Save Your Spot for World IA Day

Last month, UX Akron was honored at Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Annual Best of Tech Awards as a leading Tech Community Group / Ecosystem Amplifier.

Partnership representatives said, “We’re thrilled to recognize UX Akron as one of Greater Cleveland’s 2025 Best of Tech! You’re part of a remarkable group of 108 innovators helping shape the future of our region’s tech economy.“

Nearly 300 tech leaders from the Greater Cleveland area gathered at the Great Lakes Science Center for the ceremony.

Learn more about this year’s event, see photos and a list of all the honorees at Greater Cleveland Partnership’s website.

WOrld IA DAY in Akron is Friday March 7, 2025

Join us for WIAD25 for Friday, March 7th at the Blu-tique Hotel at 1 S. Main St. in downtown Akron, Ohio. Breakfast and lunch are included, as well as breaks and opportunities for networking with the local tech & design community.

We’re planning a full day of speakers and activities — check back here for the schedule of events. This year’s global theme is the Challenges of Change. Learn more about the global event at worliaday.org.

An accessible, covered parking deck is located next to the library at 40 S. High Street and has an access corridor along the west wall that leads directly out to Main St.

AGENDA

10:00 – 10:15 – Check in, Continental Breakfast

10:15 – 10:30 – Welcome, opening remarks

10:30 – 11:30 – UX at a Crossroads – Joshua Randall

11:30 – 12:00 – Co-Creation Workshops: What Role Do They Play in Effective Design? – Richard Douglass

12:00 – 12:15 – BREAK

12:15 – 12:45 – Protection by Design – Ben Woods

12:45 – 1:15 – AI or IA? – Marc Majers

1:15 – 1:45 – LUNCH

1:45 – 2:00 – GIVEAWAYS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

2:00 – 3:00 – Untangling Supply Chain Systems – Nick Dauchot

3:00 – 3:30 – Beyond Design: Positioning UX as a Business Solution in Times of Change – Alina Bengert-Lombardi

3:30 – 3:45 – BREAK

3:45 – 4:15 – Affecting Change in Your Organization: Five Methods I Use to Change the Minds of Business Leaders About Digital Accessibility – Stephen Morrisey

4:15 – 4:45 – The Only Constant Is Change: How to Thrive in an Ever-Evolving Product World – Kim Kastner

ABOUT THE PRESENTATIONS

Joshua Randall on “UX At A Crossroads”

User Experience stands at a crossroads: will we live up to our potential to design a better world? or will we be co-opted by “product management” or another business buzzword?

Looking backwards, this talk will show how UX has repeatedly failed to create a better world, drawing on industry data from Nielsen Norman Group, Baymard, MeasuringU, WebAIM, and others.

Looking forwards, this talk will argue that UX must resist hype, say no more often and collaborate less often (you read that right), and become a true profession — in order to be able to design a better world.

Richard Douglass on “Co-Creation Workshops: What Role Do They Play in Effective Design?”

Co-creation workshops are becoming more prevalent in the product lifecycle. Typically, they are employed early on in the discovery process. Attendees will learn more about Co-Creation workshops: what they are, who is involved, what outputs/deliverables to expect, and how they can best use them.

Ben Woods on “Protection by Design”

The world continues to change, and so do the demands of UX professionals. 20 years ago, we wanted to ‘make things easier’ for the user. Then in as a ‘product’ and ‘agile’ mindset took hold, we turned to the idea of ‘delighting the user’. Today, in the shadow of anxiety around Artificial Intelligence, abuses of personal data, and rising rivalries between corporations, criminal enterprises, and nation-states, we are called to new purpose – ‘protect the user’.

Marc Majers on “AI or IA?”

Discover how Artificial intelligence (AI) is having a big effect on information architecture (IA) by influencing how information is organized, accessed, and utilized. Learn how to use AI to improve the user experience and make content easier to find.

Nick Dauchot on “Untangling Supply Chain Systems”

Supply chains are complex systems that are constantly impacted by internal and external forces, and are, in effect, a complex information architecture beast to tame. This session will dive into the weeds about designing for supply chain, its people and metrics, with real world examples from designing for a company delivering medical around the world. Outcomes from this session will include an understanding of designing for supply chain control tower usability, lessons and risks associated with supply chain design in complex organizational structures, and the need for co-design in supply chain related projects.

Alina Bengert-Lombardi on “Beyond Design: Positioning UX as a Business Solution in Times of Change”

Change is inevitable—layoffs, mergers, and reorganizations are part of today’s business landscape. In this talk, I’ll share insights and practical guidelines on how to position UX as a business-critical function rather than a design luxury. By reframing UX in terms of business impact, you can strengthen its role during times of uncertainty and ensure it remains a key part of strategic decision-making.

