[Sigia-l] IAs in non-traditional places

[George Olsen]

Liz Danzico said:
> I talked with a woman a few years ago who writes the functional
> specifications for clothing.

> As we talked, we were both shocked to find how similar our jobs are.

Since IA is a "convergence" field that draws on many existing fields, I'm
not surprised that many people have been doing IA without knowing it --
just as they've been speaking prose all their life.

Seriously, this is where IAs could use a little humility in recognizing
that the skills of understanding audiences, content organization (including
visual organization), designing interactions, figuring out how to present
information, etc. aren't unique to the the digital milleu we've worked in.

Sometimes these skills have direct roots in forerunner fields, sometimes
it's in totally unrelated (and unexpected) fields as the result of
convergent evolution.

But what's exciting is to see how some of the techniques and approaches
that have developed in web space can be applied back more traditional
disciplines. For example, there's no reason user-centered design
techniques, like nomenclature testing, couldn't be used by graphic
designers for print materials.

_____________________________________________________________________
George Olsen                           george at interactionbydesign.com
User Experience Architect                                310-993-0467