Posted on behalf of Saul Carliner, Manager of Conferences, STC. If you have any questions please contact Lloyd Tucker, STC Director of Education at lloyd@stc.org.

Dear Members,

As you go through the program materials for the upcoming STC Annual
Conference, I thought you might be interested in checking out the
following programs of particular interest to information designers and
architects:

(1) The Information Design Institute is an in-depth
conference-within-a-conference that explores advanced topics in
information design and architecture. Sessions cover information
architecture for mobile devices, interaction design, the development of
taxonomies, wayfinding, designing for special audiences, designing
wordless instructions, and the design process.

Your conference registration includes access to sessions in all of the
Institutes at the conference.

(2) The Designing and Assessing User Experiences track explores various
topics in usability including an overview of software for usability, paper
prototyping, making the most of expert reviews, and avoiding bias in
usability testing, as well as case studies of usability in organizations,
and a session with usability expert Jared Spool.

(3) For those of you interested in cross-cultural issues, check out the
Globalization, Localization, and Translation Institute, which explores
issues ranging from topics such as automated globalization and quality
metrics for localization and translation to the homogenization of
cultures.

(4) If you are interested in knowledge management, check out the Knowledge
Management Institute, which features sessions on creating communities of
practice, design considerations for corporate intranets, “harvesting”
knowledge, identifying patterns in knowledge, and case studies of
knowledge management in organizations. This Institute also includes an
introductory session on knowledge management, for those who want a
refresher.

(5) To keep up with the latest in technology, check out the following.

– The Web 2.0 Institute, which features sessions on collaborative writing
with wikis and social computing, along with an introduction to Web 2.0.
– The Content Management Institute, which features sessions on XML, DITA
and a variety of other complex publishing technologies.
– The sessions in the Managing People, Projects, and Business Track,
which includes sessions on developing a business case for technology and
addressing the non-technical components in a technology implementation.
– The sessions in the Producing and Publishing Information track, which
include sessions on using XML and DITA, content management, cool tools
under $100, and e-learning technology.

(6) For comprehensive ideas on communicating content, check out the
Developing and Delivering Content Track sessions on modular writing, using
UML, best practices for designing Web forms, page design, the psychology
of writing style, visual rhetoric, writing for the Web, games, and
creative e-learning.

(7) For an in-depth learning experience, you might be interested in one of
our certificate programs, such as (a) The Science and Art of Effective
Interface Design, (b) “Undiscovered Country: Taking Your Information
Design Skills to the Next Level,” or (c) “Moving to Content Management:
From Justification to Implementation.”

Check out the complete conference schedule at www.stc.org/54thConf.

Note that early bird registration rates are available through February 28.

I hope to see you in Minneapolis.

Best regards,

Saul Carliner, Ph.D., CTDP
Manager of Conferences, STC
Coordinator, Information Design Institute