Underused IA tools
Us IA's have a lot of tools at our disposal (personas, sitemaps, task analysis, ...), most of them taken and adapted from other disciplines. But I have the feeling we're somehow selective in which tools we appropriate. Here are some tools that we don't seem to use much, even though they can be extremely useful.
Content testing. One of the best talks I saw at the IASummit was Testing Translations: Content, Images, and Perception by Mark Nolan. He explained how they tested content. And I realized: too often we develop IA's without spending a LOT of time on the content itself. The presentation was an eye opener: the content was tested in detail, and many lessons were learned. Content testing lets users not just FIND content but then use it, and tests for understanding and such. Be honest: have you ever done focussed content testing?
Object models. I don't mean detailed, programmer-like object models, but high level object models that help you think through certain domains.
Business process analysis. I really don't understand why IA's don't talk more about business processes. For people who work in enterprise settings, understanding them and finding ways to support them with IA is crucial.
What underutilized methods have I missed?