Jesse James Garret – The Lost IDEA 2008 Interview

Written by Russ on December 25, 2008 – 9:52 am

Note: This was originally slated to appear in Boxes & Arrows prior to the IDEA 2008 conference, however, due to the conference itself and a bunch of other events, it never ended up getting published.  Jesse was kind enough to speak with me on the phone during his day–which not only floored me, but gave me an opportunity few of us can say that they’ve had the pleasure of doing.

There’s no good reason this should get lost in the ether, so without further delay…

Jesse James Garrett took time out of his busy schedule to–get this–do a live interview with me prior to his speaking engagement for IDEA. JJG shares his thoughts on inspiration, the future of IA and how fortunate he is to be surrounded by brilliant people.

RU: Where do you look for inspiration?

JJG: I’m really fortunate to be a part Adaptive Path because I’m surrounded by so many talented, interesting—and very curious—people. I’ve got this constant flow of “Hey did you see this thing?” and all kinds of unexpected shared inputs. The interesting thing with that is the crazy juxtapositions from where the really creative ideas come from.

RU: What’s your favorite way to communicate with people who aren’t in the same room with you?

JJG: I’m not a twitterer—I haven’t been able to integrate it into my habits and routines. It just hasn’t worked out for me.

There is synchronous and asynchronous communication—and I find that using the phone allows me to schedule time to complete a task. It ends up working better for me if I can put something in a calendar and dedicate time to it.

RU: Do you feel that Information Architecture has a future as a practice? Where do you perceive that it is falling short and/or where do you feel that the opportunities are?

JJG: I think IA does have a future as a practice—the future of IA may not look like the present or past of IA, but if IA is the practice of the structuring of information for human understanding, well that’s never going to go away.

I think that Information Architects have fallen in love with toolsets and they are identifying with the toolsets instead of identifying with the problem. It’s like the difference between being someone who uses a hammer and someone who is a carpenter. I think that Information Architects are in this place right now where if they look at a problem and they cannot solve it with the tools they have on-hand, they decide that it’s not their problem. This has caused them to cede a lot of work to Interaction Design.

The IA practice has calcified at a really astonishing rate. We’re looking at the 10th IA Summit around the corner in Spring, and already, IA practices are starting to become somewhat stagnate.

RU: At the IA Summit in Montreal, you gave some “marching orders” that, as IA, we should be setting an example. At the IA Summit in Miami, you encouraged young/new people to get it in gear and start putting presentations together—that all the others are making it up as they go. This may have come across as slightly humorous, but I’d say that’s because it’s true. Is there anything you would add or change to that?

JJG: We should be the people that people outside of this field turn to for advice, turn to for our expertise and our insight. The IA community has become so insular—and I think that’s what the original idea behind the IDEA conference was trying to dispel. We need to broaden the dialog and have IA take its place in part of the broader world.

RU: Last question. Let’s be honest, you’re “internet famous” and people get some online cred just by being associated with you or by being mentioned in anything you write and/or say. How has being a presenter and conference-attendee helped you improve upon your career?

JJG: The nice thing about being known is that people want to talk to me. They want to share their ideas with me and their work with me. I try to keep myself going creatively and keep the inputs constantly flowing. For me to have the opportunity travel all over the world and talk to people about their work, their challenges and the solutions they are creating is a constant source of inspiration to me.

I would suggest that people who are new to the field—as well as for anyone hoping for the advancement to the entire field—dialog with others is going to be the main driver, and conferences and speaking events are great opportunities for this.

About Jesse James Garret
Jesse James Garrett is co-founder and President of Adaptive Path, a product experience design firm based in San Francisco. Jesse’s tools and concepts have been published in more than a dozen languages and his book The Elements of User Experience is considered one of the seminal works on user-centered design. He is internationally recognized as a leading product experience thinker and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. In 2006, Jesse received WIRED Magazine’s Rave Award for Technology for coining the term Ajax.

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