[Sigia-l] Re: The fuzzy line btwn IA and Design

[Ziya Oz]

"Andrew Otwell" wrote:

> Instead, the design team was quite happy that they didn't have to worry about
> those decisions, and that they could focus on only the visual design elements.

Interesting. Having lived in the design world well over a decade, I can
identify essentially two type of 'designers': surface and structural.

Surface designers focus on visual/graphic/cosmetic aspects and are often
production oriented. Structural designers are layout/editorial flow oriented
and may or may not engage in actual production, not unlike 'art directors'
in the publishing/advertising industries. Structural designers are often
more experienced, older and with higher seniority. Where a dedicated IA is
not in sight, they are the ones who take on that responsibility.

So I'd find it difficult to imagine structural designers looking kindly on
the prospect of IAs telling them what to do, since a significant portion of
the joy of what they do comes from, well, structuring content into
attractive and efficient visual presentation. This is also a major part of
their education and training.

It'd be wise for an IA to identify, right from day one, just what kind of a
designer/team one's dealing with and not waste time with trying to usurp
their territory, whichever it is. There have been occasions in my career
where I pretended not to know a thing about design or coding just so that
others in the production pipeline could feel secure and play along.

Best,

Ziya