Zoe Keating - integrating IA and music

Taking process and understanding from one part of your life and applying it to another - this is exactly what I'm attempting to do with quietAction. By being able to choose from hundreds of techniques and methods from every discipline and experience you have had or will have, your life becomes one big interconnected sandbox.

My friend Alexa sent me this link to Wired.com's series of interviews with Zoe Keating that I wanted to pass on. Zoe's story about her wandering path and what the interconnectedness in her life has wrought mirrors my experience of working in tech and design in the 90's. I think the era spawned a whole lot of integrators simply by allowing all of us to practice being versatile. I particularly love her clarity on the intersections between information architecture and creating her music.

This is a perfect example of how fascinating each of our stories are and how we can connect with and find "our people" in life. And companies should pay attention as well - look what happens when you recognize what you are good at, continue evolving, trying new things and speaking authentically. It's not always about doing it perfectly - often it's about showing your work. We, as your customers, appreciate that. I went and bought her music on iTunes...she might need an addition to her house or a new MacBook Pro.

To see the other two vids, one of Keating performing and the other an abridged interview, visit the Wired.com vid site page

Anybody else you'd like to point us at that inspires you and is doing this kind of integrating and synthesizing?

sfmoma - ansel adams and georgia o'keeffe exhibit

Yesterday I had a chance to wander through the new Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at SFMOMA. If you get a chance definitely get to this exhibit this summer as they did a really nice job of intergrating the two artists in together. I hadn't realized how closely related some of their themes and inspirations were before seeing the exhibit. You can read more about the exhibit at the sfmoma site.

The Tetons and the Snake River (1942)
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons

Blue and Green Music by Georgia O'Keeffe, 1921
This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons

Any other fun things I should see in the SF Bay Area or beyond this summer?

Leah Buley - ux design team of one

Last year, after coming up from a very intense project, I took my usual swim through the information ocean, to see what had been happening since I last checked in. In specific I was looking at UX, IA and ID sources and looking for new inspiration. As I explored I came across this really fun slideshare from Leah Buley of Adaptive Path.

While I'm not a huge fan of generative design (develop lots of ideas and then winnow down), I really loved her story about working on her own in a company and then what she learned going into a collaborative environment like Adaptive Path. She has some great methodologies and a particularly spectacular slide early on of some of the elements that go into experience design. Hope you enjoy as much as I did!

UX Team Of One @ IA Summit 2008

I'm a UX Design Team of One too! My emphasis is more in the strategic arena these days but I definitely have added the IA and collaborative ideas as options to choose from with clients. Thanks Leah!

What flavor of UX Design Team of One are you? Does being this person in an organization intrigue you? Does your team have a person like this?

innovating in traffic

Following on my last post about making it up better I wanted to give an example that a friend turned me on to in December about a company in Seattle that was facing a shutdown and then got in there, looked at the situation, discussed it as a company and happened upon a solution that not only saved them from bankruptcy, it flooded them with orders.

What companies or people do you see that inspire you in the ways they are adapting and evolving?