Kathy Sierra discusses how to balance interface design between letting users do what they want, and making them do what you know they want - in the way you want them to.

Peter Morville on information architecture and the user-experience honeycomb

I've been practicing information architecture since 1994, and from Gopher to Google have seen dramatic changes in the landscape of organization, search and retrieval.

Through these ten tempestuous years, I've found the infamous three circle diagram to be a great tool for explaining how and why we must strike a unique balance on each project between business goals and context, user needs and behavior, and the available mix of content.

 

Very detailed analysis of how usability can be a key component of agile methodologies. Explores the misconceptions and challenges of both schools with respect to the other. Details the agile development methodology. Contrasts the philosophies of both agile and UEX approaches. Discusses user-experience modeling in an agile framework with great examples and explanations.

Good information architecture article by Donna Maurer.

Donna characterizes information seeking as happening in one of four modes (from the perspective of the seeker)

1. Known-item
2. Exploratory
3. Don't know what you need to know
4. Re-finding