Meet Ghada Kandil: Regional Director, Middle East and Africa of World IA Day & Head of Content Strategy and Design at Fikrbayan
Board Spotlight
We’re very excited to introduce some of the people, organizations, and companies behind World IA Day. Today, we’re introducing the Regional Director, Middle East and Africa of World IA Day. Ghada Kandil has never been a local organizer for World IA Day, but in her continuous search for knowledge and wider perspective of information architecture, she applied to get involved with WIAD21.
Tell us about your journey to World IA Day
By nature, I’m an introvert. I am not a good initiator of communications. Most of my work was building portals of community development types for the Egyptian Ministry of communication and Information Technology. Every project I get involved with proves the need to practice information architecture in a more holistic approach to succeed. One day, I was checking the Information Architecture Institute (IAI) website, and then clicked on the link of World IA Day 2020. For the first time, I took the initiative of applying to get involved in WIAD21. And just like magic, I met Grace G Lau and landed in the land of WIAD21 global board. I’m still an introvert, but one that is branching and pushing out. I’m grateful for this opportunity.
Why and in what ways are you involved with World IA Day?
I am an active contributor organising information on the internet, especially the Arabic content, and can help make it more sensible, findable and useful. These are such big dreams and it needs a community of practitioners and believers in information architecture to realise it, not one person. This is why I am eager to get people together to attend and participate in World IA Day where we can learn from each other, exchange ideas and how we can approach structuring not only products and websites but also ideas and concepts.
I know there are great UX minds in the Middle East and Africa. I also know how smart and inquisitive our students are. I want to promote a hub where all meet and learn from each other about Information Architecture. This hub is World IA Day. What other place can you find local and international mentors, a community that is willing to share resources, open discussions and encourage people to practice? I think, an essential discipline in business and life in general. I volunteer to work in a field I love so much and want to be more involved in its international community. To succeed and communicate more with the great minds of the field little more than just reading their books and following them on Twitter, this is why I have joined this organisation.
What inspires you about information architecture?
I have been working in the information architecture and content strategy for a long time andI usually introduce myself as an old serving practitioner of these fields. I can not find better words to describe information architecture better than Peter Morville’s words, “information architecture is the design of language and classification systems to change the world.” Languages are dynamic so are their classifications and structuring to connect the dots and make sense in life. This is how information architecture inspires me. I think I will not be able to do good and help change the world without practicing information architecture.
Reviewed and edited by Andrew Jung and Grace Lau.
Find Ghada online
- Twitter: @GhadaKandil
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghada-kandil-6333757/
- Company: https://www.fikrbayan.com (new edition end of November)
- Discord: Ghada Kandil#4886
