[Sigia-l] Less Spatiality, More Semantics?

[Donna M. Fritzsche]

>
>If, however, the "spatial" schemes have also been designed with User Tasks
>and Goals in mind then don't they, by definition, also approach things
>from a fairly "semantic" perspective?
>
>  - Richard Dalton

Personally, I would not say "semantic" perspective (see below) but 
rather "useful" perspective.

The hierarchical (spatial) schemes still are of use to the users and 
thus are useful.
I think the point is to expand beyond what a simple hierarchy can 
provide to the user.
To me, when someone uses the term semantic - I think of the "meaning" 
of the content and/or the interpretation of the user, and not the 
"needs" of the user.

By breaking the meaning of the content into useful components (facets 
& vocab) that are also meaningful terms to the user, we can expand 
the usefulness to the user.

By choosing facets that relate to tasks of the users, we can further 
expand the usefulness to the user.

(agreeing with Luca here).  The tricky part it that while this can 
still be a simple and elegant description of a complex concept, the 
process of getting there is still quite challenging.

Donna M. Fritzsche