Peter Morville makes his CanUX debut in 2016

We’re thrilled to add an IA legend to our 2016 lineup.

 The Architecture of Understanding (and Happiness)
} Time: TBD / 30 MINUTES

We think we’re designing software, websites, and experiences. But we’re not. We are agents of change. Our systems shape belief and behavior at scale. If we hope to be better, empathy for the user isn’t enough. We must also wrangle with culture, governance, methods, metrics, and the false dichotomies of mind-body and plan-build, because the things we make are reflections of how we see and sort ourselves. In this spirited tour of information architecture, organizational strategy, and systems thinking, Peter will show you how everything is connected from code to culture, and how we might build upon this insight to plan for happiness.

 Speaker Bio: Peter Morville

Peter Morville is a pioneer of the fields of information architecture and user experience. Peter and Lou Rosenfeld (who himself spoke at CanUX in 2007 and 2014) co-authored the seminal “polar bear book” – Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (O’Reilly, 1998; second edition, 2002; third edition, 2006; fourth edition: 2015), a classic used as a standard text in many graduate-level classes.

He also wrote Ambient Findability, Search Patterns, and his latest, Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything, which explores information architecture and systems via authority, Buddhism, classification, synesthesia, quantum entanglement, and volleyball. It’s described as “a book about everything. Or, to be precise, it explores how everything is connected from code to culture.”

Peter is a founder and past president of the IA Institute and has served on the ASIS&T board of directors. He also served on the advisory boards of Rosenfeld Media, Faz, Clueray, the Journal of Information Architecture, the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, and Project Information Literacy.

Currently Peter serves as president of Semantic Studios, an information architecture and findability consulting firm. He advised such clients as AT&T, Cisco, Harvard, IBM, Macy’s, the Library of Congress, and the National Cancer Institute. His work has been covered by Business Week, The Economist, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal.

Peter lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with his wife, two daughters, and a dog named Knowsy. When he’s not running, biking, swimming, or hiking, you can find him on the Internet at semanticstudios.com and intertwingled.org .

For more info, you can follow Peter on on Twitter @morville

*Image credit: Peter Morville