Stephen Morrisey on “Affecting Change in Your Organization: Five methods I use to change the minds of business leaders About digital accessibility”

UX professionals strive to positively impact their organizations. Yet we must realize that our projects are just one of many priorities leadership must contend with. How can you best champion your cause?

Few undertakings are as difficult and frustrating as our desire to integrate accessibility into our digital products. In this talk I discuss five methods I have used to persuade organizations, along with my results and lessons learned.

Kim Kastner on “The Only Constant Is Change: How to Thrive in an Ever-Evolving Product World”

Product roles are never static. From shifting business priorities and changing stakeholder expectations to new methodologies, emerging technologies, and the unpredictability of the job market, nothing stays the same for long. This reality can feel exciting at times but overwhelming or even disheartening at others.

And change isn’t just happening in product roles—it’s happening in how we design experiences and solve problems. For designers, this means continually re-evaluating decisions, iterating on solutions, and balancing evolving user needs with shifting business priorities.

In this talk, we’ll explore how to embrace change as a competitive advantage and build the adaptability required to succeed in a product career.

Be a sponsor

World IA Day is an annual event under the World Information Architecture Association.

It’s a one-day global celebration with locations all over the world, and serves to:

• Build and connect a global community of IA advocates and practitioners
• Promote the role of IA in different fields
• Provide resources for learning and professional development
• Engage IA academics and professionals in research and development

Sponsorships are a great way to communicate your organization’s value and attract visibility to your brand, products, or services.

Interested in sponsoring WIAD 2024? Visit our Sponsors Page to explore opportunities, or use our Contact Us form to connect with UX Akron. We’re happy to reply promptly and answer any questions you might have.

BE A VOLUNTEER

Want to help out on the day of the event? Let us know you’d like to volunteer.

Let’s Stay in Touch

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Blog Posts:

5 Things I Learned About Leadership from the Death & Rebirth of Microsoft by Dare Obasanjo

https://dareobasanjo.medium.com/5-things-i-learned-about-leadership-from-the-death-rebirth-of-microsoft-3eaf42567061

How much influence does a leader really have? A TON, especially over the culture of a workplace, which impacts everything that comes out of it. In this post, Obasanjo talks about what Microsoft’s Lost Decade was like from the inside, and what it was like after. An illuminating read.

Don’t make “data-driven product decisions”—build a data-driven semantic environment by Pavel Samsonov

https://uxdesign.cc/dont-make-data-driven-product-decisions-build-a-data-driven-semantic-environment-3220d177b73f

A fantastic look at why it can feel like you’re speaking past coworkers when presenting data insights. Samsonov talks about how companies develop collective mental models, and how no amount of data-points can hope to dislodge these assumptions. To change people’s minds, you’ll need to change the semantic environment of your organization.

“When you over-rule designers’ judgment about users’ needs, you are telling them to spend less energy solving problems and more energy selling you on solutions.” –Jonathan Korman

Podcast:

Rosenfeld Review Podcast

https://rosenfeldmedia.com/podcasts

Influential industry publisher Lou Rosenfeld hosts a variety of guests on topics of import to UX and Product Design. Recent episodes have offered interesting perspectives on both working with AI and working on AI. This show is a treasure trove of names and concepts of import in our field.

Book:

The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence by Ros Atkins

https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-art-of-explanation-how-to-communicate-with-clarity-and-confidence-ros-atkins/21172586?ean=9781472298416

Clear communication is essential to rallying your team, persuading your boss, and having impact in your role. BBC journalist Ros Atkins shares what’s he’s learned about effective messaging.

In Pop Culture:

Controversy around Crush! Apple’s iPad Pro Commercial

It turns out human being have a deep emotional connection to the physical world and don’t enjoy seeing objects that signify their culture being obliterated by a hydraulic press. Why is that sentiment perpetually surprising to tech people?

This ad was great in a lot of ways, and while its easy to see the elegance of the visual message (“You can do all these things with our tidy, clean, ultra-thin device!”,) and there is value to controversy in advertising (when was the last time anyone cared about an Apple ad?,) the general reaction to its release highlights how the insider nature of the industry leads to big, faulty assumptions. Early Aughts Apple was able to capitalize on the promise of “culture in your pocket”; but now? The optimism is gone, and a reckoning with how absolutely under attack non-tech people feel about the role technology plays in their lives is in order.

Have you read, watched, or listened to something really great and UX-y lately? We’d love to share it!