[Sigia-l] IA Missions

[Jennifer Dykstra]

RE: 
> We found that this approach avoided "giving away" IA work for free in our
> proposals.
> 
> -Anne

A couple of other problems that may come up when you 
"give away" IA work. Same issues with "comp comps" as well...

1. It increases the clients wariness of how long it takes to 
complete a project. "Why do you need more time? This sitemap 
was finished weeks ago!"

2. It tends to lessen the importance of all the other things 
IAs do like task analysis, research, usability.... Clients 
are much harder to convince that you need to do research when
they think the project is already finished.
 
3. Even if they do give you more time, you may have set
their expectations about the site structure or even the layout.
When you do show them your final documents, they may be
upset that what they initially liked is missing.

> 6) I did a rapid IA assessment of the existing site where I pasted screen 
> captures into PowerPoint and placed callouts pointing out areas of confusion 
> in the navigation and individual page elements.

Be careful with #6, you never know who on the client side 
may read your response and be offended by it... Also, they
probably don't want to see how much their site sucks.
(Wait and use this to find their hot buttons at your 
requirements gathering meeting.)

I agree with Anne: steer clear of anything more than examples. 
Show them that you understand their business, that you've
done similar work in the past. Show them that you can deliver 
on time/on budget. 

Pay special attention to what they are asking for and tell 
them exactly how (not what) you propose to:
  3) provide a seamless user experience 
  4) Increase "stickiness" 
  5) Track ROI

(Have I mentioned yet how lame I think these are?)

In general, make it more about the process than about 
what it looks like. 

- jld


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