[Sigia-l] IA Practice Maturation

[Eduardo Gomez]

Tales in Madrid are consistent with obstacles in Germany described by
James[1]. 

After 3 months here, I believe the IA practice is predominantly reactionary
and does not harbor much value in the conceptual and strategic definition
phase of "top tier" web projects.

Back to Victor`s point about "translation"[2], I see that expressing itself
as client education to distinguish the IA practice from a "general
understanding" of user centered design; a challenging endeavor considering
web based projects here have super tight budgets (even HUGE clients) and
require quick results, creating a fragmented landscape between the client
and IA related strategy. A good example of this is Telefoníca[3] (the big
bad "Bell" in our neighborhood)

Saludos a todos!
Eddie
______
[1] On 18/4/02 10:31, "James KALBACH" <kalbach at scils.rutgers.edu> wrote:

> One hurdle I perceive in .de is a misunderstanding (rejection?)
> of user centered design. Over here Design (with a capital "D")
> is determined by the Designer. Top-down approach. Punkt.
> Participatory design methods, for example, undermine the
> Designer's authority and control.  (I'm using Design in the
> broadest sense here - graphic, product, or otherwise.)
> 
> Clients generally understand IA and see the need for it, which
> is a good thing. Still, the painful turf wars between design
> and IA, for example, are prevalent, I'm sorry to report. The
> "sharing all of our ways of practice" at the conference in Baltimore
> isn't the norm in Germany.

[2] On 17/4/02 22:57, "Victor Lombardi" <victorlombardi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> My theory last night, based on my knowledge of the non-US Razorfish
> offices, is that the talent pool isn't as large in non-English speaking
> countries because a lot of the current thinking is done in English and not
> much is being translated.

[3] 
http://www.telefonica.es/
http://www.telefonicaonline.com/
http://www.telefonicanet.es/
http://www.movistar.tsm.es/