Tyler Tate — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:18 GMT

I think this is a very important concept. However, if every website tried to accomplish this in a different way, the internet could become quite confusing with hundreds of ambient cues overwhelming users. The beauty about the Tokyo Rail System is that the same principles are carried out universally. For the web, I think consistent ambient cues from one site to another are very important for the success of this idea.

Tyler Tate — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 23:09:47 GMT

Great article, thanks Adam. I think that associating a numerical value to features would be a very helpful exercise.

I have always been heavily influenced by the book “Information Architecture for Designers,” by Peter Van Dijck (link below). Our firm always walks through a strategic planning process with the client where we first develop 1) business goals that the project needs to achieve, and then define 2) user goals of why someone would visit the website. We then prioritize each goal and generate a list of 3) potential features that would accomplish each goal.

The problem with our current system is that personal opinion can still play a large role in deciding if a feature effectively fulfills a business or user goal. I think the next logical step in our process should be to numerically rate each potential feature as Adam has displayed here. For us, at least, I believe this faceted feature analysis will still be one step of several rather than a end-all be-all solution.

Information Architecture for Designers:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/2880467314

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Tyler Tate