[Sigia-l] Re: New Web Accessibility & IA OrganizationinBoston (Listera)

[Anne Miller]

Listera said:
<<there's a fundamental difference between operating at the (raw)
level of info and operating several levels of abstraction above it. We are
not in the content creation business.>>

And Neil Lynch said:
<An organisations Information Archticture is not just about information
presentation - it is the whole process from identification of need, to
creation, to storage, to mobilisation (including presentation), to disposal.

As Neil suggests no data/information lives in a vacuum - it has its own
context which includes a) the phenomena that it reflects, b) the rationale
for collecting it in the first place, c) the means by which it is collected,
and stored, d) its the anticipated use e) its relationship to other
information. All of these points (including the cross over with Neil's) are
levels of abstraction.

So where's the argument? Or is this just argument for argument sake. Monty
Python have already done that - it was funny then, this is tedious.

I do however take exception to the following quote.
 Listera:
<In fact, in well-designed systems it's preferable to not concentrate on
info
at all, but abstract it into templates, which are the conduits for the info
to reach the user. The underlying info may be transient, templates are not.
This is why designers use greeked fonts or lorem ipsum placeholders during
prototyping, so as not to be distracted by info but focus on the conduit.
That is, they are designing the interface not the (underlying) info.>

So you abstract information into templates? So what levels of abstraction do
the templates represent and how; what/who informs these. You dont change the
raw data/info - you just value add to it by categorising it according to
levels of abstraction. If this is what you do then you are creating content.
You are imposing semantic meaning through levels of abstraction represented
in a template. As you have rightly point out raw data/info is raw
data/info - it has to be abstracted. Abstraction is NOT a property of raw
data it is a property of human agency (purpose, intention, process, ie
context) - and you are not just designing a template you are building a
semantic framework whether you do it lorum ipsum or not. The original
question applies - so who decides what that framework is?  And is the
abstraction framework that you embed in your template intelligible to people
with accessibility issues.

Anne Miller
Coordinator
Human Factors Online
Key Centre for Human Factors
University of Queensland
http://www.humanfactors.uq.edu.au

Anne Miller
Coordinator
Human Factors Online
Key Centre for Human Factors
University of Queensland
http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~hufa/

-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On Behalf Of
Listera
Sent: Tuesday, 23 September 2003 2:10 PM
To: sigia-l at asis.org
Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Re: New Web Accessibility & IA
OrganizationinBoston (Listera)


"James Robertson" wrote:

> A perfectly structured and designed site where all
> information is easily obtainable is utterly useless
> if it doesn't provide the information that users
> need.

Let me make this crystal clear: If you were to work for Dow Jones as an
IA/ID/UX/etc on, say, the Industrial Average, you can create all sorts of
interfaces, navigations, architectures, categorizations, etc. But never in a
million years will they allow you to actually alter the composition of the
Industrial Average.

In a mom&pop operation where they can't afford to spend much money on
anything, you may write, draw, code, serve, cook and do windows, in which
case, heck, cosmetologist or wizard is as good a title as any.

Your worth as an IA/ID/UX/etc to an organization is not your *domain
specific* knowledge that would allow you to make alteration at the (raw)
info/data level, but your ability to make that info/data accessible to end
users at the meta level. Otherwise, as a professional, you'd have a very
difficult time moving from one organization/industry to another, your
worth/expertise having being tied to domain specific knowledge.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba


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