</a>." You might ask why I was so excited to see these articles and I'll tell you. It solidified for me how I've always felt but could not put into words: that IA is not about interaction design (or even wireframes) but is about information organization and strategy.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1481</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Card Sort Case Study: How It All Played Out</title>
		<description><![CDATA[While working for Rocky View County in Alberta to help them redesign their website (not currently available), we held an on-site kickoff meeting that included two sessions of card sorting. These sessions went rather well and included some facilitation on information and content needs by <a href="http://www.e3contentstrategy.com/" target="_blank">Kathy Hanbury</a> and the card sorting facilitation done by yours truly.

In an effort to help us all learn from each other, I thought I'd review how the card sorting went: what I did, how the sessions went, how things could have been improved and what worked.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1472</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Metrics: Measuring User Experience, Taxonomy, Usability</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Metrics for user experience are excellent ways to judge our work as well as prove value to the organization. Here are some resources for further reading.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1456</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>User Experience Strategy and Research</title>
		<description><![CDATA[UX work always fits into someone’s bigger picture. To make a successful product, it’s crucial to understand this bigger picture. ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1419</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Information Architecture and Design</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Site visitors need to be able to come to the site and find what they’re looking for. ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1422</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Usability Testing Your Product or Site</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Think your product is great? Extensive user testing is the best way to fully understand your users.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1425</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Thoughts on Audience Based Navigation</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Recently I&#8217;ve been working on a municipal website and we&#8217;ve been discussing audience based navigation. By audience navigation, I mean that on a site, you have global navigation categories that name specific audience types. On a municipal website, the navigation labels of Resident, Business, Government, and Visitor might be used. On a university website, the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1385</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Taxonomy and Metadata and Findability Influence Traditional Roles</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Taxonomy and metadata skills are now much more important library skills. A lot of information being created today does not fit into the Dewey Decimal Classification, the Library of Congress Subject Headings or many other classification systems. Companies struggle with how to organize digital information to ensure everyone can find it and many companies are starting to move away from file servers and into content management systems where taxonomy and metadata are crucial to categorizing and retrieving information. However, most people don’t have the instinctual skills to create information organization structures that are useful or the practical knowledge and experience to be confident in the structures they create. 

Librarians and information scientists (and you can probably lump in technical writers, content strategists, other writers, business analysts, requirements analysts, hereafter referred to only as information scientists) are trained to organize knowledge and are perfectly positioned to help people build new, non-traditional knowledge structures. ]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1373</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Portfolio for the UX Professional</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As someone who always wants to do an effective portfolio but can never figure it out, I&#8217;ve recently come across some interesting articles on portfolios for UX professionals. Portfolios for Independent UX Designers on UX Matters gives some interesting insight into how UX designers can use their portfolios. The authors give one example: One of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1140</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Questions for You on Information Architecture and Content Strategy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I was talking with a content strategist the other day who asked me why I don&#8217;t call myself a content strategist. As we got to talking, she told me that I already to content strategy work, whether or not I call myself that. Angst set in, &#8220;Yet another identity crisis?? But I like being an [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1068</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Content Marketing: 5 Things You Should Know</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Theresa’s Note: Kathy Hanbury and I are collaborating on blog posts for each other. This is the eigjth in a 12-part series. View all posts by Kathy. As a content strategist, it’s my job to make sure that my client’s content achieves the results that they want. More and more frequently, I’m being asked to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1052</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Information Architecture Deliverables</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In information architecture, there are a few deliverables meant to communicate the information design to all the stakeholders. Here’s a brief overview of what can be delivered on an IA project and why these things are important. This list of deliverables is by no means exhaustive. These are some of the typical ones I work [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1047</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guest Post: How Editorial Strategy Informs Web Design</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Theresa’s Note: Kathy Hanbury and I are collaborating on blog posts for each other. This is the seventh in a 12-part series. View all posts by Kathy. We’ve talked about why it’s important to do a content audit before you design a new website. Now I want to let you know how you can use [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1040</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Usefulness of Personas in User Experience and Information Architecture</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Creating user personas is a fantastic way to get stakeholders to focus during the design. You’re not just designing for people who like&#8230; well, everything&#8230; you’re designing for that particular someone who likes to do something particular. I always say, “Ask for what you want and you’ll get it. If you don’t ask, people won’t [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1036</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Healthcare Intranet Redesign &#8211; UX and IA</title>
