TUG Notes - February Issue - World IA Day 2024

A curated set of articles, events, and opportunities put together by the Information Architects at The Understanding Group

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February 20, 2024 10:36am EST

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Hi Friend,

In 2011 Abby Covert and Dan Klyn had the idea to create a one-day celebration advancing the education and practice of information architecture. The next year, in February of 2012, the first World IA Day was launched in over 61 cities across the globe. The Understanding Group was happy to be a sponsor of that first event and over the years our team has contributed in numerous ways. This year we are happy to be sponsoring World IA Day Michigan on March 2, from 1–4 pm EST. We have structured the event so you can participate in person in Ann Arbor or Grand Rapids, or online from wherever you may be.

The theme this year is Context and we’ve put together a great program you won’t want to miss featuring:

Andrew Hinton will revisit themes from his book “Understanding Context”
Matt Payne will discuss the importance of IA to context windows in LLMs and RAG
Joe Elmendorf will discuss how establishing context is important when modeling.

This month’s TUG Notes features articles from each speaker to get you in the mood. Enjoy... But don’t forget to sign up to participate on March 2.

WHAT WE'RE READING

Language is Infrastructure

By Andrew Hinton

The terms and labels we choose in our navigation serve as mental scaffolding for how we interact with and understand our digital environments. This 2013 post from Andrew Hinton is a call to action to intentionally craft digital language to ensure that the places we navigate online are as coherent and meaningful as the real spaces we occupy.

What Before How; It Applies To Models Too

By Joe Elmendorf

A foundational principle we follow at TUG is to always clarify What needs to be done before determining How to do it. In this post from Joe Elmendorf, he applies this principle to the craft of creating models by first taking the time to clarify the intent and substance of the model.

How Width.ai Builds In-Domain LLMs using Ability Trained LLMs and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)

By Matt Payne

This article from Matt Payne provides a wonderful, detailed explanation of how to combine the power of LLMs with your enterprise knowledge using Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). It sounds relatively simple: feed your data to the LLM to ensure accuracy, but as you’ll learn in this article, there is a lot more to the story to make it all work.

UPCOMING EVENTS

02/23/2024 - Miro Community Talk – Joe Elmendorf shares the secret to focused, impactful modeling using the Model Approach Placard (M.A.P.) Technique, a methodology that champions the agile principle of doing the simplest thing that works by paying attention to what truly matters.

TUG Workshop Start Dates

Have you taken one of our workshops in the past? TUG now allows all past participants to retake any of our workshops at no cost. Contact us for more details.

03/07/2024 - Archetypes Workshop (2 sessions) – Learn TUG’s method for improving site design by modeling why people come to the site.

04/16/2024 - Intro to Information Architecture (6 sessions) – Enjoy a fast-paced introduction by Dan Klyn to the fundamental concepts and practices of IA.

04/19/24 - Modeling for Clarity (4 sessions) - Learn how to talk about and solve strategic (design) problems by creating models that communicate clearly.

AI READINESS AND STRATEGY

Do you need help cutting through the complexity of AI? Is your organization prepared to leverage this era-shaping technology? Our AI Readiness offering helps clients:

Understand the benefits and limitations of AI systems.
Grasp the critical implications of governance, data management, and oversight in AI.
Begin leveraging AI technologies today to amplify human capabilities.

Contact us for more details on how you and your organization can better prepare.

A GIFT FROM TUG TO YOU

Free Archetypes Poster

These archetypes inform how a digital place should be structured AND how to situate information and interactions throughout the site. Looking more closely at the intentions and behaviors of people to structure the places you create, rather than personas, will result in better-architected places!

INTERESTED IN WHAT WE DO?

Digital & AI Strategy, Digital Design, and Research. TUG clients make better decisions, incur less risk, and achieve stakeholder alignment because they invest in better ways to organize and manage complex systems & information.

Embarking on a complex project? Stakeholder challenges? TUG can cut through the complexity. Email us at [email protected] to explore how TUG can support your initiatives.

// LETS CONNECT