Nicholas Lam-Thien — Mon, 26 May 2008 09:52:07 GMT

In general and first of all, i have to point-out my profound interest in the subject of concept and information architecture, due to the fact that Holger has become a kind of my mentor at the work at argonauteng2 since a few months, even tough I never heard of IA or UE seriously half year ago.

All in all I guess it’s an awesome article to emblaze the essential premises of successful IA/UE. Especially for me as an job beginner and in terms of correct understanding what this subject is about the article provides me with the most needed information to start the job with a special point of view and with some little background information which always should have been kept in mind to achieve the key success factors in our job.

I’m not a typical designer, concept developer or information architect – strange to say that I would claim being a mixture of all of them. By reason of the development of my further career I started developing and designing websites more on a “looks-good” level than on a “works-and-looks-good” level. This aspect has to be considered due to the fact that media has changed in some way. It has become more complex, more interactive and so the demands of clients has also rapidly grown as well as the users demands. A long time ago I built a lot of websites on the basis of “how I would use the website”. I strongly relied on my intuition, but, nowadays I know: it’s hazardous, because not only demands have become more complex, but information as well. In former times it worked and clients were quite happy, and now my demand on user-centered websites has raised, not least by the sensitization by Holger for the different influences which play a strong role in the work of IAs.

The issue that concept development or information architecture has to do with the most important ports to design department, account management department or technical department, it has become a desirous job outlook for me. I’m interested in a lot of things and I’m definitely convinced that people like Holger are that kind too. And today we have to be flexible, to open our eyes and ears widely, to react on our surrounding and maybe to build our surrounding with regard to other people who will be living in it (for example our childs). So, in addition to this, I guess that Holger’s article reflects this attitudes in a very positive way.

I would appreciate a spoken presentation on your article, Holger – that would make me glad and it would definitely be an enrichment for all upcoming information architectures.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Nicholas Lam-Thien