[Sigia-l] visio feature improvements - why bother?

[Peter Picone]

OK, I have to delurk and wonder a bit about this thread - are we more
concerned here with the semantics of what defines a standard or what defines
an effective tool.

As a UI designer, I have had a lot of success with even the rudimentary
capabilities of Visio.  Even though I am aware that I could spend hours
making it do really cool things.  As mentioned earlier in the thread, it is
a tool.  Nothing more.  You make of it what you can...  Nothing will ever be
perfect for our expectations.  Especially since they vary so widely within
the community.  There is an old expression - "to a man with a hammer,
everything looks like a nail".  If it isn't the right tool for your uses,
find one that is, or make the best of what you have and stop trying to force
it to fit your needs if it isn't working.

On another note, worrying about what is a "standard" makes no more sense
than worrying about what is in "fashion".  If you need someone else to tell
you what to wear, eat, think, dress, or to do your work, then you are not in
control of your craft.  You are a fashion maven.... Get on with it and use
what makes you most effective without becoming a slave to, or trying to
define standard/fashion... it will change next year anyway, and whining
about it serves no practical purpose  professional or otherwise.

-Peter

Peter Picone
President,
Half-Tide Designs, Inc.
half-tide at attbi.com
http://half-tide.home.attbi.com
(978) 352-2548 (H)
(978) 352-9670 (W)
(978) 852-2081 (Cell)



-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On Behalf Of
Listera
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2003 7:56 PM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] visio feature improvements - why bother?


> The IA community is so fractured and violently opposed to itself it's no
> wonder there's hardly anyone trying to address any of our needs.

'Standard setting', when done unilaterally outside of standards
organizations, is usually done not for the benefit of a profession but for
the benefit of the standard owner. It's a commercial proposition.

To cite one example, the mobile phone industry was seen to be hopelessly
fractured just a few years ago. Everybody and his pundit was bemoaning the
lack of 'standards' impeding the glorious progress of this nascent industry.
Then came the WAP 'standard'. Never mind that it was an atrocity concocted
by a handful of carriers, it was a 'standard'. Everybody had to hop on that
bandwagon. You couldn't read an article on any mobile technology without
reading about WAP, the 'standard'.

Thank God WAP is no longer in a position to address my mobile needs. I don't
like 'standards' shoved down my throat.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba


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