		<description><![CDATA[This post details my work on redesigning a healthcare company&#8217;s intranet. Company &#38; Project Team Profile Large healthcare company A large number of employees at the company for 20+ years Client project team: three web specialists Customer project team: a Project Manager and a Business Analyst Project Profile Redesign company intranet for searchability, page consistency, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1098</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>SEO and Information Seeking Compatibility</title>
		<description><![CDATA[For my MLIS internship, my site supervisor asked me to find out about how SEO drives users to good content. Specifically, the questions were: What is the current thought about how SEO can drive people to useful content? Instead of just driving people to a site for the one-off encounter, how can SEO drive users [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1032</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Facilitation in User Experience and Information Architecture</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Currently working on an internship for my MLIS degree, one of my learning objectives was to learn more about facilitation. When I went to Washington DC for the internship, my internship supervisor facilitated a 3 day taxonomy workshop with the client. Two weeks later, for my work, I facilitated card sorting for one of my [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1026</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guest Post: Incorporating Content Testing into IA Testing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It can be really hard to get the necessary resources to test the quality of new content, so I’ve learned to piggy-back content onto almost any type of testing that’s going on. Because information architecture already focuses on content labelling and organization, it makes sense to include a closer look at content here. It’s also a great opportunity to get feedback on a proof of concept for your overall content strategy. If you have a green light for IA testing, here’s how you can incorporate content testing into your IA testing.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1018</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guest Post: Doing a website redesign? Do a content audit first!</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Theresa’s Note: Kathy Hanbury and I are collaborating on blog posts for each other. This is the fifth in a 12-part series. View all posts by Kathy. One of the first things that a content strategist often does on a web redesign project is a content audit. Most websites that are being redesigned have a [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=1010</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guest Post: Five Steps to Creating Useful Content</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Content usefulness is defined by the relevance and substance it has for its intended audience and how well it supports the user in taking action. There’s not much point spending time putting content online if it’s not useful. Providing really useful information is a problem that many of my clients struggle with as they shift their focus from traditional corporate-centric content to user-centred content.]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=995</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Design Choices: Everyone else is doing it, so why can&#8217;t we?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A theme that has cropped up a few times in the last few weeks is the idea of, &#8220;Everyone else is doing it, so why can&#8217;t we?&#8221; The idea is that if another company has a feature on their website and that company is making a lot of money, then that feature must be good. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=990</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>User Experience and Agile: Swirlings and Musings on Communication and Collaboration</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A few months ago I had a phone interview and showed the interviewer some of my sanitized wireframes. He asked me how I wrote out the specifications so developers knew what should be implemented. I'm not sure I gave a good response then, but I've had time to think about it. My response should have been, "I worked with them the whole time, we had already discussed what was to be done and the intent, and they could ask me any questions while they coded."]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=983</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guest Post: 6 Ways to Evaluate Content Usability</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Theresa’s Note: Kathy Hanbury and I are collaborating on blog posts for each other. This is the third in a 12-part series. View all posts by Kathy. One of the most important parts of any content strategy is to make sure that content is usable. In other words, that it’s easy to find, read, understand, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=976</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guest Post: The Process of Content Strategy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Theresa’s Note: Kathy Hanbury and I are collaborating on blog posts for each other. This is the second in a 12-part series. View all posts by Kathy. If you’re familiar with the user-centred design (UCD) process you can easily understand the content strategy process. Really, it just adds another layer of activities and considerations to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=967</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>

