Eric Reiss
Encyclopedia
Eric Reiss is the author of Practical Information Architecture (ISBN 0-201-72590-8) and Web Dogma '06. He has also contributed to several other books and publications, including Designing Web Navigation (ISBN 0-596-52810-2), Pervasive Information Architecture (ISBN 978-0123820945) and commentary to the online Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Reiss was President of the Information Architecture Institute and current Chair of the European Information Architecture Summit for two terms, and is involved in the information architecture
/usability
/user experience
scene. In 2010, he was named in a blog as "One of the Top 10 European Content Strategists to Watch". In recent years, Reiss has also been an outspoken critic of innovationists who do not differentiate between innovation and invention. Reiss argues that innovation is a later stage than invention and that it is always a planned activity and never accidental.
, Texas
in 1954, his family relocated to St. Louis
prior to his first birthday when his father accepted a position at Washington University School of Medicine
. Reiss is the son of two prominent physicians who played pivotal roles in bringing about the nuclear test-ban treaty of 1963 (see Linus Pauling
"Activism"). His Viennese-born father, Eric Reiss, M.D., performed early and groundbreaking research on parathyroid hormone
(PTH). His mother, Louise Zibold Reiss
, M.D., as Director of the Baby Tooth Survey
, was involved in mapping levels of radioactive Strontium-90
in the U.S. food chain secondary to nuclear fallout. His family moved to the Chicago
suburb of Highland Park
in 1964. He was active in theatre and the performing arts while at Highland Park High School
from 1968–1972. During this time, Reiss started restoring player pianos and jukeboxes. He formed his first company, Reiss Player Piano Service, at age 16.
Reiss returned to St. Louis
to study at Washington University in 1972. A ragtime pianist, Reiss was Musical Director on the Goldenrod Showboat
on the Mississippi River
levee during much of 1975, where he also participated in the National Ragtime Festival along with Dave Jason, Terry Waldo
, and the Black Eagle Jazz Band. In 1976, he graduated with degrees in Performing Arts and Political Science after which he moved to Copenhagen
, Denmark
to become a stage director at the Royal Danish Theatre
. In 1977, his original play, Marionettes, was awarded first prize at the Illinois One-Act Play Festival.
Following a 10-year career in the Scandinavian theater world, publication of the first Danish-language adventure game (Skabet), and a short stint studying Egyptology
, Reiss' first book, The Compleat Talking Machine (ISBN 1-886606-18-8) led to a career change in 1986 when he migrated from theater to professional writing.
Reiss wrote the talking machine
book, now in its fifth edition (10th printing). Reiss has since worked almost exclusively in developing business-to-business communications materials and marketing strategies.
With the advent of PC-based multimedia in the late 80s and the World Wide Web
a few years later, Reiss combined his knowledge of theater, communication, and computers to build interactive business tools. In early 1997, he developed an on-line communications concept for his employer, Cross-Border Communications. The resulting microsite, Rick's Cafe, was an interactive precursor to a blog and was subsequently voted Macromedia Site of the Week.
Reiss is currently CEO of the Copenhagen-based FatDUX Group ApS, which designs online and offline interactive experiences. He is a past president of the Information Architecture Institute
, serves as Chair of the European Information Architecture Summit - EuroIA, and is on the Advisory Board of the Copenhagen Business School
(Department of Informatics) and the Romanian Institute of Information Architecture. Between 2009-2011, Reiss was an Associate Professor of Usability and Design at IE Business School (formerly Instituto de Empresa) in Madrid
, Spain
, where he received several awards for his teaching, including the "Best Professor" prize in 2009.
Reiss is still active as a performer and musician, working regularly with Vivienne McKee's London Toast Theatre in Copenhagen. He was also a regular on the MTV-produced candid-camera show, Rent Fup, during the season 1998–1999. Other acting credits include the Danish film, Miraklet i Valby (1989) and off-screen dubbing for Lars von Trier
's Dancer in the Dark
(2000).
Reiss and his wife Dorthe make their home in Copenhagen
, Denmark
.
Information Architecture
Information architecture is the art of expressing a model or concept of information used in activities that require explicit details of complex systems. Among these activities are library systems, Content Management Systems, web development, user interactions, database development, programming,...
