Comics at the IA Summit

How much do I love the IA Summit? It's like a teensy summer camp for dorks, hyped up on coffee and constantly spinning ideas like a monsoon of smart. I learn stuff I think about all year, and when I'm just about fed up with the whole internet racket, I come back and think some more.

This year, I sat in on a focus group on a book about comics. Kevin Cheng (that OK/Cancel guy) is collaborating with Rosenfeld Media to produce a book about comic strips as a way to explain the internet in a little snapshot.

I took Kevin's workshop a couple of years ago, and I thought comics were the best idea EVER, but I have yet to produce a single UCD comic strip.

• I am not a representational artist (also known as "I can't draw")
• My clients have smaller budgets that do not allow me make something legible in the time allotted
• I wonder if it's just too abstract for anyone to think who isn't a fan of the medium

It made me wonder if we make our clients think way too hard about what should be simple: how their complete content and apps tell a focused story about their company to an engaged audience. The IA experience that I'm interested is like a haiku - easy to think about, but requires an artisan's skill to be masterful. Every can write a nice haiku, though, with a little thought. Like a good experience.