[Sigia-l] what are the first principles?

[jess at cognissa.com]

Trying again - please don't post if you're not going to keep to the thread
topic...

I wrote:
>> So I'm left with the question: how can we move beyond first
>> principles, while still supporting new IA practitioners?

The ever insightful Karl wrote:
>Has anyone enumerated these first principles?

So I'll ask the list - what are the 'first principles' of IA? What are the
basics that should go into the FAQ, or the reference, or whatever? I don't
expect everyone to agree that a particular point is "one of the basics" -
but I'm interested in what people think *are* the basics.

Here's my start on the list:

1) IA cannot be effectively defined by top-down discussion. Like other
professions in the past, the definition is emergent from practice. Top-down
definitions can be useful operationally, but don't expect them to be
definitive, all encompassing, or agreed on by the field or practitioners.

2) It depends. Many questions can only be answered with a deep
understanding of Business Goals + Context, User Goals + Context, the
Offering (content, functionality) and the Delivery Channel (technology,
network, server, etc.)

3) User-centered design is a key approach to IA issues. Comments like "as a
user, I personally find X, Y, and Z" are not user-centric, unless you're
building something just for yourself.

User-centered design is an iterative process that usually includes 3-4
steps like this:

Understand, Solve, Evaluate, Refine (a.k.a. - U.S.E.R. ;)

4) User-centered design isn't sufficient to answer all IA issues (see point
two).

5) There are a core set of deliverables and techniques common to most IA
practitioners. Deliverables include conceptual models, user
profiles/personas, content inventories, controlled vocabularies, site
blueprints, wireframes. Techniques include contextual inquiry/ethnography,
card sorting, and usability testing.

6) Many practitioners who don't think of themselves as IAs use these same
methods and produce the same deliverables. IAs don't have a lock on the
practice of information architecture.

Others?

best,

Jess

p.s.

really - please, don't post unless you're going to suggest a first
principle.

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