/usability
Usability
Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object. The object of use can be a software application, website, book, tool, machine, process, or anything a human interacts with. A usability study may be conducted as a primary job function by a usability analyst or as a secondary job...
/user experience
User experience
User experience is the way a person feels about using a product, system or service. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human-computer interaction and product ownership, but it also includes a person’s perceptions of the practical aspects such...
scene. In 2010, he was named in a blog as "One of the Top 10 European Content Strategists to Watch". In recent years, Reiss has also been an outspoken critic of innovationists who do not differentiate between innovation and invention. Reiss argues that innovation is a later stage than invention and that it is always a planned activity and never accidental.
Biography
Born in San AntonioSan Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in 1954, his family relocated to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
prior to his first birthday when his father accepted a position at Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine , located in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the graduate schools of Washington University in St. Louis. One of the top medical schools in the United States, it is currently ranked 4th for research according to U.S. News and World Report and has been listed...
. Reiss is the son of two prominent physicians who played pivotal roles in bringing about the nuclear test-ban treaty of 1963 (see Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator. He was one of the most influential chemists in history and ranks among the most important scientists of the 20th century...
"Activism"). His Viennese-born father, Eric Reiss, M.D., performed early and groundbreaking research on parathyroid hormone
Parathyroid hormone
Parathyroid hormone , parathormone or parathyrin, is secreted by the chief cells of the parathyroid glands as a polypeptide containing 84 amino acids...
(PTH). His mother, Louise Zibold Reiss
Louise Reiss
Louise Marie Zibold Reiss was an American physician who coordinated what became known as the Baby Tooth Survey, in which deciduous teeth from children living in the St. Louis, Missouri area who were born in the 1950s and 1960s were collected and analyzed over a period of 12 years...
, M.D., as Director of the Baby Tooth Survey
Baby Tooth Survey
The Baby Tooth Survey was initiated by the Greater St. Louis Citizens' Committee for Nuclear Information in conjunction with Saint Louis University and the Washington University School of Dental Medicine as a means of determining the effects of nuclear fallout in the human anatomy by examining the...
, was involved in mapping levels of radioactive Strontium-90
Strontium-90
Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium, with a half-life of 28.8 years.-Radioactivity:Natural strontium is nonradioactive and nontoxic, but 90Sr is a radioactivity hazard...
in the U.S. food chain secondary to nuclear fallout. His family moved to the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
suburb of Highland Park
Highland Park, Illinois
Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
in 1964. He was active in theatre and the performing arts while at Highland Park High School
Highland Park High School (Highland Park, Illinois)
Highland Park High School, or HPHS, is a public four-year high school located in Highland Park, Illinois, a North Shore suburb of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. It is part of Township High School District 113, which also includes Deerfield High School.Prior to the 1949–50 school year, the...
from 1968–1972. During this time, Reiss started restoring player pianos and jukeboxes. He formed his first company, Reiss Player Piano Service, at age 16.
Reiss returned to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
to study at Washington University in 1972. A ragtime pianist, Reiss was Musical Director on the Goldenrod Showboat
Goldenrod (showboat)
On December 24, 1967, the Goldenrod Showboat is a designated U.S. National Historic Landmark. She was placed on the ‘Threatened Historical Landmarks’ list in 2001....
on the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
levee during much of 1975, where he also participated in the National Ragtime Festival along with Dave Jason, Terry Waldo
Terry Waldo
Terry Waldo is an American pianist, composer, and historian of early jazz, blues, and stride music, and is best known for his contribution to the genre of ragtime and his role in reviving interest in this form, starting in the 1970s...
, and the Black Eagle Jazz Band. In 1976, he graduated with degrees in Performing Arts and Political Science after which he moved to Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
to become a stage director at the Royal Danish Theatre
Royal Danish Theatre
The Royal Danish Theatre is both the national Danish performing arts institution and a name used to refer to its old purpose-built venue from 1874 located on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. The theatre was founded in 1748, first serving as the theatre of the king, and then as the theatre of the...
. In 1977, his original play, Marionettes, was awarded first prize at the Illinois One-Act Play Festival.
Following a 10-year career in the Scandinavian theater world, publication of the first Danish-language adventure game (Skabet), and a short stint studying Egyptology
Egyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
, Reiss' first book, The Compleat Talking Machine (ISBN 1-886606-18-8) led to a career change in 1986 when he migrated from theater to professional writing.
