[IxDA Discuss] Bill Moggridge talk at Ideo tonight

[Christina Wodtke]

I agree 100% that Chris's comment was positive. But I find it depressing 
that IDEO and others often act as if IA had never happened.

> It is rare in the UX community to really look deeper into its pre-Web 
> past for a more solid grounding in design theory and UCD practice. This 
> has been (my interpretation and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone) something 
> that the IA community in particular has faced.
>   
Oh please. IA is insanely rooted in library science, one of the oldest 
professions. Pretty much all IA's have read Winograd, Lakoff, Cooper, 
Hackos/Redish, Tufte, Constantine, and have built their practice on the 
shoulders of IxD giants, as well as information retrieval giants. (I may 
also point out that most modern IxD's are similarly well educated, as 
far as I can tell.)  The past  is easy to learn from because the 
classics have emerged.

While the past is critical to our education, I wonder how often IA, IxD, 
and all UX people are ignoring progress in their neighbor fields? Too 
often (and I go to a LOT of presentations locally in Silicon Valley) I 
see individuals from some of those great firms you mentioning holding 
forth on topics where their has been a ton of advancement in related 
fields yet they seem to be utterly unaware, and they are expounding on 
outdated and misleading information.

What we are seeing right now is a terrifying convergence... terrifying 
because sleep may be a luxury we'll have to give up... IxD's are going 
to have to learn about good information retrieval practices, IA's will 
have to understand device design&form factors and product designers will 
have to take up more and more good interaction practices. And all of 
these professions have been hurtling forward at breakneck speeds in 
their areas of specialization.  And new ones are popping up every day.

I think Chris saw the water half-full, and I saw it half-empty. But I 
haven't been sleeping much lately....