IA Summit Key Session - Documenting RIAs (E)

(image: Presentation - "IA for rich interaction")
Designing RIAs(Rich Internet Applications) is a hot topic since the last couple of years. And IAs are facing quite some challenges in this movement of applications from static to more fluidly, dynamic applications(to present large amounts of data) in their strategic and conceptional work. The demand from the client side for RIAs is stronly increasing these days since Business sees the benefits to meet their high business goals concerning information structures.
During my stay at the IA Summit I visited three mayor sessions about strategies and documentaion of RIAs(And these are worth keeping in mind and may be usefull for RIA-IA projects in the near future):

1. Everything old is new again: IA and RIA - you know more than you think you do

• Some of the most recognizable attributes of RIAs: fluidity in behavior, speed in their responses, engaging in their appearance
  
• Customer Experience is in the driver's seat
• Design-Centric vs. System-Driven
  
• RIA Notation.vss on the IA Institute website (see image on left)
  

1. The living Design Document and ION: Documenting RIAs
2. IA for rich interaction: Tools and techniques from the trenches

• User types and complex interactions
• Documenting user types
• User Personas
• User Type definition
• Mapping user type
• Mapping user type transitions
• Adding user types to site maps/flows
• ...
  

View the Presentations and tell me what you think :).

IA Summit - Key Session - Project Touchstones (E)

(image: sticky room, infinity diagrams, Jesss McMullin)
Jess McMullin was talking during his presentation "Project Touchstones" at the IA Summit about efficient methods that focus on the value for both Business(Return on Investment) and Users(Return on Experience). To me his methods sounded very usefull to synchronise the different views of stakeholders of a project(client side and agency side). This particular points, if not solved correctly, can easily eat up a tremendous part of the project budget.

He recommends the following approach:

• Get the right people in the room, work together to create artifacts and models that let them articulate business needs.
• Peel Back the layers
• Start Small: Partner, Pilot, Publicize

From my point of view (To several of the situations that Jess mentions in his talk I find parallels to my daily teamwork again) I would say the following are well worth to consider to optimise your work relationships with clients and your inhouse teams:

• The opportunity we have as user experience practitioners to become a Peer with Business
  
• User Centered Designers Understand, Solve, Evaluate and Refine Things to get the right solution(Through Iteration) - great but not very sufficient.
  
• We have to understand what creates the Value in our projects!
  
• Value Centered Design: Business Goals and Context and Human Goals and Context
• Business Centered Design: 1. Using design methods and tools to understand business needs 2. Beyond the run-of-the-mill business discovery 3. One half of value-centered design 4. Beginning of becoming a business peer.
  
• 2 Ways to think about Deliverables: a) Deliverables That Define Solutions(Review & Approve) - always Prower Imbalance, b) Deliverables That Define Problems (Read: Arias and Fischer 2000: "Fundamental challenges facing communities of interest are found in building a shared understanding of the task at hand")...
• Delivelables that define Problems Together help us to become a Peer in Practice
• Building a bridge to overcome different viewpoints
• Deliverables that define problems together
  
• Define Problems together(e.g. Infinity diagramms from interview transscripts): One of the keys to becoming the Peer with Business
• Principles: 1. Codesign 2. Simple 3. Concrete 4. Flexible 5. Evidence-Based 6. Surface Agendas
• ...
• The whole speach will soon be in the IA Voice Podcast...

View his presentation here:

IA Summit - Key Session - IA in the design process (E)

"Where does IA fit in the design process" was one session I'd label as an important "key session of the IA Summit 2007" because understanding this subject means a great impact in our daily user centered design life. It's interesting to notice that also in many other companies and agencies the concerning of IA in context of the design process seems quite modern. The presentations were held by Moderator: Peter Boersma. Panellists: Larisa Warnke, Peter Merholz, Livia Labate, Leisa Reichelt and Josh Seiden and their discussion topics were about...

• IA deliverables,
  
• IAs in the design team,
  
• IAs in interdisziplinary teams,
  
• comunication of IA processes to newbies and
  
• how to improve design processes.

Here are the summaries that I took out of this panel session:
Lisa Reichelt - "Waterfall is bad - washing machine is good"



Livia Labate - "Balance user needs and business goals to conceive solutions which enable positive experience"
Peter Boersma - panel Moderator for following questions:

• What is a design process?
• Who needs a design process?
• When should IAs be part of the design process?
• Where do you keep your design process?
• How do you communicate a design process?
• Why should you create a design process?
  

Larisa Warnke - "Pictures of my process - 4 phases and 9 Disciplines"
Josh Seiden - "Process...is never the goal, ...makes our work visible, ...driven by project parameters and goals"
Peter Merholz