[Sigia-l] IA for non-web based projects

[O'Neill, Todd]

I started thinking on this the other day in preparation for a seminar
I'm presenting.

My background is a progression from video production (business /
industrial) to multimedia production (commercial [AFKA Prince
Interactive], business) to web production [non-profit, business [Inter-,
extra- and intranet].) I get calls sometimes from my "ole video buddies"
asking if I could come speak to them or their group about "new media."
(When does it cease to be "new"?)

My approach, based on my background, is that professionals have/can/are
producing in different media because the core of all media production
has common elements: Analysis, Design, Creation, Distribution and
Evaluation; and that professionals (video in this case) just need to
learn what's new or different about this new media they are venturing
into.

At a high level: Analysis contains define your project purpose, goal(s),
audience; Design contains drafting a treatment or brief, developing an
information architecture, drafting content, comping a design, maybe
building a prototype. Get the idea?

Long winded intro, so I cut to the chase.

- Do you produce projects in different media? (web, disc, video, film,
print)
- Which media do you produce in?
- What are the barriers to you from producing in different media?
(technical knowledge, linear vs. non-linear thinking, job class, etc.)
- Why would this be desirable to you?
- Why don't more people do this?
- Does big IA apply to all media?
- If so, why isn't this discussed more?

The group I'm speaking to are mostly business video producers with maybe
a little multimedia or web experience. I have made the case before to
this professional group (business video producers) that with some
translation of some industry terms and some additional technical
knowledge that they can produce other media.

I'll be suggesting to them, for example, that an ia diagram is an ia
diagram, whether you use it for a web project or a disc (CD, DVD)
project. (It exists in a non-symbolic form in a video script or a book
outline as well. DVD and CD production could use some good IA.)

Well, usually, one or two say "Amen brother!", many run from the room
screaming (but any change would have a similar affect), some grumble
about not being "allowed" to work in other media, and the rest look at
me like I have three heads.

My concern is that this video professional group is comfortable in their
world and that the profession of IA is comfortable in their world but
that those worlds are actually one world, with no convergence (or
perhaps divergence??) necessary. That thinking seems
career/experience/creativity/enjoyment limiting. There is much "old"
thinking in the "mature" media production professions and as much as I
like standards, "old" or "less flexible"  thinking has crept into "new
media."

Is this something that big IA (AIfIA) should address (or is there
nothing to address?) or should some other organization (ACM, STC, MCA-I)
address it? Or do I, in fact, have three heads?

What do you think?


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