[Sigia-l] IA Testing and What is an IA (was Usability Testing comments from Giga)

[Chris Chandler]

(emailed, not posted...)

Great post man!

-cc



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com>
To: <sigia-l at asis.org>
Cc: <Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 11:40 AM
Subject: [Sigia-l] IA Testing and What is an IA (was Usability Testing comments from Giga)


> Marios:
> > Again, as with my original post.. so what kind of testing do IA folk 
> do? If
> > you are an IA and work in the field how do you assure your clients 
> that what
> > you propose to release will work?
> 
> I'm not an Information Architect!  I think I'm "IA folk" and I do 
> various kinds of testing.  But pardon me while I expand on what I think 
> it means to *be* an IA...
> 
> Sometimes I play "information architect" at work.  Some people even 
> call me an IA...it doesn't mean I AM one.
> 
> I know and do lots of things:
> - I design and create information architectures
> - I know about taxonomies, metadata, controlled vocabularies and 
> metadata
> - I know various methods for creating navigation and labeling systems
> - I know quite a bit about the complexities of search and information 
> retrieval
> - I know a little about some content management systems.
> - I've designed content management processes
> - I design user interfaces - mainly web, handheld and GUI 
> computer-based UIs.
> - I know my way around PhotoShop fairly well, and have been 
> complemented on graphic designs I've done.
> - I do lots of business analysis - gathering requirements, documenting 
> workflow, etc.
> - I often lead small projects, and I've lead a few big ones in the past.
> - I've developed many web sites in the last 8 years and speak fluent 
> HTML, JavaScript and lots of other acronyms.
> - I know some things about Branding and Marketing, and much of my work 
> involves those things
> - There are lots of things I don't know about IA, CMS, Search, 
> Interaction Design, Project Management, Business Analysis, Marketing, 
> Branding and Graphic Design
> 
> - I know enough to know some of what I don't know about these things. 
> - I know some people I can call if I need deeper expertise in certain 
> areas.  I know lots of people *I* would call "IAs."
> 
> 
> So what label do I wear?  Personally, I don't really care much about 
> that.  Right now, my business card reads "User Experience Architect" - 
> hopefully it gives people an inkling about what my focus is.  In the 
> past it's said things like "Sr. Business Analyst" and "Project Manager" 
> and "Consultant."  I find that my current title makes people ask 
> questions about what I do which provides me an opportunity to tell them 
> how I can add value to their business.  That's good enough for me.
> 
> - I feel comfortable with "IA folks" - I talk their language, and do 
> work similar to what many "IAs" I know do.  I'm ticked that I didn't 
> get to go to the IA Summit this year.
> - I feel comfortable with "Usability folks", I'm a member of SIGCHI and 
> UPA and on the board of my local UPA chapter.  I am going to the UPA 
> conference this year.
> - I can hang with IT developers and often do.  I even often give them 
> technical assistance.  
> 
> Labels are rarely descriptive or accurate enough (most IAs know this).  
> I play lots of _roles_ for my customers, and my customers really don't 
> care about my title.  They care about what I do and how I add value.  
> Just one of the roles I play is the role of IA.  
> 
> A student from a local university recently interviewed me - because I 
> "was an IA."  He wanted to know about IA, what it is, where it's going, 
> and what he should focus on if he wanted to be an IA.  My advice was 
> that he learn about what different IAs do, determine his areas of 
> interest, and focus on those areas.  I recommended he become a 
> generalist as that's where most of the jobs are going to be.  (Don't go 
> focus just on search retrieval and metadata - you're likely to 
> pigeonhole yourself.)
> 
> Why do we talk about "what is IA" or "what is an Information Architect" 
> so much?
> 
> Let talk about what each of us does.  Rather than outline boundaries, 
> let's focus on areas of common interest.  And let's learn about related 
> areas too like branding, technology, consulting, communication, project 
> management, selling, documentation, etc., etc., etc.
> 
> To Marios' question:  
> I do lots of usability testing.
> I do cognitive walkthroughs
> I do heuristic evaluations
> I do card sorts (open and closed)
> Each of these can be used to assess a UI's (or an information system's, 
> or a structure's) effectiveness.  Some methods are more "test-like" 
> than others.  There are other ways to get feedback on a product's 
> effectiveness: sales, system usage, customer feedback, help-desk call 
> volumes, surveys, interviews, etc.  
> 
> I tend to do more formative testing as opposed to summative testing.  
> (See http://www.utep.edu/~cetal/portfoli/form-sum.htm for definitions.) 
>  I find these kinds of tests very valuable for my clients.  
> 
> If other IAs don't do these kinds of 'tests', then how do they know 
> they're on target with their deliverables?  Purely based on client 
> feedback?  If that's the case, I don't personally find that a very 
> mature approach.  Over time, you have to be able to prove your worth, 
> and nice comments and testimonials don't go very far.
> 
> 
> Lyle
> 
> ----
> Lyle Kantrovich
> User Experience Architect
> Cargill 
> http://www.cargill.com 
> 
> Croc O' Lyle: personal commentary on usability, Information 
> Architecture, and web design
> http://crocolyle.blogspot.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
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