“InstantSoup” project: information architecture

Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII), a post-graduate academic institution for interaction design teaching and research, developed in 2001-2004 an innovative teaching approach to introduce artists and designers to the world of physical computing and electronics.

Student Hernando Barragán developed the Wiring platform, while teacher Casey Reas co-developed the Processing language, both instrumental for the subsequent development of the Arduino platform.

In 2004 IDII decided to share their know-how with other schools and designers. I coordinated the information architecture of the didactic materials and related web site (www.nastypixel.com/instantsoup)

Diagram: strategic goals of the InstantSoup project

Information architecture for a new group-wide ERP system

L.E.G.O. Group is one of the most important player in the Italian and European print and bookbinding industry. Leader in large scale book-binding, they often produce more than one million books in a single day.

In 2005 a new project was launched with the goal of developing a new Enterprise Resource Planning system, to be used in all the group plants and offices. In collaboration with the IT department, I designed several diagrams to describe work methods, workflow and terminology, with a focus on inconsistencies between the different plants.

The visualizations played an important role in the strategic decision process and in the development of the system’s user interface.

Diagram of job workflow and phases, from commercial offer to invoicing (2005)