Mary Brodie — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:00:17 GMT

I agree. This is a great article. Most clients I have worked with start off wanting a new Web site or other Web application and figure, “Hey, we need an IA to help us organize what we sell/make/etc.” I come into a meeting and one of the first orders at hand is to define what their brand values and business processes are. While doing this exercise, we often dig up some of the business issues we need to resolve and various gaps in general. I personally don’t solve them, but just make them present and provide recommendations when they impact IA and usability. I feel like I’m a professional problem identifier sometimes. It’s true – IAs turn into the group that finds and raises issues. But what makes it so wonderful is that it brings design in general to the business table and forms that bridge that needs to happen between business and design (and brand).

Thanks for writing this article, Bob. It is definitely something that is happening in the IA world today.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Mary Brodie