[Sigia-l] unemployed?

[Yazdi, Reza]

Two cents on this discussion:  

I'm not an ia, I'm a designer with an extreme interest or hobby in ia.  I
view ia as the ultimate tool for perfecting designs, and proving or
disproving interface concepts, and organizing information.  In my company we
do not have a pure ia, which is what prompted me to research it.  In fact
when I even mention the word ia I'm suddenly confronted with a mass
confusion about the meaning of that title, and ten people all think it means
ten different things.  

But the little ia knowledge I have amassed has been invaluable to me as an
interface designer.  To me IA is an integral part of a whole, and that is
also what it should be in a company.  

So what happens when a company perceives that it can't afford the whole of
what is required to create an interface?  Well one answer is that you get
people like me who straddle the line.  

Another answer is that you get companies which go out of business, like
E-Stamp (which I was the creative director of), because the product was just
unusable.  

Yet another effect is that a lot of really smart IA specialists have to deal
with the perception that they are not essential.  It is a very young field
and that perception will eventually change.  

But the skills are already valuable, so maybe a bit of re-branding is in
order for the short term - since the term IA fosters so much confusion.
Another option is the selling and defining of the term IA - which will take
some time.  And finally maybe the skills which fall under IA can be
repackaged and sold under a title which already sells well, essentially
using the IA knowledge to produce better results.

As for me although I consider myself a designer, I don't know how I could do
without using IA as a tool for designing interfaces.  To me it seems like
the ultimate and very fun part of the design process.  Colors and pretty
logos are great, but perfecting the interface to control the reaction of a
user is the best thing since Crayolas in first grade.  Isn't that what great
paintings do anyway - control the reaction of the viewer? 

Maybe that was four or five cents... 

reza



-----Original Message-----
From: Ashk, Adamya [mailto:Adamya.Ashk at Staples.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 1:14 PM
To: 'Ziya Oz'
Cc: sigia-l
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] unemployed?


> > The issue of boundaries is one which exists in other fields 
> as well. Take
> > for example, town planning and architecture.
> 
> Hmm. If you wanted an industrial office tower or a house 
> built, would you go
> looking for an architect or a town planner?
> 
> And therein lies the dilemma for IAs: the vast, vast majority of web
> sites/apps are built without the benefit of IAs. A web site 
> can be built
> without the services of an IA, but not, say, a web designer 
> or a programmer.
> They are deemed to be absolutely essential, whereas the IA 
> functions are
> something one affords only if there is 'excess' money to 
> spend or a pesky
> problem the two other disciplines cannot help with.

I think we are taking an example into 'analogy-land'. The nature of the
internet does not lend itself well to an analogy with architecture. 

To what degree would lives be affected if your 'industrial office tower'
were to have structural defects? Contrast that with a failing web-site and
you will get an idea of what I mean. 

Disciplines will evolve, intersect and be re-defined to the point of
specialization. That is all there is to it!

> This is why I've been advocating 'dual-capable' IAs, which is 
> another way of
> saying that I'm more confident of the longevity of IA 
> contributions to the
> process than the profitability of the IA title.

Well, why 'dual'? why not have IA's specialize in different types of work?
say medical information retrieval or financial... it's an idea.

Regards,

Adamya 
------------
When replying, please TRIM YOUR POST as much as possible.

PLAIN TEXT, please; NO Attachments

ASIST SIG IA: Http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGIA/index.html
_______________________________________________
Sigia-l mailing list
Sigia-l at asis.org
http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l