![]() So you don’t have the luxury of a straightforward means of representation that you can rely on to be self-evident to your audience. JJG: Architecture is an abstraction-the information that has to be conveyed is largely conceptual, not concrete like the interface details you might find in a wireframe. It doesn’t matter whether your diagrams pass the “JJG validator”-what matters is whether they successfully communicate your ideas to your colleagues.ī&A: What makes the site architecture a deliverable that “could be substantially improved by…a universal standard?” Although I love seeing examples of what people are doing with my work, I always tell them not to worry about what I think. ![]() Every once in a while I get email from someone asking me to look at a diagram and tell them if it’s compliant with my system. Documentation standards only help us to the extent that they enable us to communicate complex concepts without having to invent new means of expression for each new problem. I’m not dogmatic about the need for standards. In my work, at least, I haven’t encountered a case where I thought a deliverable could be substantially improved by the development of a universal standard. JJG: I think there’s room, but there isn’t necessarily a strong need. So I think there are a lot of standards in use out there-they just aren’t public.ī&A: There are several other kinds of IA and UX documents-wireframes, content inventories, personas, etc.-do you think there’s room in the industry for standards for these? They just can’t publish them without making their bosses angry. JJG: I suspect that there are a lot of people out there who have cooked up their own ways to express complex (and not so complex!) architectural concepts. I saw the resources my clients tended to have, and went in the opposite direction: I wanted to enable anybody with a copy of PowerPoint and a cheap black-and-white inkjet to solve the same kinds of problems.ī&A: Why do you think no other IA documentation standards have emerged in the last three years? ![]() At that time, the mainstream school of thought held that any respectable information architect should be producing color deliverables in a professional diagramming or drawing application, and if you want to do any serious, large-scale architecture work, for God’s sake go get yourself a plotter. JJG: I think my favorite aspect of the system is the emphasis on practicality throughout its design. But, in retrospect, the vocabulary was actually more mature than I realized at the time.ī&A: What element or innovation of the vocabulary are you most proud of? When I released the vocabulary in 2000, it still seemed to be in flux-some of the elements were fairly new additions, and I figured it was likely that there would be more in short order. JJG: It hasn’t changed as much as I expected. ī&A: How has the Visual Vocabulary changed in the last three years? More information about the Visual Vocabulary may be found at Jesse’s website. ![]() Through the work of others, the vocabulary has been translated into seven languages beyond English and is summarized in a cheat sheet. Jesse has evolved the vocabulary over time, welcoming contributions and extensions from people all over the world. ![]() So useful, in fact, that it has been incorporated as a template in several diagramming software packages, most notably OmniGraffle. The vocabulary was also designed to be portable, fitting easily on letter-sized paper for convenient printing.ĭespite the unassuming approach Jesse took in promoting the vocabulary-he posted it to his website-it has earned a reputation as a useful tool for the practicing information architect. In conceiving the vocabulary, Jesse sought to create a system that was “tool-independent“-that is, readily adaptable to any diagramming software as well as any medium (pen and paper, dry-erase, etc.). The Visual Vocabulary is a simple set of shapes for documenting site architectures. Since then, it has become widely adopted among information architects and user experience professionals. In October 2000, Jesse James Garrett introduced a site architecture documentation standard called the Visual Vocabulary. ![]()
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