Community & Network

Over the past 20+ years I have developed an influential and international network of individuals and companies directly related to design, academia, related industries and within the design community of practice.

I have been actively involved in the International community for IA and UX through the Information Architecture Institute and as a local ambassador for UXnet. In South Africa, I founded the SA UX Forum, I am a member of Design Society Development (a DESIS Lab), and I judged the UX category for Microsoft’s student competition, Imagine, in 2009 and 2010.

The SA UX Forum

In 2006 I started the SA UX Forum. I continue to run the local community in Johannesburg, with the aim of growing the practice in South Africa. It has since taken root in Cape Town too.

Join the Forum’s Facebook group

The community functions via online forums and mini-conferences usually held at and supported by the University of Johannesburg (and in the past by Microsoft SA) here in Johannesburg.

The Information Architecture Institute

Institute Board:

• Advisor to the board for two terms (2006 / 7)
• Member of the board: Director of education – half term served (2016 / 17)

World IA Day :

• Event co-coordinator and contributor for Johannesburg from 2012 – 2020

Research Grants Committee:

• Chair (2012 / 2013)
• Member of the judging panel for three terms (2008 / 9 / 10)
• Two time recipient of the grant (2006 and 2011)

Fundraising :

• Proceeds from a pre-conference workshop delivered with Dan Klyn and Terence Fenn (IA Summit in Vancouver 2017)

Content creation for the IAI website

Affiliated activities:

• Articles published in the Journal of IA in 2010 and 2021
• Contribution to and participation in the IA (Academics and Practitioners) Roundtable (2013, 2014, 2018)
• Chapter contribution “The Information Architecture of Meaning-Making” in “Reframing Information Architecture” (2014) Editors: Resmini, Andrea (Ed.). Springer International Publishing.

Related activity:

Presentations at the IA Summit: 2018 keynote address in Chicago, 5 other full-length talks between 2006 and 2017…and a 2008 presentation in Second Life!