[Sigia-l] RE: Eliciting input on content chunks

[O'Neill, Todd]

Jan said:
>My first thoughts are to have the individuals (most of whom are
responsible for or work in different areas) write on one side of 
>an index card the "chunk/s" of information they know needs to be
included from their perspective. One per card. e.g. Information 
>on student computer labs.  Then on the back write "what" exactly needs
to be included in that chunk. e.g in this case it might be >Lab hours,
contact information, computers available etc.

What you describe seems like an affinity diagram. In an hour or ninety
minutes of affinity diagramming work you should be able to get at least
the basic organization of the material you're looking for. I guess that
would depend on the stakeholders that are involved.

There's good information about Affinity Diagrams at IAWiki
http://www.iawiki.net/AffinityDiagrams and someone has even devised an
Excel spreadsheet tool to record the results
http://www.baran-systems.com/New/Products/Affinity_Diagram_For_Excel/.

I have always had luck with Affinity diagram work. The group of people
feel engaged and at the end of the session there is something for the
group to look at and say "We did that!"

Jan said:
>A role I'm comfortable with is to organize the content, but in this
case  I'm going to be holding a session with the key >
>providers of the services, products etc. to determine what the content
actually should be.  We need to determine what they each 
>provide, to whom and what needs to be known by those audiences etc. 

Help me understand why you are starting with the providers of the
services rather than the customers of the services. I suppose in a
university setting some of that may be political, or it may be timing
(summer), but the website isn't for the providers -- it's for the
students, faculty and staff who will consume the services. I would think
you could get an organization scheme from the providers but it would be
THEIR view of what they have. (I'd agree absolutely that they are the
SMEs for their areas re: hours, descriptions of services, etc.) 

Maybe this is two sessions? One with the providers to help them
understand their services and customers (affinity diagramming) and then
another activity(ies) for the customers, centered around the services
determined in the first session with the providers (card sorting)? (This
is my favorite card sorting link
http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cardsorting/ but there are more at
IAWiki http://www.iawiki.net/CardSorting.)

<opinion>Any kind of communication is about the consumer of the message
not the provider. If the information isn't of inherent or curious
interest to the consumer then the communication has failed.</opinion>
I'm guessing you want the communications of this information to be
successful?  :-)

Just some thoughts. Good Luck!

Todd O'Neill Web Producer USAA Interaction Design and Architecture 
210-913-8312 todd.oneill at usaa.com 
These opinions mine not those of USAA. 
"The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer." Peter
Drucker