SIGIA-L Mail Archives: Re: SIGIA-L: Dressing up in Lab Coats
Re: SIGIA-L: Dressing up in Lab Coats
From: Steve.Mulder_at_corp.terralycos.com
Date: Tue Feb 19 2002 - 12:01:58 EST
We talk a lot about precise/little IA here, but I'd love to hear more
thoughts on the definitions of precise/little Interaction Design. Peter
calls it "how the user interacts with the product: focusses on all the
elements of the the interaction" - but this seems to me very broad. Would
this definition mean that IA creates content structures, but ID decides how
users will be able to interact with those structures?
I don't care so much what my label is. What I do care about is being
involved in all of the following:
- defining features based on user needs and business objectives
- creating structures for content
- creating flows for processes/applications
- defining the behavior of navigation for content pages and process pages
- shaping the content inventory and emphasis for key pages
- influencing the language used
- influencing the interface design to support all the previous work
I agree with the recent discussions sparked by Jesse that talking about
disciplines is more valuable than talking about roles. My current label is
Information Architect, but my sphere of influence is IA and Interaction
Design, with a dash of Editing/Writing, Interface Design, and Web
Development. Defining IA based on what I'm currently doing is meaningless.
Defining IA as a discipline that is part of what I do makes more sense.
There just happens to be no clear label for this catch-all, so they picked
IA. Whatever. It's the work itself that makes me happy.
Steve Mulder
Terra Lycos
"Peter Van
Dijck" To: <sigia-l_at_asis.org>
<peter_at_vardus cc:
.com> Subject: Re: SIGIA-L: Dressing up in Lab Coats
Sent by:
owner-sigia-l
@asis.org
02/19/02
07:01 AM
* interaction design: how the user interacts with the product: focusses on
all the elements of the the interaction
* information design: how information is visually displayed? (I have that
feeling I'm wrong on this one - if it was right it should be information
visualisation.)
* information architecture: how information is structured, it's about
metadata ao.
* interface design: how the interface works, relates to interaction design,
but focusses on the interface elements, feeds into visual design
Ok, so how 'bout:
* Visual design: how the interface looks
* Technical system design: how the system works inside the black box
* Metadata design: I guess that's part of IA
* Business design: how the entire system will bring business benefits
* Workflow design: how users will use the system, focusses on the steps to
be taken and dependencies
* Process design: larger than workflows: how the new workflows that the
system allows will impact the overall process of how things are being done.
* Brand design: about how the product/company is perceived by the user.
Focuses on user perception, relates closely to interaction design, feeds
into visual design.
I feel a graph coming up ;) Who's first? But I'm gonna shut up now, I don't
even want to be talking about this really... I can already see a bunch I've
missed.
You know what I think? It doesn't matter who wears which hats in a team, as
long as the ones you need for the particular project are being worn by
someone (qualified ofcourse). Preferably by multiple persons. And not all
projects will need all hats. And you need to find out what hats are needed
for a particular project. And now I'm really shutting up.
Peter
http://petervandijck.net
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