I spend the last 5 days at the IA summit here in Vancouver. It provided me with the new inspiration and ideas I needed. There were many great speakers but the best session I attended was Jarret Spool’s pre-conference day-long session about the scent of information. Another session, also by Jarret about optimal User Experience design teams was also very good and timely as my primary objective is to move the website forward through constant evolution based on contant learning. Jarret has researched successful design teams and has observed the following team structures:

1. Consulting: One design team. This is not scalable as the team can only handle a small amount of projects.
2. Review and Approve: Designs are governed based on standards and guidelines and each decision is approved by a governing body. This can lead to bottlenecks and therefore delays.
3. Educate and Administrate: The structure that with the greatest chance of delivery. A culture that’s based on focusing on a clear vision and where everybody is responsible for a quality User Experience. Design should also move towards that vision. Instead of approval after the fact, educating the team should happen at the start of each project and a design problem is treated as a teachable moment. Feedback and new learning is quickly shared throughout the organisation.

During his session I realized that we’re currently in between 2 and 3. We do share learning a quick as we can but we also require approvals still for very tactical executions. Not just food for thought, something I’m going to address immediately. Jarret’s was kind enough to put a copy of his presentation online (PDF).