[Sigia-l] WOW! how annoying..

[Todd R.Warfel]

Thank you Nuno. This list does seem a bit noisy at times. All that 
noise doesn't seem to be pushing the foundations of IA. IMHO IA could 
mature into a more cohesive field with a few founding principles and 
let the rest come together. As you point out there are several 
different methodologies for software and product development. Some are 
better than others. Overall, they share a few key principles, but 
beyond that, they vary in strategy, methodology, length, processes, etc.

In my experience as a user experience consultant, I've seen IA duties 
range from developing taxonomies, to gathering business requirements, 
to developing organizational models that aren't taxonomies, to 
traditional sitemaps and wireframes. It depends on the company, the 
geographic location, and the clients you're doing work for. It can be 
frustrating.

I don't think there's one right answer for this, as each project is 
unique. So, again, IMHO a few basic foundation principles would be 
fine, then let it develop from there.

On Tuesday, March 18, 2003, at 05:42  AM, Nuno Lopes wrote:

> For people looking for theory in IA I understand their intent and I
> fully concur with the need for IA to grow on the solid grounds of
> scientific reason rather then market (vendors) interests. Nevertheless 
> I
> disagree with the need of a unified theory for IA at the moment. It is
> simply too soon as far as I see it. In other words, IMO IA is not yet
> prepared for a unified theory encompassing a unified method. It needs
> several theories, several methods each dealing with different parts of
> the problem domain or domains.
>
> This is not contrary to the need of the IA field to describe a coherent
> framework of thought, from which several artifacts are born to deal 
> with
> several problems. Each problem with its own statement whilst sharing
> common interests.

Cheers!

Todd R. Warfel

_//message first [method second]
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User Experience Architect
Cornell University Lab of Ornithology
[P] (607) 254-2477
[F] (607) 254-2415
[E] todd.warfel at cornell.edu
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In theory, theory and practice are the same,
but in practice, they're not -- anonymous