March 2026 updates
Our March 2026 newsletter explores the theme for World Information Architecture Day 2026 and promotes other events where DIA Design Guild will be representing.
February was a busy month. A frustrating month. And also, for many people around the world, a meaningful one.
Spring Festival marked the new year for Chinese and Chinese diaspora communities worldwide — a time of reunion and renewal with pictures of upside-down Draco Malfoy on doors welcoming the new year. Tết brings Vietnamese families together in the spirit of new beginnings, with its own traditions and rituals. Ramadan began its sacred arc of reflection, community, and devotion for Muslims around the globe. And here in the United States, people celebrated with consumerism on Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day. It’s the shortest month of the year, yet it’s filled to the brim.
There's been conversation in recent years about using "Lunar New Year" as a collective label for some of these celebrations — well-intentioned, but worth examining. When we collapse distinct traditions under a single broad category, we risk doing something incongruent with the very spirit of respect we're reaching for. A broad label glosses over and flattens these cultures into one — and there's no acknowledgement of what's actually being celebrated. There's no room for the specific geographic and regional traditions and rituals that Spring Festival or Chinese New Year carries. There's no room for the distinct food and traditions that makes Tết Tết. Yes, both “festivals” in name, but that's the danger of categories and labels. When they’re used carelessly, the label loses specific cultural, historical, or personal contexts; thus, erasing its inherent meaning. Each of these celebrations carries its own history, its own structure, its own context.
Here's the thread I keep coming back to last month: underneath the mess of the world, how do we make sense of what's happening around us if we don't understand how we fit within it? How do we connect and find meaning across the different areas of life to which we belong — to our work, our roles, our identities, and the contexts in which we interact with each other across the different levels of community we're part of? And that’s the theme for World Information Architecture Day this year – Designing for Meaning: Purpose, Experience, and Everything in Between.
And this all brings me to what February usually means for me and DIA Design Guild: preparing for World Information Architecture Day.
This year, World IA Day is on March 7th, and DIA Design Guild is showing up. We have apprentices volunteering at the Los Angeles event and speaking at Columbus. We're attending London and New York. World IA Day is (mostly) happening this Saturday in 21 different locations around the world - virtually and in-person. We hope you join us.
Here are all the locations that have registration available:
Calendar of online and hybrid World IA Day events
If you’re in the greater Los Angeles area, maybe I’ll see you there!
See you in Los Angeles!
In April, the Information Architecture Conference (IAC) arrives, where Caroline Craner, a past DIA apprentice and now DIA board member, is co-chairing this year. I’ll be speaking, my first time speaking at an in-person conference in a long time.
That's what information architecture gives us. Not just a professional discipline, but a way of orienting ourselves — of finding where we are, what surrounds us, and how it all connects.
— Grace Lau
Executive Director, DIA Design Guild
Upcoming events
World IA Day — March 7, 2026
Global theme: Designing for Meaning
World IA Day is an annual global celebration of information architecture, held simultaneously across dozens of cities. This year's theme — Designing for Meaning — asks us to consider how the structures we create shape understanding, connection, and purpose.
DIA Design Guild will be represented at several events this year:
Find a World IA Day event at luma.com/worldiaday
Information Architecture Conference (IAC) — April 2026
IAC26 is the 27th annual gathering of the Information Architecture community, bringing together IA, UX, content strategy, and design practitioners from around the world. This year's theme, "Navigating Complexity: Clarity and Understanding with Information Architecture," explores how IA cuts through today's complex information systems to create experiences that let people thrive. The conference features workshops, keynotes, and sessions led by industry leaders in Information Architecture, Content Strategy, Product Design, and User Experience.
Dates: April 14–18, 2026
Workshops April 14–15, Main Conference April 16–18
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Who is this conference for? Information architects, UX designers and researchers, content strategists, product designers, and digital practitioners shaping how people experience information
Contact Information: info@theiaconference.com
Use code diadesign to get $50 off main conference registration.
Visit theiaconference.com for their conference program
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