Gathering Data

The practice of obtaining input from Subject Matter Experts about the domain under discussion. This can be to help any element of the Information Architecture from defining the key aspects, populating the model, validating the existing definitions to reviewing the resulting system

There are a variety of mechanisms that can help with these tasks:

Interview: A gathering of interested parties that works towards answering a defined set of questions
Workshop: A gathering of interested parties that works through defined procedures in order to answer a set of predefined questions
Wiki: A web based system that enables user contribution to the creation of pages.
Presentation: An event at which a topic is explained by one or more presenters to an audience.
Brainstorming: A process during which new ideas and discussions are generated
Survey: Using a set of structured questions to obtain input from stakeholders
Card Sorting: An exercise in which a group of users generate a category tree or folksonomy

Links to this page

The following pages link to here: IA Best Practice, Sampling Theory