[Sigia-l] Everything is Miscellaneous -- Titles

[Turmite]

Our group has moved from "Usability" to "UX", gaining prominence and
exposure in the organization. In our group we have web analysts,
statisticians, product managers, user researchers, and a few others.

These aren't their real titles, though they do describe their roles.


Then there is us. The interaction designers/information architects/...?

We are struggling for a title not because we need to feel important or know
who we are, but because, as a new/fledgling group, we need others to know
what we do distinct from others within an outside the UX group.

Any title that includes 'design' evokes the concept of graphics - the visual
design group is outside the UX domain for our organization.

People within our organization think they have a pretty good understanding
of what IA is and isn't as we have just gone through a couple of
high-profile "IA redesigns" involving segmentation and navigation. Our group
covers more than that, we truly cover a pretty broad swath of UX.

Right now we are playing with the idea of calling ourselves User eXperience
Architects with the intent of indicating that we define structure and
interactions between the user and our company (as mediated by our web site
and affiliated web sites, including third-party vendors providing services
to our users).

The titles we seek are not for personal self-definition or to allow HR to
understand what we do...its internal marketing - to say, "here's how we
provide value, and why you (the Business unit) should use our services
before you design a new feature or website."

I am very interested to hear if anyone else has been in a similar situation,
or has ideas for a title to 'market' the larger discipline.