[Sigia-l] Findability is dead, Long live ummm... Meaning?

[George Olsen]

On 3/28/03 4:25 AM, "Faith Peterson (E-mail)" <faithp at wideopenwest.com>
wrote:
> If structure imparts or creates meaning, then whoever creates the structure
> decides what information "means".

Speaking as former newspaper editor back in the day, structure is often
intertwined with content. In fact, the job of a good editor is to combine
related stories in an appropriate "package" (when possible) where they can
provide context to each other. BTW, this isn't just combining written
stories, but also photos, maps, charts, infographics, etc. -- and now, for
online publications, audio, video and interactive multimedia.

Needless to say this imposes ethical responsibilities as Jesse noted.

On 3/28/03 6:30 AM, "christina wodtke" <cwodtke at eleganthack.com> wrote:
> I have long thought the three qualities an IA should work toward was
> findability, understandability and usability

I think that's a good definition -- as long as we realize it also means IA
has overlaps with writing/editing (especially journalism and technical
documentation) and "traditional" information design.

Not that this is a bad thing -- just that we should learn from these
existing fields and appreciate their skills where they overlap ours (like we
should also do with graphic design).

George