[Sigia-l] IA and medium

[Gent, Andrew]

Hi Christina,

>>Do you think IA is medium specific? 

Absolutely not. Selection of the media (as in one or more channels for delivery) should be considered a component of any large IA activity. 

>>I know the web gave birth to IA (as a
title, role, etc)

Hmm... Wurmann's original Information Anxiety (where many claim "information architecture" was coined) preceded the web. I was using the title before serious (i.e. commercial) web development occured.

>> and Iknow the skills that apply to IA apply to other
media, but is IA in it's truest form inseperable from the web as media?

The term is "Information Architecture", and although the web predominates as a channel today, it is definitely not the only medium for "information". So in its purest form, IA is completely separate from the medium.

Many of my projects have involved the alignment of web, printed documentation, training, and marketing collatoral. When "clients" (I put clients in quotations because I am an innie, and clients are often co-workers of one sort or another) come to me requesting assistance with a web project, I usually try to get them to back up to the business requirements before assuming the web as the only alternative. This is not only to determine if the web is the right medium but because I need to understand the requirements that drove that choice to be able to define the appropriate structure for the content itself. (Also, as I hinted before, clients tend to think linearly -- that their goal is best achieved through a single medium. Where, as someone said, in the "messy real world" multiple channels can often be most effective in reaching the target audience.)

Andrew Gent
Information Architect
HP Services
1.603.884.7475