[Sigia-l] IA Practice Maturation

[Mateo, Cristina]

Hallo,

One last point about something that I hope does not get into a debate about
Europe versus America or against English language imperialism. 

As a Spanish IA, who has lived abroad for many years, I find that other
people involved in user interface design in Spain, Portugal and Latin
America, are actively exposed to discussion lists which like this one are
conducted in English. This is because most Southern Europeans as well as
people in South American do read English rather well, but do not write it,
so their contributions to fora such as this are scarce. 

Their thinking however, is there and takes into account information gathered
in lists such as this, together with the pragmatism faced in a working
environment where the .com demise has affected clients´respect and belief in
what we do. 

Working in Spain and selling user centered design as it was sold in the in
Britain or the States one or two years ago is something which hardly anybody
does here, although still everybody claims to buy and sell. 

Simply clients will not pay for it. Therefore, professionals have to adapt
their knowledge to this environment  and try to do their best. If it was
possible to do more Research and development and involve users more, etc.
etc. they would also do it. People here apply pragmatism, whilst being
actively exposed to other people´s thoughts (in English and other
languages)and whilst being involved in discussion lists and meetings
conducted in their own language. 

Greetings from Madrid to all,


Cristina Mateo
AtKearney, S.A.
Paseo de la Castellana, 31
28046, Madrid 
34 91 557 7800
cristina.mateo at atkearney.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Welie, Martijn van [mailto:martijn.van.welie at satama.com]
Sent: viernes, 19 de abril de 2002 13:14
To: 'eric mahleb'; 'sigia-l at asis.org'
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] RE: IA Practice Maturation




> -----Original Message-----
> From: eric mahleb [mailto:emahleb at yahoo.com]
> 
> I repeat. This is my own experience. For the Europeans
> with different experiences, then great, continue to
> share them since this was the goal of this thread.
> However, there is absolutely no point in fuelling the
> discussion of US vs Europe thing (and that goes for
> the US side as well). It's childish and not condusive
> to interesting and stimulating discussions.

I agree

> 
> BTW, i see IA as only one of many elements of User
> Centered design. Does this mean that at Satama,
> everyone is a User Centered Designer? Plese elaborate
> on this point as i am curious as to how this works. tx

The way User Centred Design works at Satama is roughly like this:

1. When a project is started, a "Concept Designer" first
tries to analyze from a UCD perspective what kind of site
is most appropriate (the "concept"). This involves both
the end-user perspective but also the client's perspective
which is usually very business oriented. The concept designer
has direct contact with the client and iteratively determines
the site concept. It is not uncommon that a consultant is involved
as well. The same goes for a technical consultant in order to 
make sure that what we want to design can actually be built.

2. Once the foundations are layed down, the concept designer
will work out the site in more detail using wireframes, content
structures and flow diagrams. 

3. Once the wireframes start to "stabilize" a graphical designer
is introduced. Both the concept designer and graphical designer
work together to see what the graphical design could be. Naturally,
this involves iterations with client feedback etc.

4. Now that the site structure, flow and graphical design have
been worked out, the detailed design starts. This could be done
by the Concept Designer as well but it is also often done by
more junior concept/interaction designers. At this phase we might
already have some clickable prototypes running for discussion 
purposes.

5. Once the design is completed, the programmers start building 
the site.

What I describe here is the basic ROUGH process. Each projects has
its own peculiarities that may lead to changes in the process.
For example, if the client merely wants a graphical redesign
not all steps are taken.

This of course only describes the process and not the quality
of the outcome. The quality is also heavily determined by the 
client's explicit wishes, the project budgets and the extent
to which we can convince clients to change his mind on certain
issues.

Regards,

Martijn

Content Management Symposium, Chicago O'Hare Marriott, June 28 - 30.
See http://www.asis.org/CM
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