[Sigia-l] Still Defining the Damn Thing

[Leo Frishberg]

For those attending the IA Summit in Portland, CHIFOO will be "hosting" a
no-host cocktail hour on Saturday night in the Hilton Bar, with an
opportunity to engage in this perennial definition activity in front of a
poster board, post-it in one hand, drink in the other.

Leo Frishberg
Program Chair, CHIFOO

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard_Dalton at Vanguard.com [mailto:Richard_Dalton at Vanguard.com]
> Sent: Monday, February 03, 2003 10:29 AM
> To: sigia-l at asis.org
> Subject: [Sigia-l] Still Defining the Damn Thing
> 
> 
> 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). 
> 
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> 
> ASIST IA 03 Summit: Making Connections
> http://www.asist-events.org/IASummit2003/
> 
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