[IxDA Discuss] Bill Moggridge talk at Ideo tonight

[Christina Wodtke]

Well, considering that the devices you mention are for information 
retrieval and use, and those devices (especially the phones) are 
notoriously crappy for finding anything, maybe the argument makes itself.

As a former IA on this list, I can tell you 99% of what is discussed 
here is what we've already figured out in IA, and one could make a 
pretty good argument that Interaction Design has nothing to offer IA 
based on that. But the reality is, we both know that's not true. It is 
true that emerging practices in search, in device design, in social 
network analysis are all things that could make, say my Treo, a lot more 
useful and usable. I saw a senior (way senior) individual from Ideo on a 
panel recently and honestly I was shocked about how little he knew or 
understood about human behavior in information spaces. I wonder if he'd 
ever consider reading Morville's book to address it, or if he felt his 
rich background in IxD history gave him all he needed to make (wrong) 
judgments about the space.

To dismiss an entire profession, no matter what profession, as having 
nothing useful to teach is the height of hubris.

Edwin Booth wrote:
> To be a devil's advocate (can't resist) ...
>
> Christina, why should they care? What is it that the 'IA scene' actually, tangibly brings to product design and development? How does IA help design teams create more innovative hardware/software products? If IA is rooted in library science does the contribution boil down to taxonomy and classification? If so, how does that help you create a cell phone that will best the RAZR or an MP3 player to beat the iPod?
>
> As somone who has worked on web sites, web applications, device-side application UI and hardware UI, I don't see the obvious and unique 'eureka' insights that IA brings. There are shared techniques, parallel concepts and interesting notions, but you get that from a lot of other practices/professions. Perhaps this is obvious to you, please share.
>
> Ted
>
> On Friday, November 03, 2006, at 07:01AM, "Christina Wodtke" <cwodtke at eleganthack.com> wrote:
>   
>> [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted material.]
>>
>> 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.
>>     

-- 
Christina Wodtke
Principal Instigator

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cwodtke at eleganthack.com