[Sigia-l] FW: Seeking Best Practices: order for chaos

[Richard Hill]

[Forwarded b request.  Dick Hill]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Joe Sokohl <joe at sokohl.com>
> Date: September 14, 2005 7:39:02 AM EDT
> To: sigia-l at asis.org
> Subject: Re:  Seeking Best Practices: order for chaos
>
>
> I'm convinced you can't do this sort of thing without a single 
> overarching body/person who buys into the initiative. You have to have 
> business stakeholder buy-in before you can effectively bring these 
> disparate groups together. That is, each head of each silo MUST agree 
> to the task.
>
> I worked on a similar project for a non-profit. There was some 
> consternation at giving up control, but the headquarters of the 
> organization ultimately said they had to comply. They sold the idea, 
> they encouraged participation, but the end result is that the HQ said 
> the subordinate countries had to apply (yes, this is a multinational 
> site). The site is http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/: Though the 
> visual design has changed since I worked on it, our IA and interaction 
> design remain largely intact.
>
> Your problems might be more related to branding than IA or user 
> experience.
>
> joe
> --
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> 804.355.7227 (h)
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> "No man is a failure who has friends" ___Clarence
>
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 10:26:43 -0700
>> From: Jon Littell <jonlittell at mac.com>
>> Subject: [Sigia-l] Seeking Best Practices: order for chaos
>> To: sigia-l at asis.org
>> Message-ID: <7BA0C286-5D51-4128-B092-6428A2DA466A at mac.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; delsp=yes;
>> 	format=flowed
>>
>> How do you create a "wrapper" for huge, decentralized organization??
>>
>> I'm working with a large, completely decentralized (non-profit)
>> organization. They have a highly diverse audience NO single top-level
>> governing body. Instead there are a dozen autonomous groups which
>> fulfill distinct mandates. Each group has their own site (and
>> sometimes multiple subsites.) The majority of their audience, is
>> unaware of the structure and perceives them as a single entity.
>>
>> So, here is the challenge: to create an umbrella site that allows
>> diverse users to discover the breadth of content, tools and resources
>> that all of the autonomous agencies provide. And then, gracefully
>> transfer the user to the appropriate site.  When I started the
>> project, I thought of departments within universities. But university
>> departments are more distinct-this organization has overlap between
>> divisions. Besides, university sites are more often examples of
>> "Worst Practices"-individual department sites cobbled together with
>> almost no connection with the overall site.
>>
>> REQUEST-Any sites to review for best practices:
>>      * a gateway site that coalesces and demonstrates a large variety
>> of content.
>>      * unlike a "portal", it needs to appear to be a single entity,
>> with a consistent brand
>>      * a navigation tool (or wrapper) that can contain multiple
>> sites, allows them to be independent and maintain the global context
>>      * a particular topic (index?) that displays a range of content
>> (perhaps identified by the responsible party)
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>> Jon Littell
>> Sr. User Experience Architect
>> Hot Studio, San Francisco
>>
>>
>>
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