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AI Folksonomy Workshop: WIAD 2026

A short lecture on folksonomy, then 55+ designers who didn’t know each other designed folksononic icons for AI assistants, using information architecture skills.

  • Facilitation
  • Information Architecture
  • Workshops
  • Teaching
A table covered with sticky notes, each with a hand-drawn icon
My role
Lecturer and facilitator
Designed the workshop
Event
World IA Day 2026
WIAD
Format
50-minute workshop
Short lecture + group activity, 55+ designers
When
March 7, 2026
World IA Day 2026

The quick version

Folksonomy is how people organize things in their own words, with tags and labels, instead of a fixed taxonomy. For World IA Day 2026, I gave a short lecture on the idea, then led 55+ designers through a 50-minute workshop where they made folksonomic icons together.

The goal was to get a disparate group to practice it with their hands. No AI tools were involved: teams used information architecture skills to agree on terms, then each team produced its own unique icons for AI assistants.

The lecture

Workshop slides

The short lecture and workshop instructions, in Figma.

Open in Figma

In the room

A presentation slide at World IA Day comparing taxonomy levels and tags
WIAD 2026 at Art Center College of Design. A 1 day conference.
A presentation slide at World IA Day comparing taxonomy levels and tags
From taxonomy to folksonomy. The lecture set up the difference between fixed categories and the words people actually use.
A large room of designers working at tables during the workshop
55+ designers. A full room, split into tables of strangers.
Participants at a table sorting pink and green sticky notes
Agree on the words. Each table wrote terms on sticky notes and sorted them together.
Participants around a long table covered in yellow sticky notes
Tag it. Yellow notes laid out as a shared list of terms.

Workshop outcomes

Each team produced unique icons for AI assistants, drawn by hand by people who started the session as strangers.

Sticky notes covered in hand-drawn icons on a dark table
Icons for AI assistants. Sticky notes covered in small drawings, from robots to speech bubbles.
Sticky notes with hand-drawn icons on a table
Many hands, many styles. Each team found its own visual language for an AI assistant.
A hand-drawn red sparkle icon on paper labeled sparkles
Sparkles. One team’s icon for an AI assistant, drawn in red marker.
Sticky note icons arranged on a table next to a laptop showing the slides
The icons take shape. Notes sorted into groups next to the slides.
A table covered in pink sticky notes sorted into clusters
Sorting the terms. Pink notes clustered into themes.
A pile of yellow and pink sticky notes on a table
The pile at the end. Everything the room made, ready to be collected.

What it shows

  • Facilitating at scale. A short lecture and clear steps got 55+ people working in tables within a 50-minute session.
  • Teaching information architecture by doing. Agreeing on terms and drawing them teaches shared language faster than a talk.
  • A fresh question. Asking designers to give AI assistants a face, without using AI, shows how much of design is organizing meaning.

Want more?

See how I teach information architecture and AI.

My teaching page has recorded lectures, including my World IA Day 2025 talk.

See teaching and talks See all work