O.K., it's coffee break number 1 here at the User Interface Conference here in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Mass. (I'm on a Press Pass, for CMS Review)
http://www.uiconf.com/8/fullday_merholz_young.html
From Construct to Structure:
Information Architecture from Mental Models
Peter Merholz & Indi Young, Adaptive Path
Kernel Idea being presented here is a "Two-Parter":
1) "Content Model"
Basically, the bottom-up model is your stuff (content), which is the stuff you
already know, work with, hang out with, and which you are usually doing kinda
badly re: putting up on the web (organize website by company org chart, etc.
etc.)
2) "Mental Model"
The new bit here is the top-down model, which stops pretty much at the top nav
of the site (O.K., maybe nav2 level), and is all about _not_ the web but what
(the h$%&#) the user is actually thinking as they try to "get something done."
In looking at some of the morning's slides showing this dichotomy I was kind of
thinking back to Digitas days, as, "where John Robinson (MModel) meets William Reilly (CModel)." John (Copy, Info Arch, Content guy)
would prob. disagree (figures he's doing both). Maybe he is.
Anyway, kind of interesting. Glad it's free though ($800/day around here. Yow.)
Wm.