[Sigia-l] What do you call that place between the database andthe live site?

[Jay Morgan]

I appreciate the responses and questions.  I see now that I squeezed a poll,
a question, a story, and two new ideas into one email when I could've put
each item in a separate post.  The resulting confusion made it sound like I
was either (a) didn't get why workflow was partitioned as it is, or (b) was
talking about CMS technologies.  Also, I don't want to get into the "ideal
IA tool" snipe hunt.  I feel like what I'm asking for is out there, mostly
because I've had my hands on it before.  I wanted to hear other stories
about it.

Is this just prototyping:
In a sense, yes, I'm describing prototyping with real (or nearly real)
data.  I knew going in that most people would be familiar with a sandbox and
staging areas.  Yes, the company I'm in has a sandbox area where work is
first coded, then it moves to development servers then test then staging
then live.  There's no significant difference there.  Yes, I understand the
fundamental importance of partitions.

Here's the twist I was pointing out:
The first company I was at let all of us into the sandbox and development
environments.  Yes, it was a small company (<200), but the value showed.  It
was an extraordinarily efficient.  I think most companies now restrict
access to those environments so that only people who write code can see it.
And, then, when it's time for proofing, they share a link with the team.
Furthermore, I think most companies get into coding and sandbox after
spending a lot of time on paper requirements and design.  (What you all
later talked about as "IA and design up front", which I agree is broken even
though people are used to that and request it.)

I'm asking for the sandbox and dev servers to be open to the whole group.
I'm asking to work in the sandbox up front.  If the sandbox is typically one
desktop, then I want it expanded.  I can tell that this sounds like
Agile/XP.  I'm looking for more than that, though.  In Agile/XP, it's still
just coders who are making changes and building.   I'm looking for something
where non-coders can work, too.

See, I use iRise now.  iRise really appeals to me because of the ability to
just push the 'simulate' button and see what you've made in a browser, to
share it with others.  It's got navigation, layout, logic, and data.  We
build that up front and without code.  It's very close to what I'm asking
for.  What I dislike is that you have to buy the software to get that
environment.  If someone can show me how to do that without iRise, with the
whole team able to jump in, then that's what I'll put my effort into
achieving.

Thanks for the informative conversation.  Sorry for the original confusion -
I got excited. :D


On 5/14/07, Jonathan Baker-Bates <Jonathan.Baker-Bates at lbi.com> wrote:
>
> [BTW I'm removing the IAI list cross-posting here to avoid confusion]
>
> I'm struggling to understand this in any context I know, but when you
> say:
>
> > The point in mentioning it was that it was an
> > analog of the company's information architecture (the actual
> > structure, not the job role).  I want to have that analog
> > again.  That's it.  I think that analog representation will
> > communicate to business and creative teams something they
> > don't get now.  I think that when they can interact with it,
> > they will learn things that will make our company more efficient.
>
> I'm intrigued. Depending on what the "it" is here, I have been thinking
> along what *might* be similar lines. This would involve a new artefact
> or system that I would call a "content framework." This would  aid in
> the information and content design process by storing actual content in
> a form that can be described by the visual design at an early stage (eg
> as XML). It would also - crucially - be easily changed as the project
> progresses.
>
> Could this be related to what you are describing? My reason for thinking
> about this is to allow work on content (it's length, type, structure,
> style, etc.) to start far earlier in the information architecture
> process. Right now, we usually deal with such things after the IA has
> been designed and signed off - only to find the content doesn't actually
> fit very well when the two are integrated into the CMS. And that's just
> one of many content-related issues that might be alleviated by such an
> approach.
>
> Jonathan


-- 
Jay Morgan
Applied cognitive scientist practicing information architecture, interaction
design, and corporate culture manipulation