[Sigia-l] What makes an IA good at what he or she does?

[Arthur Fink]

At 06:18 AM 2/13/2004, Listera wrote:
>"Arthur Fink" wrote:
>
> > thinking OUTSIDE the box...
>
>What's wrong with INSIDE the box?

Tell me if this is INSIDE or OUTSIDE:

A company that makes systems for debt collectors hired me -- I think to 
find a way to squeeze even more data onto their already crowded 
screen.  Since they were going from Chui to GUI, and they see me also as a 
good graphic designer, that seemed reasonable to them.

I balked (sp?), but kept quiet ... spent a day watching users to really see 
what was going on ... and then saw that they were trying to present a full 
picture of each case to the collector each time a new call began.  The debt 
collector was sizing up the data, deciding on a strategy to deal with that 
family, and then taking the (automatically dialed) call that was being 
presented.  Having lots of data on the first screen seemed important to them.

I asked whether it made more sense to find a way to keep notes on strategy 
... present the next collector with the last strategy statement (or last 
few), a few indices about how this family is at keeping promises, a bit of 
the current data, and buttons for easy access to the rest IF NEEDED.  They 
were amazed ... thought this might be a much better way ... and are 
enjoying the idea of more continuity, a less crowded screen, and higher 
productivity.

Rather than follow their task description, I was trying to get to a deeper 
level of what they are really trying to do, of what their "mission" is, and 
of how the system might help them organize their work flow.  That's what I 
meant by "outside".



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