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Survey 1 Results |
Survey 2 Results |
Survey 3 Results |
Survey 4 Results |
Survey 5 Results
Survey 1: What's New in IA?
Survey Methodology:
This survey was conducted in March 2006. Members of
the
IA Institute and
sigia-l
were invited to participate. A total of 93 responses were collected. In this
survey we asked:
- "What's obviously new in IA? Over the past five years,
what major trend(s) have emerged in the field of information architecture?"
- "What's new in IA that's not so obvious? Over the past five years, what's
changed in information architecture that hasn't received the attention it
should?"
- "Anything else you'd like to add or suggest?"
Results reflected the young and ever-changing nature of this field. Feedback
varied widely, and what was "obvious" to some was "not so obvious"
to others.
Full results:
View the complete results:
Excel |
PDF
Summary of Results:
A few consistent answers did emerge.
Common responses to "What's New" (obvious or not), including a
few of the different names and examples people gave for each:
- Page-level interaction design: AJAX, RIAs, rich interfaces, Flash, web apps
behaving like desktop applications, responsive interfaces
- User-driven content organization: Tagging, information clouds, folksonomies, user generated info architecture
- User-created content: Blogs, Wikis, community contributed content
- Design for Multiple Platforms: IA beyond the web, IA for networked
devices that aren’t traditional computers: mobile phones, PDAs, different
devices, cross channel/multi channel user interaction, IA for physical spaces
- Design for the non-business web: Social networks, social software
Somewhat less common responses to "What's New" (obvious or not),
included:
- Application & Interaction Design: The rise in function over content, the move from brochure-ware to web apps, more emphasis on true applications
- Experience Design: The importance of creating an experience, rich
media, animation, audio and video being integrated into the web experience
- Navigating the business world & how to best fit in or affect change:
The BA as IA, Product managers as a challenge to IA, a more clear division
of labor between IAs and graphic designers, clients are now more demanding,
career development, it is becoming more difficult to streamline processes,
Agile, off shoring, China's impact on IA, IAs impact on security issues and
vice-versa
- Methods, Tools and Deliverables: Eye tracking, card sorting, user
profiles, personas
- Software tools for IAs: Axure, iRise, lack of good tools to build and communicate IA
- And book-specific recommendations: Less dense, more tactical, how
to select the detail of deliverables, downloadable powerpoint slides, provide
more templates, not necessarily of information design but especially of workflow
(e.g., getting a user through registration and account creation)
