REFLECTION PAGE - Lesson 8

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Our polar text takes us down a 'salesman road' and truly, all of us need to become our best advocate but IA's especially are their own advocates and from time to time need to sell their case to the client. We need to be the sales person at one point or another so IA's need to make the case and point out the need for the IA. the IA needs to be prepared to show data illustrating the case including the whys and hows that companies will need to approve. Use wireframes and strategies to show off the site and get the ball rolling to move forward with the project.

The ROI case in point in the polar text illustrates time lost during problems along the way, cost per employee, time lost pr employee over a period of a year, number of employees that experience problems and total cost of loss due to design or other problems. but the polar text also debunks the ROI case stating the following:

-should have a direct and quantifiable impact on just about any site
-should be attainable
-should therefore be able to have fruitful and productive conversations with the 'by the numbers' people

The polar text also gives us 3 reasons why ROI measurements can be unreliable that which include:
1. benefits of complete IA cannot be quantifiable
2. benefits of many IA components can't ever be quantified
3. most claims for quantified IA benefits can't be validated

IA's can go with what feels right, use reactionary strategies and first hand stories.
There are other case making techniques listed as follows:

1. sensitvity boot camp session refers to getting users who are not web savy to use the browser
2. expert site evaluation by other IA's can be proven helpful evaluations of the site
3. strategy sessions of 1-2 day sessions decision makers, opinion leaders, go over problems
4. competitive analysis so that IA's place the site alongside competitors
5. comparative analysis allows for comparing to other comparative sites and may not be exact competitor
6. ride the application saleman's wake and pick names from their client lists who have already spent heavily on client education, complete the education with what the other vendor hasn't covered
7. agressive and early refers to being agressive and early on in the process as you can
There are three pieces of advise
1. Pain is your friend=identity client pain
2. articulate half the battle=educate client on IA language so they can articulate their pain easier
3. get off your high horse=help assure clients of the nature of IA and poke fun at yourself helps ease others with the high term IA

A great checklist is provided by our polar text as follows:
-reduces cost of finding information
-reduces cost of finding wrong infor
-reduces cost of not finding infor
-provides a competitive advantage
-increases product awareness
-increases sales
-makes using site more ejoyable
-improves brand loyalty
-reduces reliance upon documentation
-reduces maintenance costs
-reduces training costs
-reduces staff turnover
-reduces organizational upheaval
-reduces org politicking
-improves knowledge sharing
-reduces duplication of effort
-solidifies business strategy

The polar text does encourage the IA to use business strategies to gain the upper hand in stating their case for IA and is critical to the success of websites and intranets success. Our polar text in Figure 18-1 has a great diagram on the feedback loop of business strategy and information architecture and that both groups need to work together and not apart.

Michael Porter's book On Competition=Operational effectiveness means performing similar activities better than rivals perform them. Operational effectiveness includes but is not limited to efficiency.

The SWOT model can be used for strategy formulation and analysis of the information needed to seek solutions. Our polar text give a great diagram in Figure 18- illustrating a pyramid of IA at all the levels that make up the importance of IA in layers describing

Interface (the top)
Wireframes/blueprints
Metadata/classification schemes/thesauri
Information Architecture strategies/project plans
Users-needs behaviors
Content-structure meaning
Context-culture technology (the bottom)

Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however hard and long the road may be, for without victory there is no survival." Winston Churchill

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