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

[Thomas Vander Wal]

The advertising and corporate/organizational communication education courses
I had in college delved deeply in to user-centered development processes. 
The advertising world tests everything very early and very often.  My
education from the mid-80s provided a great foundation for Web development. 
We learned to define personae, user test, understand the audience, document
competition in the information space (others presentational methods and
genre used for print, radio, and film based on who the target audience is
and the medium used to convey the messages to that audience), storyboarding
(including wireframes for print), controlled vocabulary for consistant
messaging aimed at the target audience, etc. When I started working with
applications and later the Web (in 1995) I continued to apply these methods,
which are common and often have standards used for documenting and
communicating these messages across the teams.

I also had a lot of exposure to television and film production, both in and
out of school.  Film tends to test with audience surrogates (those who
survey audiences for preferences) early and often in each stage of the film
development process.  Television on the other hand tests nearly everything
with audiences using the test screening audiences, which I have viewed
sketched storyboards to three to five minute vignettes of the proposed
shows.  The test screening audiences see these after the main television and
film screenings they do.

Film has more creative freedom than television does, which is why their is
more user-centered development.

Whitney Quesenbery just presented her *What I learned from the Theatre*
narritive presentation at this week at STC in Baltimore.  There are many
similarities between theatre development and where Web is heading.  Whitney
brought to light that the deliverables for each of the roles (lighting,
staging, scripting, etc.) are very much standards based, which eases
communication across the teams as well as for future people who will have
the roles for each of these crafts as the show continues.  In the Web we
have very few if any standard methods for deliverables, this includes IA,
which is very deliverable-centered.  I have received utter crap from many
outside vendors this past year, even after providing samples of the
documentation we are using across our projects.

There is an incredible amount to learn from other professions that that do
document their craft and are user centered.  Many, like advertising, have
been performing this skill for at least an order of magnatude longer than
the Web has been around, some are based on research from the early 1900s for
other media, such as print.

All the best,
Thomas

---------  Original message --------
:: Peter Merholz wrote ::

> > - 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?

I think these are interesting questions, and I've appreciated the
answers.

However, there's a key element of IA that has been missing from the
media discussion. Namely, "the user". From what I know of media
production, apart from testing with audiences after something has been
produced, there's little input from "users." I've never heard of a
user-centered media process, where themes, concepts, scripts,
storyboards, etc., are somehow "tested" on users.

The thing to keep in mind about IA, and, well, any user experience
method, is that they are as rooted in product design methods as they
are in media methods. In fact, you could argue that our work is a
hybrid of the two.

--peter

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