[Sigia-l] Useful tools

Wed Jul 16 21:19:41 EDT 2003

Adrew wrote:

> UML is often used by developers and UI designers for their documentation,
> it's not hard for IA's to work with this as well.

In the many years of consulting, I have seen only one attempt of developers
to document system requirements using UML. Then, all involved in the project
politely left the many many pages of UML notation to the side and turned to
the "english" like requirements section.

UI  designers do not use UML notation to document their UI's. They might use
task analysis (in one form or another), screens, screen flow diagrams etc.
but to my knowledge and experience not UML..

It is important to know that not all documentation produced during a project
is used to communicate with other groups (playing different roles) of the
development team.

Marios

> I am from Sydney Australia

I am aware that Hiser is active in Australia.. If there is anyone on the
list from Hiser it would be good to see if they use UML or teach "UI
documentation using UML" in their courses.

-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On Behalf Of
Andrew Knott
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 6:43 AM
To: Sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Useful tools

I think it's almost essential that Objects be understood. It's not
really that complicated. UML is often used by developers and UI
designers for their documentation, it's not hard for IA's to work with
this as well. They don't have to get into the nitty gritty of OOP to
see how everything works.

cheers

Andrew

btw.

I've just joined this list, I am from Sydney Australia, I have a
background in Web development / design and I am currently redesigning
and rebuilding the online presence for the World Wide Fund for Nature -
Australia . I have a great interest in IA and am someone of an
evangelist @ WWF for IA.

It's great to be here! If anyone else is in Sydney, please feel free to
email me as I'd like to know more people working locally as
professionals in IA.

On Thursday, Jul 17, 2003, at 07:25 Australia/Sydney, Listera wrote:

> I get a lot of email asking for advice on various tools
> central/peripheral
> to IA work. So a few items of note:
>
>> Objects
>
> People ask if they should learn how to create objects, which they can
> then
> hand off to developers. I'm of two minds about this.
>
> Especially for enterprise apps understanding objects is pretty central
> for
> architecture and general app design. If there are multiple apps/sites
> that
> interact, factoring stuff into reusable/shared objects/components is
> often a
> good idea. Login, primary navigation, cc authentication,
> internal/external
> search, breadcrumbs, etc., are all good examples. So, in this sense,
> knowing
> how to translate requirements into objects is a good skill to have.
>
> However going from a general, conceptual understanding of objects to
> something that can be used at the code-level by developers is not as
> easy as
> it sounds. And unless you feel very comfortable, as an IA, you
> shouldn't
> attempt it. But there's help :-)
>
> Here's a fairly recent book that takes a different approach in teaching
> objects and Java. It's quite accessible to non-programmers and
> scripters,
> very visual, chunked and easily digestible. Articles have been written
> about
> how it might change computer how-to books. Some might find it a little
> over
> the top, but if you're in a bookstore definitely check it out:
>
> Head First Java
> by Bert Bates ,Kathy Sierra
> <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596004656/qid%3D1058388859/
> sr%3D11-
> 1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-4484404-7944864>
>
>> Colors
>
> A nifty standalone app for creating color sets and discovering
> relationships
> among colors is ColorDesigner:
>
> <http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20175>
> <http://macosx.narcissisme.dk/>
>
> It's a little rough but freeware and runs on OS X only.
>
>> Mail lists
>
> If you want to follow various (technical) Apple mail lists without
> having to
> subscribe, there's a great front-end (a la Watson) that allows you to
> view,
> search, organize, bookmark and download messages.
>
> iList
> <http://www.macupdate.com/dev.php?id=10807>
>
> It too is a little rough around the edges (it's from France :-) but
> freeware
> and OS X only.
>
> Enjoy.
>
> Ziya
> Nullius in Verba
>
>
> ------------
> When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
> *Plain text, please; NO Attachments
>
> Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
> ________________________________________
> Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
> Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
>

------------
When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
*Plain text, please; NO Attachments

Searchable list archive:   http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
________________________________________
Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
---
[This E-mail was scanned for viruses.]

---
[This E-mail was scanned for viruses.]