Reiss wrote the talking machine
Talking Machine
Talking Machine is an indies demo EP of Japanese rock band 9mm Parabellum Bullet. All of the songs listed appeared again on later releases.-Tracklist:-Personnel:*Takuro Sugawara - Lead vocals, lyricist, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar...
book, now in its fifth edition (10th printing). Reiss has since worked almost exclusively in developing business-to-business communications materials and marketing strategies.
With the advent of PC-based multimedia in the late 80s and the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
a few years later, Reiss combined his knowledge of theater, communication, and computers to build interactive business tools. In early 1997, he developed an on-line communications concept for his employer, Cross-Border Communications. The resulting microsite, Rick's Cafe, was an interactive precursor to a blog and was subsequently voted Macromedia Site of the Week.
Reiss is currently CEO of the Copenhagen-based FatDUX Group ApS, which designs online and offline interactive experiences. He is a past president of the Information Architecture Institute
Information Architecture Institute
The Information Architecture Institute is a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to advancing and promoting information architecture. Founded in 2002 , the Institute has grown to become one of the world's largest professional groups for web specialists, with over 1200 members in 60...
, serves as Chair of the European Information Architecture Summit - EuroIA, and is on the Advisory Board of the Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School
Copenhagen Business School, also known as CBS, is situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. With more than 17,000 students and 1,300 staff members, CBS is also one of the largest business schools in Europe. CBS offers a wide range of business-oriented university programmes and a research environment...
(Department of Informatics) and the Romanian Institute of Information Architecture. Between 2009-2011, Reiss was an Associate Professor of Usability and Design at IE Business School (formerly Instituto de Empresa) in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, where he received several awards for his teaching, including the "Best Professor" prize in 2009.
Reiss is still active as a performer and musician, working regularly with Vivienne McKee's London Toast Theatre in Copenhagen. He was also a regular on the MTV-produced candid-camera show, Rent Fup, during the season 1998–1999. Other acting credits include the Danish film, Miraklet i Valby (1989) and off-screen dubbing for Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
's Dancer in the Dark
Dancer in the Dark
Dancer in the Dark is a 2000 Danish musical drama film directed by Lars von Trier and starring Icelandic singer Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Cara Seymour, Peter Stormare, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, and Joel Grey...
(2000).
Reiss and his wife Dorthe make their home in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
.
External links
- (i.a. podcast) FatDUX Eric Reiss on Leadership
- (2008 IA Summit) E-service: What we can learn from the customer-service gurus
- Interview with Eric Reiss on Web Dogma '06
- IA Voice podcast interview with Eric Reiss
- Finderati – Eric Reiss
- Round-robin interview with Eric Reiss, Bob Goodman, Peter Jones, GK Vanpatter
- Video – Increasing your conversion rates with CMS, Reiss speaking at Sitecore conference in Copenhagen (in Danish)
- IA Voice podcast "Seven Trends in Information Architecture" Eric Reiss speaking at EuroIA 2006 in Berlin
- Interview "Five Questions to Eric Reiss" on the Hot Strudel blog (in German and English)
- Interview with Eric Reiss "User centered design or user driven design?"
- Video – Eric Reiss keynote on innovation at Italian IA Summit in Trento, November 16 2007 in Italian and English (part 1 of 2)
- Video – Part 2 of Eric Reiss's innovation keynote in Trento, Italy
- Video – two interviews featuring Eric Reiss and other IA leaders compiled by Kent State University
- Video – Eric Reiss lecture at Akademia Pedagogiczna in Krakow, Poland "Architektura informacji. Czyli jak zachować zdrowy rozsądek w erze cyfrowej" (in Polish and English)
- Eric Reiss quoted in Fortune Magazine January, 2008 (PDF in English)
- Editorial in Bulletin for American Society for Information Science, February 2008 "It's not what you think, but how you think"
- Interview with Prof. Eric Reiss in Polish magazine Konspekt "We are all information architects" (in English and Polish)
- Video – "Branding dangers: how NOT to build a brand digital?", Eric Reiss speaking at Brand Festival Digital in Budapest, Hungary