January 2024 Updates
Apprenticeship applications are open, World Information Architecture Day planning, Book Club polls, and more!
Due to the end of the year festivities, the writing of the December newsletter missed several deadlines: draft, review, and publication. So, we’ve skipped ahead to January instead! It’s like time-travel but with words. For once, we’re ahead of schedule.
DIA in 2023
Where we share bits and pieces of things we worked on in the past year and more. And now something here to summarize the year, that is, a summary of a summary. This is placeholder copy at its finest. You’d have to thank Grace for writing a placeholder copy that’s not AI-generated.
Grace Lau
DIA Apprentice program
#1: Accepting Applications for the 2024 Cohort Apprentice Program
You’ll be happy to know that we are now taking applications for DIA’s apprenticeship program.
The application is open from January 8 through 19th - or until 10 slots are filled. If you want a sense of who gets selected, check out last year’s post on Pulling back the curtain on the apprentice selection process
DIA Design Guild Staff
DIA Programs and Initiatives
#2: What should we read next?
Don’t worry about not reading the book before the meeting. We’ll read it together and talk about it. How does it really relate to UX work?
The DIA Read Aloud Book Club will be starting up again in late March. We’ll be meeting Thursdays at 7 pm EST / 4 PM PST.
DIA Events
#3: Feb 2: Lunar New Year Boba, Los Angeles
If you’re local to Los Angeles, we’re meeting up the week before Lunar New Year at Blossom Market Hall. Come and hang out, chat about UX, and meet other locals.
Details or register for reminders
#4: March 2: World Information Architecture Day Boston
We’re planning it! Julie DeBari is organizing this event. Details to be announced. If you’re interested in volunteering or speaking, email julia@diadesign.io or boston@worldiaday.org
#5: March 2: World Information Architecture Day Los Angeles
We’re planning it! Grace Lau and a team of volunteers are organizing this event. Who’s speaking and where it’s taking place is still to be announced.
World IA Day Los Angeles
Events and announcements from communities DIA supports
DIA sends apprentices to help produce and coordinate events from various communities. Along the way, they learn about building roadmaps, communication, and community management.
#6: World IA Cafe
- Thursday, January 18: Microsoft Learn’s Knowledge Graph. Dana Bublitz, information architect at Microsoft, talks about the information architecture work needed to support such a knowledge graph and how to gain buy-in from business stakeholders.
- Thursday, January 25: IA principles for immersive Augmented Reality. Kylie Snide, another information architect at Microsoft, introduces information architecture guidelines to make wearing augmented reality tech an enjoyable, rather than overwhelming, experience.
- Thursday, February 1: Entering new information domains. Angela Madsen, an independent information architect, talks about how she uses IA to learn quickly and iteratively when encountering new domains.
#7: Taxonomy Talk
Friday, February 2: How the Sausage Gets Made: What is a 'Content Supply Chain?'. Laura Langford talks about her experiences with maintaining metadata and taxonomies to streamline content delivery.
Want to work with DIA?
Projects gave our apprentices the opportunity to work on real-world projects, partner with clients and their stakeholders on their needs and goals, and provide a space for them to learn about the intricacies of understanding how to balance information, needs, and intention.
Feedback wanted
It’s been a year since we started this newsletter. Open rates are great, click through rates are alright. But how helpful is this newsletter really? Share with us why yet another newsletter was a good idea.