[Sigia-l] Diagramming tools?

[Ziya Oz]

Stew Dean:

> I appear to have struck a nerve.

I have been arguing against declaring branded *tools* (specifically Visio
here) as 'obvious industry standards' for years on this and other platforms.
Look it up. When I first raised the issue, oh, 4-5 years ago here, the
reaction from people who were too invested in it or who by nature gravitate
towards 'safety in numbers' type of solutions was shrill. (I would get
four-letter laden off-list emails with regularity.)

Some years later, this notion of declaring branded tools 'industry standard'
(an old-Microsoft FUD trick emulated by the rest of the industry) has
subsided considerably. (Now I get psychobabble from people with 'Cog
Psych backgrounds' but, hey, that's progress. ;-)

The 'trick' of getting some tool or practice declared 'obvious industry
standard' is of course to repeat and repeat and repeat. Saying it with
irreversible resignation. Denying and dismissing other possibilities.

>From tools to best practices to management fad of the month (remember TQM,
Quality Circles, Management by Objective, Six Sigmas, Zero Defects, ad
nauseum?), the idea is to get *your* approach declared the 'standard.' As
it's a feedback loop, the rinse & repeat cycle is paramount. Nav bar on the
left, links in blue, Visio for wireframes, 'your pet project here'.

This is how we get sub-standard standards for given contexts, because it
is...just what 'everyone' says it is.

Why do I care? Because I cannot bill 'standardizing bodies' like Jakob
Nielsen for all the time I personally lost debunking some insane notions he
spews out regarding design when dealing with clients who listened to him.
Because a graduating IA cannot bill you for all the hours he'll have to
waste fielding Visio job reqs he's inevitably going to face, since *you*
think (in *one* industry in *one* country you happen to operate in) that's
just the way things are.

I am willing to take personal abuse on this list, if the spread of 'obvious
industry standard' myths can be mitigated even just a bit.

----
Ziya

Complexity is simple.