[Sigia-l] Notes from IA/UX discussion on CMS

[Leo Frishberg]

I recently had the chance to participate in the implementation of a CMS
based site.  The key difference for me in my role as an IA was to balance
the "end-user" experience (the web site visitor attempting to
find/access/read/interact with the content), the "site-owner" experience
(the content manager having to interact with the CMS itself) and the
"site-developer" experience (the internal development staff building out the
structure).

The shift was dramatic:  rather than creating wireframes that just informed
visual designers and engineers, my wireframes now had to account for the
technology itself - an additional layer of information design in the
development documents themselves.  That part was heady and fun.  Bottom
line:  my IA role became far more "meta" about the development process
itself rather than the end-user experience.

It raises a mildly interesting question (to me): does the formalization of
internal / implementation issues of prioritizing, categorizing and
delivering content necessarily create an intended end-user experience
(especially when the actual content is completely outside the control of
design team)?


Leo