Day 2 - IA

So far the day has started off really nicely - the articulation of IA has been done really well and likely this will be the presentation I show the group as its not earth shattering news but a very nice way to discuss things.

What was very strong was how Jesse defined IA as the "juxtaposition of individual pieces of info in order to convey meaning" .....which if you think about it is a good connection to the feature-stingy sites talked about yesterday...little bits on their own are useful in a narrow focus - but in the context of other 'bits' then it provides far better, more useful information.

The message was well put - by putting facts side by side, it "means" more...so when you template a page/wireframe.....he he.... when you group smilar items together (ooh where did that piece of wisdom come from...?) it 'means' more to the reader. But it was an extremely articulate description - the focus was on the power of juxtaposition and how it gives more meaning. And depending on your familiarity with the data give you further context - about the writer, about the trust value etc etc. If you have no familiarity with the data then you have to trust (or hope? or dismiss?) a little bit more.... my aside on that is to lead that into a discussion about spin, bias etc etc... which links oh-so-easily into his next presentation about....

.... IA and how its driven by the brand. Again - not earth shattering but great to actually define it as that. But Brand is a whopper, as you know, and everything we do (including whether you think a wiki for your users is a good idea) directly reflects on the brand.

There are some easy but strong examples to demo a lot of this - it was one of those session where you sit and think..."oh yeah...nicely put".