[Sigia-l] So, how did you become a [Information Architect|UsabilityEngineer|Interface Designer|etc.]?

[Ted Han]

On 6/26/05, Scott Nelson <skot at penguinstorm.com> wrote:
> 
> On Jun 25.2005, at 23:23, Ted Han wrote:
> 
> > i feel like i've stumbled
> > upon IA prior to it being formed as a truely cohesive field
> >
> 
> I think that this is a common misconception. IA is a cohesive field with a broad spectrum.
 
This could very well be.  As i said, i'm new to the area, and i'm
trying to come to some sort of understanding of what the terrain looks
like.

> As an example, would you call "Doctors" a cohesive field? Most would,
> but ask a Neurosurgeon a question about your feet and you're likely
> to referred to a Podiatrist.
> 
> This doesn't mean the field isn't cohesive - they're both Doctors -
> but it does indicate specialties.

I think this analogy is a red-herring.  Neurosurgeons and podiatrists
still are doing the same sort of thing in a broad sense, and there is
an overarching philosophy which they definitely both share.  Cognitive
science (with which i am much more familiar as a
psycholinguist/computational linguist) is an example of a field which
is -not- cohesive due to the balkanized manner in which research is
done and communicated.  Psychologists, linguists, computer scientists
and other cognitive scientists are all interested in the same sort of
thing, but they can and often do disagree on things as fundamental as
broad methodological assumptions, and what the critical components
should be/are in the field.  Cognitive Science means a lot of
different things to a lot of different people.  It is pretty clear on
the other hand, what a person means when they say they are a doctor,
regardless of whether they are a neurosurgeon or a pediatrician.  What
i've been trying to identify is whether IA is the former sort of
beastie, or the latter.  I'm inclined to say it's more similar to Cog
Sci, just on the basis of the arguments that take place on the list,
but that's just based on my relatively uninformed intuition on the
matter.

> Remember: Pioneers are the guys with arrows in their backs. This is a
> field that's past that phase, but perhaps still in its turbulent
> adolescence.

Thanks, this is the sort of thing i want to hear more about.
 
> > (and thus
> > i couldn't have gotten a degree in it if i had wanted to [although i
> > suppose i could go get one now])
> >
> 
> You could, but I'd be selective about who I learned from.

The same could be said in any field ;)

-T