Setting the agenda for IA research

Abstract

IA practitioners often say that too much research related to IA is often abstract or not useful. When then asked about the kinds of difficult problems they are facing that some empirical or theoretic research and innovation could help with, they are often at a loss. With this in mind, this panel will help to frame issues in IA research to synchronize ideas with those in the academy and the field. A set of upcoming research agendas that show both the promises and the perils inherent in Information Architecture as a whole. The overall goal of the panel is to allow for the panel and the audience to clearly communicate their wants and needs to devise some immediate scenarios to begin building a useful body of IA research. This panel will have a substantial Q&A session to share ideas and build working relationships. Each panel member will discuss his take on IA research, along with their own core areas of research and suggestions for cooperation between researchers and practitioners: 1. Peter Morville - findability. The future of this area of research (and how attendees can help by providing sites for study or work processes to observe); 2. Keith Instone - faceted browsing. What's next in this exciting area, how tools could support it and what can be learned from their use or applied from other research areas (cognition, task analysis, etc.); 3. Jamie Bluestein- how hypertext research can inform IA (and what we should look forward to when merging these two areas); 4. Don Turnbull - a behavioral model of information seeking (user search and navigation). A review of this area of research and a call for participants to help update the model previously published with user data collection and site log analysis.