[Sigia-l] Rant about bad IA practice.

[Ziya Oz]

Dwayne King:

> but call  up your mom and tell her to "go get on a browser-based email client"

Hmm. I talk to my mom on Skype while exchanging pictures, and she's been
using Yahoo email for some time now. (She's not what you'd call PC-savvy by
any means.)

What I was mocking is the very notion of 'the average user.' There are more
than a BILLION online users, speaking many languages, with a wide range of
educational background, technical skills, and usage intent. Referring to
them as one amorphous blob, in the year of our lord 2006, is, well,
laughable.
 
> sacred cows.

Well, I'll ask again then: what sacred cows?

>> At one time, somebody somewhere worried that the introduction of  electricity
>> would ruin humankind.

> Up for debate :)

You'd say that :-) To judge a product/technology/service/idea one really has
to break it down and consider its components. That's why I asked just what
aspect of RSS was being questioned: concept, transmission, maintenance,
format, readers, UX, adoption rate, potential promise, usefulness?

The canonical example here is the push technology. Did it die a horrible
death with PointCast? Did it morph beyond delivery of news/entertainment?
Was Marimba successful? Isn't Blackberry an utter push success? How about
ITMS podcasts? Is RSS "push"? You have to put these in context, at a certain
timeline.

I agree that a lot of Web X.0 talk is silly, but so is the counter-talk
about dismissively declaring certain trends DOA.

----
Ziya

Usability >  Simplify the Solution
Design >  Simplify the Problem