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

Tue Mar 14 03:46:20 EST 2006

Hi,

All I'm thinking about at the moment, from my view, is drawing up 
requirements for what this needs to do. Documentation appears to be one of 
them.  I saw this not as a simulation/prototyping tool - althought it would 
do that - but as a means of also generating the final project to some 
degree. We create documentation so it can be handed over to an 
implimentation teams and also be signed off by stake holds - if we remove 
the need for the paper we can have the information we create baked into the 
final implimentation, rather than it be translated one or more times, make 
projects faster, enable us to error check as we go and also test out ideas 
much much sooner.

Flexibility is very important, and we all work in different ways, that's why 
I saw it as a series of apps that you can plug in the way you work into at 
several stages. Some won't want to let go of visio - that's cool - provide a 
way to talk to this framework using visio. I envisage a visio killing 
application based either on flash or ajax that is an IA tool that then feeds 
into a chain that leads to the final project.

Stewart Dean

>From: Peter Van Dijck <peter at poorbuthappy.com>
>To: Stewart Dean <stew8dean at hotmail.com>
>CC: sigia-l at asis.org, donna at maadmob.net
>Subject: [SPAM] Re: [Sigia-l] Open-source IA tool in the making
>Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 09:05:01 -0500
>
>You might wanna study some of the other attempts that've been made at this 
>and why they haven't really taken off.
>
>I think one of the problems is continuity of documentation. With your 
>prototyping tool (which it is, right?), I still need to deliver wireframes 
>which might require a few things I can't enter in your tool and then I have 
>to do them from scratch. So flexibility becomes very important: can I add 
>notes and such easily? Visio sucks but it's general purpose, which I think 
>is why we've been able to mold it into something useful for IA's. Just some 
>thoughts..
>
>Good luck!
>Peter
>
>Stewart Dean wrote:
>>
>>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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>>
>>
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