[Sigia-l] Still Defining the Damn Thing

[Richard_Dalton at Vanguard.com]

I agree 100% with Christina Wodtke and others who have the opinion that we 
need more
definition of Information Architecture (and other related disciplines). To 
that end
I offer yet another definition (in what I hope is simple, plain-talk 
language).

Comments and discussion are welcome - if you don't want to discuss it 
(again) on this
mailing list, then why don't those of us who do find somewhere we can - 
suggestions welcome.

 - Richard Dalton


"Finding vs Using" - A User Driven Definition
=============================================

This debate is being discussed mainly within the context of Websites. 
Users face
(at least) 2 major challenges when using Websites: 

   1. Finding "things". 
   2.   Using the "things" once they've found them. 

I suggest that: 

   - Information Architecture is the discipline of organizing and 
providing navigation
     to "things" in such a way that users can find them. 

   - Interaction Design (or whatever you want to call it) is the 
discipline of designing
     the "things" such that users can use them once they've found them. 

I realize the term "things" could use some work - i'd loosely define it as
"content or functionality that helps a user complete their task". 

I would include the following within the realm of I/A: User Research to 
identify
discrete User Tasks, Creation of Mental Model Diagrams using User Tasks,
Content Inventories (including Metadata), Taxonomy & Labelling, Searching 
Systems,
"Traditional" Information Architecture Diagrams, Page Layouts or 
Frameworks that
show placement of global navigation elements, etc, etc. 

And the following within the realm of I/D: User Research & Task Analysis 
to drive
Workflows of discrete User Tasks, Local Navigation (navigation between 
pages within
a discrete "thing"), Page Design (selection & placement of task specific 
content
or functionality on the page). 

There does not seem to be a huge of overlap in the skills used to organize 
information
to help people find it at a macro level (cognitive psychology, LIS?, etc) 
vs those
used to help someone interact with an interface (HCI, graphic design, 
etc).