[Sigia-l] Graphical IA generation

[Chris Masterton]

Thanks to everyone that sent me feedback!

The Omnigraffle solution seemed like the most useful so I spent my day  
trying to get automated site maps working.

I must say that OmniOutliner is just about the perfect tool for  
creating/viewing/updating the hierarchy. It provides a really nice  
interface and tools plus does all-important auto-numbering of  
sections. Managing and updating the hierarchy couldn't be easier.

Omnigraffle imports OmniOutliner files and retains this hierarchy plus  
it automatically lays the data out. After playing around a bit I was  
able to import a large and complex hierarchy from OmniOutliner and get  
it laid out in a reasonably intuitive and readable manner in just a  
few minutes.

There are however two big problems with this method. First,  
OmniGraffle does not import OmniOutliner's automatic numbering and  
does not support automatic numbering itself... so numbering is lost in  
Omnigraffle. Second any reasonably sized hierarchy crosses many  
printable pages and printing to a single page is pretty much  
unreadable. So the output is not really print-ready even after playing  
with the box size and font settings. For smaller hierarchies this is  
probably not be an issue.

I could not find any Applescript solutions on the web (as mentioned by  
Ziya) but maybe I'm missing something...?

My conclusion is that Omni is really close to a perfect solution here.  
However, the lack of automatic numbering and printing issues make it  
not worth the time and effort for larger hierarchies at the moment.

Turning to Visio's import. I haven't tried this yet but I did find a  
full description of the process on Boxes and Arrows:
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/the_lazy_ia_s_guide_to_making_sitemaps

This appears to have the same lack of automatic numbering support plus  
since Visio's layout engine is not as robust as Omni's, the work after  
importing may not make this solution worth the effort either for a  
quickly changing or often updated IA.

I'll write more if I find anything else! More suggestions and input  
welcome!

Chris.




On 10-Mar-09, at 11:47 AM, Chris Masterton wrote:

> Hi IAers,
>
> Wondering if anyone has heard of a tool that generates a graphical  
> depiction of an information architecture or site map based on some  
> kind of input file such as XML or Excel.
>
> I hate having to move widgets around and re-connect my IAs in visio  
> or omni-graffle each time a client changes their mind (which is  
> quite a bit!).
>
> The idea being that even a tabbed text file can show a hierarchy but  
> outputting that hierarchy to a nice to view format is more time  
> consuming. This seems like a fairly simple programmatic challenge  
> but I haven't seen a product that can do it.
>
> Anyone know of one?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Chris.
>
>
>
>

----

Chris Masterton
Optimal User Interfaces
www.optimalinterfaces.com
chris at optimalinterfaces.com
604-780-6975