[Sigia-l] Growing Up IA - a Friday-ish question

[Fred Beecher]

Fun question!

On 8/25/06, Laurie Gray <laurie.gray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 3. Start as a dot on one area of the diagram and expanding outward in
> all directions from there (implying that they start with an
> interest/competence in one area and expand out from there)

While initially I thought #2 described my path best (a little bit of
everything), I think #3 is actually more accurate... I studied
technical communication in college (the dot... awareness of user
needs), and through using a great deal of task-focused technology
(synthesizers, drum machines, early computer music programs), I
gradually became aware of the importance of the interface to the given
audience and the tasks they want to accomplish. I explored interface
design, usability testing, got a job doing some of it, and lo and
behold a couple of years later I had business cards saying that I was
an IA.

Of the IAs who I know personally, this path seems similar... lots came
in through the visual design field (again, the dot), becoming aware of
user needs, etc. through their experiences in the design process.
Others I know came in from the library sciences perspective, and
something influenced them to seek out how those skills could be used
on the Web.

I've been doing this for almost 10 years at this point, and I wonder
if because most of the IAs I know have a simliar amount of experience,
that's why I think this path sounds more accurate... in the late 90s,
we all just kind of fell into it from somewhere else. The Web wasn't
an integral fabric of our society like it is today. I bet that younger
practitioners probably have a different path... something more like #1
or 2. They've had a lot more frequent exposure to "interfaces" and
technology-mediated information seeking much earlier than many of us
had. Experience and frustration with interfaces is now something
almost anyone can relate to. I'm going to lay it down and say that I
think younger IAs are probably growing via path 2, the "little bit of
everything" path...

- Fred