Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Peter Boersma

Peter Boersma — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:52:49 GMT

Most of the time, these tools are implemented as meta-data that is maintained using a content management system (CMS). Editors, using the CMS, link content to the meta-data items. Senior editors maintain the values of the metadata.
In some cases, a dedicated piece of software implements the thesaurus, CV, etc, and the CMS needs to be configured to talk to it.
CMS’s come in all shapes and sizes, from free sets of PHP scripts to super-expensive enterprise solutions.

I must say it’s weird to see this question coming from a “web development/information strategy” company; I’d think someone in that business would have ways to find out… But still, I hope the suggestions given here help you on your path. to IA-nirvana :-)

Peter Boersma — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:43:57 GMT

The upcoming IA Summit will show there is a trend.

There are two sessions devoted to business success (http://www.iasummit.org/2007/conferencesession/startup_ca…) or failure (http://www.iasummit.org/2007/conferencesession/lessons_fr…).
Rashmi Sinha, our closing speaker, will no doubt encourage designers to be more entrepreneurial and hopefully give tips on how to do that. If you look closely, you may also see business aspects in this pre-conference workshop: So You Want To Be A Product Manager… (http://www.iasummit.org/2007/preconferencesession/so_you_…).

Oh, and Lou wrote about this trend in May 2006: From consulting to products and services (http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/bloug_archive/2006/03/from…).

Peter Boersma — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:33:17 GMT

A good look at the subject with maybe a bit too much stress on the loneliness. Not all UX processes are created by individual UX practitioners. For a look at how a 10-person UX team created its process in a web/software development setting, have a look at these resources:

The slides from my 2005 IA Summit presentation “StUX – integrating IA deliverables in a software development methodology” at http://www.peterboersma.com/blog/2005/03/my-ia-summit-pre…

An article in ASIS&T Bulletin of Feb/March 2005 on the same topic, titled “Introducing User-Centered Design to an E-Government Software Development Company” at http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Feb-05/boersma.html

And if you don’t have time to read it all, remember only these lessons learned:
- Don’t copy our diagram/deliverables; the value is in creating your own, with your people
- Set up your own standards team; a few motivated people with some spare time is all it takes
- This should scale up & down; the only limitation is paper size, and that can be fixed by taping pieces together
- It will take time; brainstorming, consolidating, documenting, deciding on name conventions, endless tweaking to make it clear, promotion, etc.