[Sigia-l] Usability Testing comments from Giga

[Peter Boersma]

When I asked:
> Okay, I'll bite: how are systems and structures different?

Boniface explained:
> "System" is often used to indicate things capable of interacting with
> their environment while a structure does not. To make an information
> structure alive, you need to add an interactive component, like a
> navigation system, that knows the information structure.

Okay, then back to what you wrote before:
> When books like "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web"
> mistakenly proclaimed that navigation systems and labeling systems
> are elements of information architecture, usability tests are
> naturally used for testing IA work.
and:
> Genuine IA is about structures. Thus, a natural way to test is
> subjecting the structural specification to various scenarios to
> see how the structures will stand up.

If a system is necessary to allow for interaction with a structure, how can
systems not be part of information architecture, when "genuine IA is about
structures"?

Is adding a navigation system to an information structure the work of
another discipline then?

Peter
--
Peter Boersma, Senior Information Architect, EzGov
"De Schinkel", Rijnsburgstraat 11, Amsterdam, 1059 AT, The Netherlands
Phone: +31(0)20 7133881 / Fax: +31(0)20 7133799 / Mobile: +31(0)6 15072747
mailto:peter.boersma at ezgov.com / http://www.europe.ezgov.com