[Sigia-l] Information-centered Design

[Boniface Lau]

> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On
> Behalf Of Daniel R Drop
>  
[...]
>
> According to Matthew, the IAs of the future will "develop and
> maintain these [information] nodes, concerned only with the
> relevance of content."  Seemingly, the IA is not concerned with
> navigation, not concerned with labeling, not concerned with
> presentation. If you do a search in google using 'decision support
> "information architecture"', you get a similar perspective on what
> is classified as information architecture. I would venture to guess
> that the offshoot thread among Boniface Lau, Sean Coon, and others
> is about this same problem.

While I did not have Matthew's vision of "information nodes", it will
be a great help toward that vision by distinguishing genuine IA from
peripheral issues such as navigation, labeling, searching, etc.

Genuine IA is about designing an information architecture as a stable
foundation for evolving a system. With that foundation in place,
better search method can replace the old one without ripping the
system apart. Similarly, old navigation system can be replaced without
destabilizing the whole system.

When information architects as a group has successful experience in
dealing with a site's genuine IA, moving toward that "information
nodes" vision becomes more realistic.


Boniface