[Sigia-l] mixing apples, oranges and now only peripherally on

[George Olsen]

A couple points:

* Unlike grocery stores, in digital space we *can* put products in more
than one location. So why limit ourselves to One True Organizational
Structure based on models that face different constraints.

On a related note at the IA Summit, in her presentation on faceted analysis
Louise Gruenberg argued that LIS techniques in this area need some
evolution because they still make some assumptions about dealing with
physical documents. For example, having mutually exclusive facets isn't as
much a concern when dealing with digital materials instead of physical ones.

That's what database-drive sites are all about -- one bit of info being
able to displayed in multiple places.

* Users may think about organization in different ways -- as shown by the
discussion here -- hence the value of talking to them and for supporting
multiple classifications.

I actually tend to agree with the client that it's a useful redundancy as
long as it goes to a "tomatos" page under "fruits" rather than switching
you to "vegetables."

* Grocery stores (and many other stores) *could* benefit from this sort of
approach. To me that's one of the exciting frontiers in what we do: taking
it beyond the digital realm.

At the summit, Jesse James Garrett talked about the "IA of everyday
things." I say it's time to put IA(UX) into everyday things. For example,
there's no reason a nomenclature test can't be used to better name things
in a company's brochures or its store.