[Sigia-l] Information Architecture and Usability Professions

[Fred Beecher]

On 8/31/06, Stanley, Niki <StanleyN at missouri.edu> wrote:
>
> As an information architect, are you typically responsible for usability
> testing and other evaluations (if so, at what stages?) or is there a
> clear division between information architect duties and usability
> specialist duties?

I've found that at very large companies, the roles of user researcher,
information architect, and usability testing are often handled by
different individuals. There are people who *only* do IA or testing or
research. At smaller companies, the IA is typically responsible for
all of this on a project.

> I know there are some folks who firmly believe the two should be
> separate - that an information architect cannot objectively evaluate
> his/her own work for usability.

At my consulting firm, we'll often have one of the other IA's put
together a test plan and test what another IA has designed. There are
some clients who insist on this, while others don't. Personally, I
think that for prototype testing at least it's alright for the IA who
designed it to test it. After all, we're testing because we *want* to
find the problems! If you're looking at a more summative test, the
goal of which is to answer the question, "Is this site usable?" then I
am more in favor of a different IA running the test. It just seems to
be good business practice. With some clients, however, they want an
external firm to do the testing, which is understandable.

- Fred