These samples show IA deliverables produced at various stages of a project to build "company profiles" -- reports that show company information including locations, subsidiaries, customers and competitors, officers, products, financials, and current market research and news. It should be noted that of greatest use and interest to the technology and content teams was the content inventory that I created during the concept and discovery process with the content teams. The coordination of the tasks for identifying and organizing the content result in very large spreadsheets. Oddly enough, spreadsheets like the ones I produce for projects are not the norm within the library/information services organization, but this type of visual model of the hierarchy of content for the project -- a taxonomy in essence -- is the basis from which all of the substantial content and functionality discussions sprung.
Conceptual Model
Used by: client
Illustrates: at a high level the goal and purpose of the project with a visual.
Content inventory
Used by: client, content team, programming team
Illustrates: all of the content required for use in the application; specifies the labels for categories of content; indicates sources for each section; describes each section in prose form (used in pop-up info-windows accessible to client); indicates database search strategies needed for database integration; indicates numerical identification used by programming team for customization programs.
Initial sitemap
Used by: client, content team, programming team
Illustrates: to the client and development teams the concept of the information organization as it will be viewed by users. Used to initiate a discussion that will aid IAs in developing a concept for placement and functionality of entities identified in the concept inventory.
Initial wireframe concept (paper prototype)
Used by: client, content team
Demonstrates: to the client and content team the IA concept for the user approach and access to content. Used to generate design feedback and as first stage in design iteration.
Rough user flow diagram
Used by: client, technology team
Demonstrates: mainly to the technology team the concept for how a user will interact with the application. Used to define a direction for user interaction with the application and elicit suggestions from the technology team.
Template system and style guide
Used by: technolgy team
Demonstrates: to site developers the templates and content modules for populating pages.
Wireframes (paper prototypes)
Used by: client, technolgy team
Illustrates: design decisions that actualize the placement of entities (content and functionality triggers) identified in the content work. Concepts for text and graphics are alluded to here in the paper prototypes and refined by design team. Interface patterns for model sites were collected, discussed and tested to arrive at a model for the company application which would work to help users accomplish tasks identified in user interviews. Pencil and paper were used for rapid prototyping because an aggresive release date required quick successive iterations.
Final page illustration
Demonstrates: Final choices for layout, graphics and text.
Launch date: 2000