[Sigia-l] The Need for a Definition of I/A - real world example (was "first principles")

[Richard_Dalton at vanguard.com]

[ WARNING: Definition of I/A discussion follows ]

In an effort to do what has recently been suggested and share experience 
and real-world context for problems I thought it might be interesting to 
explore why i'm so keen to have some more definition to I/A and to see if 
anyone else is in a similar situation.

In my organization we have a strong need to bring clarity to lots of 
people's jobs - we have a lot of people involved in various aspects of 
"creating websites" - Information Architecture (whatever that is), 
Interaction Design, Graphic Design, Usability, etc ... and the interaction 
between some of these roles (I/A and I/D in particular) needs some 
improvement. With a clearer definition of the roles and responsibilities 
(based on sound understanding of the discipline) I think things could be 
so much better.

So ... based on a lot of experience in the different roles, a lot of 
reading, and some data (most of our user feedback can be categorized as "I 
can't find it" or "I can't use it") i've suggested that for our 
organization Information Architecture is defined as "finding stuff" and 
I/D as "using stuff".

Is anyone else in a similar position with their organization? Does anyone 
have any suggestions or thoughts to share?

 - Richard Dalton