[Sigia-l] Open-source IA tool in the making

[Stewart Dean]

Hi guys,

I'm really loving the sound of where this is going. The challenge of any IA 
tool like this is taking on board all the different ways information, 
functionality and experiences can be presented. I don't see the hirachical / 
faceted issue as a problem as faceted views are just hirachical views where 
the data appears in more then one place (to over simlify).  the trick for 
the structure of the site to essentialy have a hirachical base upon which 
different styles of content delivery can be added to. The whole hirachy may 
just be two pages and a front page off which a category based directory 
system launches (like dmoz or yahoo used to be).  Or it could then launch 
into a faceted view or some other form where dynamic data can shape the 
site.

So the guts of what I'm looking to do is to be build a brocherware site in 
less than a day (grey site without content and graphic design), be able to 
build simple web applications like a FAQ section or download section quickly 
and cover all aspects like errors, what is static instructional copy and 
what is article based and have the navigation work as requested.

I see the framework being a rich web based application (web 2.0 or flash) 
that has XML at it's core. I see it being made up of multiple applications - 
one for site structure creation that ties into a template creation tool and 
then a content editing tool with verison control and maybe another app that 
ties into the site structure and template tool for creating applications.

My view is it's best to walk before we can run and create an application 
capable of producing a simple hirachical site. This would make it usable 
from day one and then it could be expanded as demand is required but in a 
modular way, so if someone wants to use it to turn topic maps into pages 
(I've never done this so don't know how that would work) then they can.

Above all it needs to have a great user experience - which in theory we 
should be able to do better than an software engineer designed app.

Cheers

Stewart Dean




>From: "Donna Maurer" <donna at maadmob.net>
>To: sIGIA-L <sigia-l at asis.org>
>Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] Open-source IA tool in the making
>Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:48:06 +1100
>
>Cool, I think I get it, in concept at least.
>
>Not sure how I would actually design an IA structure that can flip between 
>being a
>hierarchy one minute and a faceted browse the next. But that's just detail 
>;)
>
>Donna
>
>On 13 Mar 2006 at 22:22, Alexander Johannesen wrote:
>
>
> > The big thing is that the tool is content centric instead of
> > management centric as a lot of the CMS'es usually are. I work with
> > what I get; I don't delve into authorship, content creation,
> > workflows, user management, processes, publishing rules and all that
> > jazz. Some off the top thoughts ;
> >
> > - Less work ; simple XML that is the minimum you feel you need
> > (usually means you can mock up a brand new site in 5 minutes)
> >
> > - Multiple views ; wireframes, prototypes, overviews, sitemaps,
> > reports, graphs, all from the same data source, flip through them with
> > tabs (or whatever other control we might think of)
> >
> > - Semantically rich XML input files ; you can test faceted, tagged,
> > bold, brass, fiddle, simple or complex nagivation schemes with a click
> > (basically, you can test each page/site/project with different
> > navigation schemes; "test this site using facets. Now try normal 1/2
> > and 3 level. Now try without breadcrumbs. Now try with only level 2's"
> > and so forth)
> >
>--
>Donna Maurer
>Maadmob Interaction Design
>
>e: donna at maadmob.net
>work: 	http://maadmob.com.au/
>blog: 	http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/
>AOL IM: maadmob
>
>
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