[Sigia-l] RE: IA Practice Maturation

[Tal Herman]

As one of the participants in the SF-based discussion that started off this
thread (and thank you Peter for finding a controversy other than what we
should call ourselves), I think it might be important to return a little
focus to the genesis of the topic.

The discussion started out as an investigation of whether there was a
difference in 'style' between West Coast (US) and East Coast (US) IA.  The
topic choice is probably rooted in a number of cultural issues that are
primarily American, having to do with significant differences, both of
perception and reality, between the way that people who live on the 'left'
coast and those who live on the 'right' coast approach specific issues and
life in general (for a more violent approach to this argument/discussion,
take a look at the literal battle between West Coast v. East Coast rappers),
the facile distinction being that West Coasters are laid back and East
Coasters are uptight.

The consensus of the discussion appeared to be that -- while a geographic
distinction might have been possible to make at one time -- there is not now
a significant difference between the way IAs practice on the US coasts.
There were also a number of IAs in the room who had practiced in different
US regions, and some with experience in European or Asian geographies.  This
broadened the discussion to cover other parts of the world.  For example, it
was my opinion, having been an IA in Atlanta for the last 4 years, that the
methodology of IBM's Interactive Design Studio appeared to dominate IA as
generally practiced in Atlanta, but that this practice wasn't radically
different from the descriptions of IA practice on the two coasts.

The discussion as it related to Europe focussed more on the question of who
was driving the request for IA in those markets, developers or clients.
And, to assuage Martijn's particular criticism, there was specific mention
made of advanced and interesting IA work being done in Holland, Britain and
the Scandinavian countries.

So the question posed should not really be about whether IAs in Europe
somehow 'lag behind' IAs in the US in terms of practice, but rather what are
the relative states of the practice of IA between the two geographies.  In
recent months, there seems to be an greater awareness of IA among
non-developers in the US.  There are an increasing number of articles in the
popular press about IA and/or the importance of user-centered design when
creating Internet applications, and my company has started to see some
questions about IA and user-centered design in recent Requests for Proposal.

This is good for us as an industry segment, and clearly represents a
significant and important new stage in the maturation of IA as a profession.
Are the Europeans on the list, or those who've practiced in Europe seeing
similar trends?  Who drives demand for IAs or IA-type skills in Europe?

Martijn hints that there is some resistance to user-centered design in
Holland ('we have a strong focus on good user interface design as far as it
is realistically possible in the current market context'), but I'm certainly
interested in what that market context is.  Have Europeans already faced and
solved some of the acceptance issues that we find here?  Do we have
something to learn from their practice? Do they have something to learn from
ours?

Tal

tal herman||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
therman-at-seralat.com||http://www.seralat.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On Behalf Of
Welie, Martijn van
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 2:39 AM
To: 'sigia-l at asis.org'
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] RE: IA Practice Maturation




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frederic Cavazza [mailto:frederic.cavazza at framfab.fr]
>
> --anti-Americanism (they just didn't want to listen because it was yet
> another instance of the US taking over the world)
>

As a Dutch person I can only really speak about Holland. I feel we have
a strong focus on good user interface design as far as it is realistically
possible in the current market context. Whether IA is practiced or not is
a simple matter of teminology, we prefer to speak of user centered design.
The world of HCI is already poised of illdefined terms anyway....

The statements in this group is about Europe "lagging behind" is in my
opinion one of those typical unfounded American statements. In that respect
many in this group are doing their country a favour by fuelling the
anti-America feelings of Europeans. How the hell can you compare whether
Europe "lags behind" in terms of IA
practice????? What are the criteria for such comparisons????

I would rather prefer this group to be concerned with solutions to the
day to day problems we are facing in our work, rather than making unfounded
and discriminating comparisons.

Martijn
Content Management Symposium, Chicago O'Hare Marriott, June 28 - 30.
See http://www.asis.org/CM
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