June 24 presentation: There is a story behind every link

There is a story behind every link: Tales of information architecture from ibm.com by Keith Instone

Ever wonder how a large corporate web site navigation system is designed, and how it evolves over time? How certain links find their way to the corporate home page, while other ones do not? How major changes in the corporation's business affect the web site navigation? And how the IA of the corporate web site can give clues about how well the business is doing?

If so, then join Keith Instone as he tells stories about the information architecture of ibm.com. Example stories may include:

* The evolution of sitewide navigation categories like "solutions" and "services"
* Worldwide information architecture challenges
* The cultural shifts required to do something as (theoretically) simple as adding a "sign in" link to the masthead
* Tracking the evolution of a single web page as it signals fundamental shifts in how the business is operating "behind the scenes"
* The effect of selling off a key division of the company on the navigation system
* Balancing the strategic goals while handling day-to-day requests for changes to the navigation
* Techniques for dealing with executive home page link requests

The stories Keith tells will be in part determined by what you want to hear. Come prepared to select some high level links on ibm.com and see if Keith has any interesting stories to tell about them.

Keith Instone has been the information architecture lead for ibm.com for the last several years. He had been on the User experience design team since he joined IBM 6 and a half years ago. Keith is also active in the information architecture and user experience communities. Most of his professional volunteer time goes towards the User Experience Network.