carolyn chandler — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 16:59:05 GMT

Wonderful connections! Change management has so many implications for UX in general. The IA skill of being able to take inputs from multiple people, understand their needs and motivations, visualize a model, design it well and communicate it clearly absolutely applies to situations beyond web design. I do disagree that the signs you mention are indicative of a recent transition in the field of IA – I think it’s part of our nature as professionals that lead us to a constant state of soul-searching and a yearning for shared languages :) – but I think we are ripe for an extension of IA skills into the realm of strategic business communication and decision-making.

Change issues also touch the UX field strongly when it comes to user adoption. Very often, “usability” is stated as the reason why a user group does not adopt an application. But there are many other things that impact adoption that often are underestimated – such as the degree of executive buy-in, the number of peers and managers who are actually using it and recommending it, and corporate communications, conflicting goals between user groups, etc. All of them can make the “unfreeze” step you mention more difficult. By understanding these factors and the variations in users’ approach to change (as outlined in “Diffusion of Innovations,” for example) we can better diagnose the problems and help our organizations approach change more effectively.

Thank you for the inspiring article.
cc

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by carolyn chandler