Comments on: Content Inventory - when is enough http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/2002/content-inventory-when-is-enough Information architecture, interaction design and much more Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:05:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: James Robertson http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/2002/content-inventory-when-is-enough#comment-45 James Robertson Fri, 16 Aug 2002 01:00:41 +0000 http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/2002/content-inventory-when-is-enough#comment-45 Hmm, good question. As you say though: what choice do you have? All the pages will need to be migrated into the new CMS (or discarded). So sooner or later, you will have to work through all the content... Hmm, good question.

As you say though: what choice do you have?

All the pages will need to be migrated into the new CMS (or discarded). So sooner or later, you will have to work through all the content…

]]> By: PeterV http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/2002/content-inventory-when-is-enough#comment-44 PeterV Wed, 14 Aug 2002 15:37:57 +0000 http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/2002/content-inventory-when-is-enough#comment-44 I agree: there is a line to be drawn. There is always a tradeof between time spent on an activity and the usefulness of it. Sure you could spend another week refining your labels, but you may rather spend that time on user testing your search results page. I think IA's have to take the generalist view, while having in depth knowledge in a few key areas. Someone from IBM described the knowledge of people they would hire as a T shape: very deep in a few areas, and very wide in many other areas. If IA's focus only on the deep knowledge they have, and ignore the many other aspects of designing a website, they risk falling in the same trap as the usability profession: extreme specialisation leads to a narrow vision of the world and thus to extinction or worse, irrelevance. Websites are complex, evolving systems with lots of interdependencies. Seeing and dealing with those is the IA's job. Who else is going to do it? I agree: there is a line to be drawn. There is always a tradeof between time spent on an activity and the usefulness of it. Sure you could spend another week refining your labels, but you may rather spend that time on user testing your search results page. I think IA’s have to take the generalist view, while having in depth knowledge in a few key areas. Someone from IBM described the knowledge of people they would hire as a T shape: very deep in a few areas, and very wide in many other areas.

If IA’s focus only on the deep knowledge they have, and ignore the many other aspects of designing a website, they risk falling in the same trap as the usability profession: extreme specialisation leads to a narrow vision of the world and thus to extinction or worse, irrelevance. Websites are complex, evolving systems with lots of interdependencies. Seeing and dealing with those is the IA’s job. Who else is going to do it?

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