Adaptive Path Blog

A lot of the work I’ve done as an information architect has been on systems that I don’t use. I’m not a purchaser of enterprise software, or a database admin who has to keep one up and running. I’m not an electrical engineer who gets to choose which control panels and circuit boards belong in a new factory. But I’ve designed successful information architectures for websites that help people not like me do the things they need to do.

Occasionally I get to work on a project that is closer to my own experience — an e-commerce site, a news site, or a photo sharing site. My own personal experiences have certainly given me an insight into how people use these sites. However, user research is still invaluable to get a full picture of how people use the system. I am not the target audience, even if I do buy things online, read news, and share my photos.

The Second Life project has been interesting because I find myself drawn to the world in ways that I haven’t been with other projects. I never spent hours on the weekend exploring how PeopleSoft General Ledger worked. But I find myself intrigued by the Second Life world. I want to learn the lingo, explore the controls, figure out what constitutes good design in world. I don’t want to be a newbie who doesn’t know how to fly or pick things up.

We start user research today and I’m really excited to talk with residents to get their perspectives. Because even though I am a resident of the Second Life world, I am not the target audience.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Second Life Case Study. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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