[Sigia-l] the "small agency" syndrome

[Whitney Quesenbery]

At 10:31 AM 8/7/2002 -0500, Oppedisano, Richard M wrote:

>If there is not an actual IA on a job, who should bear the
>responsibility / knowledge - PM or Visual Designer?

Doesn't this depend in large part on the backgrounds and skills of the two 
individuals involved. I think about it as a collection of "roles" that have 
to be divided up into "jobs"

To give a theatre example, a small ballet company usually tours with:
         - stage manager
         - production manager
         - lighting designer
         - technical director
rolled up into two people. I have seen almost every permutation of 
arrangements work well. What's critical is that the two people (and the 
company) understand how the roles are divided. I was usually a LD/PM, but 
was also SM/LD at times.

So, if you have a very i-savvy graphics person, no reason s/he shouldn't 
also do the i-work. But if _all_ they care about is color and presentation, 
they might be the last person on the team who should be responsible for 
those aspects of the user experience. And, if you have a project manager 
who sees their job holistically and has a feel for design, great; but if 
they are really more of a "manager" and primarily concerned with schedules, 
meetings and so on, they might not bring the right approach.



Whitney Quesenbery
whitneyq at acm.org
Usability Professionals' Association - www.upassoc.org
STC Usability SIG - www.stcsig.org/usability/
Cognetics Corporation - www.cognetics.com