This presentation will discuss the collaborative approach taken during a user-centered design of a large website. The project involved a high degree of collaboration between our consultancy and our client’s in-house website team.
Working within a Commonwealth government department presents many challenges for an information architect, but in this case we were also challenged by the complications associated with a relatively inexperienced multidisciplinary team. A collaborative approach was adopted to allow the team to build their skills in the areas of information architecture and web design, whilst making progress on this key project. As such, providing the team with a mentor was deemed more effective in the long run, as opposed to outsourcing all work to a consultant.
This mode of cooperation was used throughout the project, from initial planning, through user research and business needs analysis, to information architecture and user experience design.
Patrick Kennedy is a senior consultant at Step Two Designs, a Sydney based information management consultancy. Patrick has over 10 years of experience in the digital media and web industry, and he now specialises in information architecture and ethnographic design research.
Patrick is a member of the Usability Professionals Association (UPA), the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of Australia (CHISIG), the Web Standards Group (WSG), the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) and the Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) and the Information Architecture Institute (IAI) as well as several smaller special interest groups.
How have you responded to the challenges of working in a collaborative team environment?
What have been your experiences with mentoring an in-house team?
In what ways do you tailor your approach to IA when working with a less experienced team?